I suppose this is a kind of forerunner to last week’s blog – I should have done this one first! Why? Well, because there’s no point having tips to get your business up and running if you can’t come up with a business idea in the first place! Some people have a real knack for seeing a business in everything, others struggle to see a business in anything. If you are one of the latter, rest assured that ideas for business are, literally, everywhere, you just have to get your eye in, as they say. What ‘they’ mean by this is that you have to change the way you look at the world, approach it with fresh eyes. Use the tips below to help you:
Tip 1 Use Your own Experience
An example is great way to illustrate what I mean by using your own experience. A friend of mine has very small feet and finds it incredibly difficult to find shoes to fit her that aren’t children’s shoes. She is an adult, and I guess there are only so many pairs of pink frilly shoes she can take. And, she’s only managed to find a couple of places, and they are online only, that sell any of the glamorous, high-heels she likes. Do you see the opportunity here? It seems that there’s a gap in the market for small size shoe shops. I suppose the old saying about writing is applicable here: ‘If you can’t find the book you want to read – write it!’ And, if you can’t find the business you want, start it!
Tip 2 Listen to Your Friends, Family, Strangers – Anyone Really!
This might seems a little weird, but you’d be surprised what you can overhear, if you just switch off your music occasionally, when you are walking about in the general public. People talk about all kinds of things, including what they do and don’t like about the products and services they use. And of course you can simply ask your friends and family what they think would make a great product or service to sell. Take this information and use it to your advantage.
Tip 3 What Irritates you About the Things you’ve Bought or Used?
Use the stuff you already own as inspiration. Look at the things you already own and the services you use and think about what bugs you about them. Could you improve on them? If you could, you may well be addressing an issue that all those who’ve used or bought the same service or product could be experiencing too.
Tip 4 Look at Existing Businesses
Don’t assume that you can’t do the same thing as someone else. Look at how many courier companies there are for example. They each do the same thing, but they still find enough business to sustain them all. This will of course depend on what kind of business it is you want to start. If it’s a very niche area and there are only a small number of people interested in it, you might find it difficult to compete with another established provider. You’d have to think up a unique selling point (USP) to draw customers away from them to you. However, if you fancy starting a company selling clothes, you should have less of an issue because there are plenty of customers – the market place is huge!
Tip 5 Look at Your Hobbies or Current Job
Could you turn your love of knitting scarves or soap making into a business? These kinds of cottage industries give a valuable income to a huge number of people and selling takes place through local markets, ebay shops and the like so they are pretty cheap to set up. Or what about trying to set up a business based on your current job? For example, if you work in a coffee shop, can you use what you’ve learned to open up your own coffee shop?
Okay, that’s enough for one week. Start to put these into practice and see what you come up with – I’m sure you’ll be surprised. Next week I’ll give you another four great tips for generating business ideas.
