How do you come up with a good business idea

The first step is often the most difficult. This also applies when coming up with a good business idea.

Have you ever wondered how Elon Musk came up with the idea of ​​PayPal? How Larry Page and Sergey Brin came up with Google? Or how Evan Spiegel came up with the Snapchat business idea?

It almost seems like magic (or good luck), but there is a specific approach to coming up with good business ideas. In this article, we’ll take a look at the formula for how to generate great new business ideas too.

Common mistakes

Do you know someone who thinks they are an entrepreneur?

Maybe it’s you yourself or you have a friend who always says he has that one perfect idea, with which he can earn a generous income by working three hours a week.

These are often the people who think they can play an entrepreneur. They have big dreams of one day starting a successful business, but in the end, do nothing.

Someone who thinks he can be an entrepreneur often only thinks of the following points:

• Digital products are currently the trend. The costs are low and large margins can be made. It takes little effort and you can make a lot of money traveling the world and working from the beach.
• Developers make a lot of money. I am going to follow an online training to learn to program. Then I will start with my business idea and work on my millions of apps.
• SaaS is the future. Membership and recurring income is the best business model. I’ll be super rich in a few months!

Do you see the pattern?

All these so-called entrepreneurs want to make a lot of money. Point! And preferably in the fastest possible way.

The logic used to come up with a successful business idea is viewed from the wrong side. These people are always looking for the trendiest business models to get rich as quickly as possible.

When their plan fails drastically at the end of the song, they blame everyone but themselves. This can be avoided if half a business idea and action plan are not used.

Come up with the business idea

The first step you need to take is to think of what you actually want. Even before you start with market research, drawing up a (business) plan or starting a BV. There is a better solution.

First, think of a problem that you want to find a solution for. Then you will work on a solution.

The idea behind this is that you develop something that you support yourself. Worst case scenario, you have a customer. Yourself! “Scratch your own itch” is often said and that is very important in the startup world.

In most cases, there will be many others with the same problem who want the same solution.

Solve the problem for yourself

The big difference between entrepreneurs and someone who thinks they are an entrepreneur is the ability to actually solve a problem. So don’t just come up with different ideas. So the best way to start is to solve a problem for yourself.

Entrepreneurs don’t start a business to get rich quickly. Someone who thinks he is an entrepreneur is. Entrepreneurs find a problem and come up with a solution for it. Fake entrepreneurs find the latest market trend and step in with the thought of making a lot of money with it.

Some examples

Here are some examples of companies that have solved a problem for themselves:

• Spanx. This is a piece of clothing invented by Sara Blakely because she couldn’t find comfortable garments to match her cream-colored pants.
• MistoBox. Is a subscription to fresh coffee beans. The team wanted to try different coffee beans from different brands across the country.
• Barbell Apparel. Jeans for people with an athletic build. This was conceived by the owner because he couldn’t find jeans that fit his figure without hindering comfort.

If you’re thinking right now, “Wait a minute, how do I know if this idea is going to generate tons of money?” The answer to this is: You don’t know.

During the very first step, your focus should be on coming up with a business idea that provides the solution to a real problem.

Think of an idea that you support yourself. Validating your idea, marketing around the product and the branding of a website all come later.

Start brainstorming

What are all the problems that you have not found a solution for?

Even if the product already exists somewhere, it usually doesn’t matter. If you’ve never heard of it, it just means that there is still room on the market. You may even be able to do better than the competition by better marketing your product later in the process.

Coming up with these business ideas is also called brainstorming. Write down any idea that comes to mind. Even the stupid ideas.

Try to come up with as many business ideas as possible. Facebook once started as a website with the names and faces of students on campus. Stupid ideas don’t have to be emphatically bad.

Right now you are not trying to come up with the best million-dollar idea. The first step is to find a problem that you are running into and come up with a solution for it.

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