Just as there is no garden without flowers, there should be no entrepreneur without a business idea.
The origin of the entrepreneur, The business idea
Every entrepreneur must have a business idea before starting a business venture, this can take many forms, but it has entered the entrepreneur's head.
If you want to be an entrepreneur, but don't have a business idea, here are some tips to help you find "your business idea".
Detecting business ideas
Detecting business ideas takes time, it is more about perseverance than inspiration, but you need to have the "entrepreneur mode" constantly active in your head.
Here are some good practices to awaken the entrepreneur within us:
- reading the newspaper, is a good and simple habit that can provide us with business ideas.
When we read a news item, we have to ask ourselves:
- Who is affected by this news? (your customers of the business idea)
- Does it leave any unmet needs? (your future product or service)
- How do I design a product or service that I could offer to these "customers" with an unmet need?
We have to turn every piece of news into an opportunity, see its weaknesses, strengths... see its SWOT, in a simple way. The continuous exercise of this practice will allow you to make a SWOT headfirst to discard those news that do not serve or do not adapt to your current expectations as an entrepreneur.
- Listening to complaints, yes, listening, that thing we find so hard to do; and specifically, listening to complaints, because they all go hand in hand with a hidden business idea, an unmet need.
So, search the internet, social networks, etc. for any complaints from users in sectors you might be interested in. Make a list with the complaint, your possible solution, make it a business proposal and think about whether the future customer would pay for it or not.
- TravelSeeing businesses that are being set up in other countries but have not yet reached yours can make you the first entrepreneur.
Nowadays, if we can't travel physically, we can watch thematic TV channels, internet videos, youtubers specialising in travel, etc.
- The National Institute of Statistics (INE)Incredible but true. The INE is full of reports, some sectorised, full of pearls of information to undertake.
From the household budget survey to "Spain in figures", data can be extracted from reports with simple language accompanied by tables, graphs, maps and figures.
- Franchising, if despite all of the above you have not yet had a business idea, you can "buy" someone else's business idea. Franchises provide us with experience of a successful business model, but this does not guarantee that in your case it will go well, but it has a good chance of success because it has already been tested.
There are specialized magazines and consultancies that only work in the world of franchising... but they have an endemic problem: "they live from selling franchises, so get external advice", where? In Confialia, of course!!!!
How do I mount my ideas or projects?
The most important thing is that nothing escapes you, so if I have an idea I create a voice document in a whatsapp "group" where only I am there and where I record the idea that occurs to me at the moment.
Más tarde y con algo más de calma, tengo un documento tipo hoja de cálculo de gsuite (documento de drive) con una relación de ideas, donde transcribo en modo relación:
– Idea en sí
– Posible dominio o nombre de la idea y si lo veo muy muy chulo lo compro
– Personas que puede necesitar el proyecto o si lo puedo hacer yo sólo…. pocas veces
– Perfiles de las personas que necesito en el proyecto
– Horas aproximadas a dedicar para tener una primera versión, un producto mínimo viable
– Coste aproximado de la inversión
– Un Objetivo anual de ingresos y gastos (muy por encima). Te aconsejamos leer nuestro post «Calcula tu cuota de autónomo»
In this phase of the idea there is no analysis, only objectives, I don't look at the market, I don't look at audiences; I move in the world of ideas.
Applications to manage your business ideas
- Wires, a very useful application for designing the structure of a website.
- SimpleMap, which allows us to organise any idea through a mind map, a system that I personally recommend.
- MindMup allows us to organise hierarchical structures online.
Remember that...
- Every company needs to have ideas, all the time, the more the better.
- It is important that you believe that your idea is capable of overcoming frontiers
- Don't get hung up on the idea of failure. All successful entrepreneurs have gone through that at some point.
- Don't focus on revenue, but on making your idea catch people's attention.