Second Life Blog

Starting to Get New Business Ideas

The location and development of viable business ideas is as much an art, or matter of luck, as the use of systematic techniques. Certainly, you can use structured approaches, as described below, but the reality is that having the right background, being in the right place at the right time, and working hard to create lucky breaks are likely to be just as important in coming up with sound business ideas.

The concepts presented below represent a series of checklists. They need not be followed systematically and, most certainly, they should not be perceived as a sure-fire recipe. Instead, view them as a series of menus from which you can pick and choose according as your thoughts develop. Probably, the only issue which everyone searching for new business ideas should review systematically is their own strengths and weaknesses and to use this as their key building block and jumping off point.

Before Searching for Business Ideas

The starting point for developing new business ideas lies inside the prospective entrepreneur rather than in the marketplace, laboratory, business plan etc. You are the critical component – it is your strengths and weaknesses which should dictate the areas in which to seek ideas and the likely scale & scope of your business. At the end of the day, support for your business by financiers, suppliers, customers etc. will also be a vote of confidence in your abilities to make it successful.

You should build on your strengths and surmount or work around your weaknesses, and possibly cut your cloth to meet your main limitations. For example, there is little point in searching for capital-intensive or knowledge-based ideas if you have slim/no prospects of raising the necessary capital or if your educational background is unsuitable.

OK, OK, we have all heard stories of garage-starts by school drops-out which attracted venture capital and eventually became mega-businesses, but we don’t hear so much about the huge numbers of failures.

What angle are you coming from? Are you:

An inventor who has a product/service idea?
An innovator who has developed a new product/service?
Out of work and want to create a job for yourself?
An entrepreneur who wishes to create a business?
A manager who wishes to develop a business?

Be especially aware that inventors and innovators does not necessarily make good business people.

Areas where you should make honest assessments of your strengths and weaknesses include the following:

Educational background

Any (special) business or technical qualifications?
Do you have a knowledge of finance & marketing?
Are you up-to-date with business-related issues?

Financial strengths

Have you access to personal or family funds or finance from other sources?
How much, how easily, what conditions and when?
How long could you survive without any (regular) income while your business develops?

Commitment

Why do you really want to start a business?
Are you in reasonable health?
Have you any/many family commitments?
Does the family fully approve of your proposal to set up your own business?
Are you willing to relocate/commute in order to pursue a business possibility?

Expertise & interests

Do you have insights into any business sectors or trades?
What are you good at or like doing?
Do you have a hobby/interest/talent which could become the basis of a business?

Personal qualities

Are you a resourceful, energetic and motivated person?
Have you a capacity to take lots of knocks and bounce back?
Are you realistic and practical? Are you a hard worker?
What do you dislike doing?

Prior experience

Where have you worked before?
Have you done anything special, exceptional or unusual?
What work-related skills or expertise do you have?

External contacts, resources etc.

What contacts have you in finance, business etc.
Have you or your family access to any under-utilized resources.
Do you know people who might help give you a start?

Don’t be afraid to ask other people to help assess your strengths and weaknesses.

To help surmount weaknesses, consider the idea of forming an entrepreneurial team (or taking on a partner, part-time adviser, non-executive director etc.) but beware of trying to work with people you don’t like or respect, and don’t involve family unless you are really, really sure that it will work out for the long-term.

Write down your assessments and rank your main strengths and weaknesses. Make sure to avoid the trap of showing something as both a strength and weakness. Use the resulting list to help set the criteria and boundaries to your search for business ideas.

For example, the scope of your ideas might embrace ideas centered around one of the following:

Specific local services; about $XX,000 cash; use of an existing resource etc.
Previous work experience; national markets; formation of team etc.
Be specific but don’t place unnecessary limits on the scope of your ideas or thinking. Some clear ideas may have already started to emerge which could start evaluating straight away.