Business Ideas
A great business idea is the key that ignites the ignition to become an entrepreneur.
It is an idea that sparks that initial entrepreneurial fire in your belly and drives you to start your own business. But good business ideas are also what ensures your business continues to thrive and stay current.
Being able to come up with business ideas is important, but it’s really what you do with an idea that defines whether your business will be successful or not.
Successful entrepreneurs believe in abundance, not scarcity.
There are thousands of other people in the world with the same ideas as you, but how can you be innovative and make it different or improve the way it’s currently done? What opportunities can you see hiding behind the small cracks?
For some entrepreneurs finding ideas is easy and monetising it is the tricky part. For others, getting inspired for ideas is the biggest challenge.
What are the sources of new ideas for entrepreneurs?
In a nutshell, the purpose of a business is to solve a problem or offer a solution - sometimes this problem or solution is something a consumer hasn’t even considered.
“The best business ideas come from people’s bad personal experiences. If you just keep your eyes open, you’re going to find something that frustrates you, and then you think, ‘well I could maybe do it better than it’s being done,’ and then you have a business.” - Richard Branson
Everyones faces problems and challenges in everyday life, but the mind of an entrepreneur is always looking for ways to fix and improve things. The entrepreneurial mind seeks to challenge the status quo.
Other sources of new ideas for entrepreneurs include:
- Customer pain points and feedback
- Employees (especially new employees who come in with a fresh perspective of your business)
- Research and development
- Competitor analysis
- Changing environmental and economic trends
- Suppliers
- Data insights and analytics
- That being said, today’s globalised economy is competitive and business ideas need to have a competitive edge to stand a chance.
If your ideas don’t stand out from the crowd (for the right reasons), it will quickly be overcome by competitors with bigger budgets to spend.
How do you create good business ideas?
Here are some things you can do to help you come up with good business ideas:
- Look for a niche market which is not profitable to larger businesses
- Look for areas where your skills can be applied in new and innovative ways
- Identify industries that may be struggling from inertia and a lack of innovation
- Find ways to achieve the same outcomes as existing businesses more cheaply
- Look for opportunities to introduce new technologies to stagnant industries
What are good small business ideas?
Successful small business ideas often spawn from things such as:
- Providing your skills as a service
- Creating a new product
- Identify gaps in the market
- Adding more value to an existing product
- Turning your passion into a project
- Turning pain points in your own customer experiences into actionable solutions
The important thing is that a business is offering something people want or need, and they are able to do it for less money than they are able to generate in revenue.
How do you identify a good vs bad business idea?
Beat the following things in mind to avoid weak business ideas:
- Lack of experience or expertise in the industry: Do you have enough experience to know how to drive a business idea forward in the respective industry? Do you know the types of professionals, marketing, tech, etc you will need?
- Not having the right people in the startup team: People are better together and you will need a strong team with a good work ethic who are capable and eager to work towards your vision.
- Not choosing the right business niche: Your idea could be amazing, but if you choose the wrong niche it won’t gain the momentum it deserves. Ensure you do thorough research.
How do I know if my business idea is viable?
So you’ve got a brilliant idea, but before you start investing time on creating a business plan or sourcing investors to get it off the ground, you need to ensure it’s viable.
Here are some things to work through to assess whether your idea is viable:
- Determine your unique value propositions: Why are you different from other competitors in the market and what will make you special?
- Funding: How much funding will you need to get your business idea up off the ground?
- Research the market: Is there a market for it? Who will your target audience be?
- Ask for honest feedback: Get expert advice from a business consultant or even ask for unsolicited feedback about your idea from family and friends. An outsider perspective is often one of the best tools.
- Scope out the economic climate: Are there any economic concerns or factors in the local, national or international market that could support or hinder your business idea from taking off?
- Marketing: You need to be able to develop a marketing strategy that will make sure your prospects know how great you are.
What do you do once you have a business idea?
You may be wondering, “Now I have a viable business idea, what comes next?” The next thing to do is create a business plan and pricing model.
- Consider getting professional advice: Arrange an appointment with a business consultant to talk through your ideas. It’s really beneficial to get an outsider’s perspective as it can open your eyes to things you may not have considered. Business consultants have ‘been there done that’ and can offer invaluable advice.
- Create a business plan: Investing a decent chunk of time writing a thorough business plan that clearly details your business model, objectives and the direction you want to go is vital for long-term success. It’s also really important to secure investor capital and funding.
- Create a prototype: Prototypes are particularly important for product ideas. Breaking the process down into by mapping out the design, engineering and production phases will give you a clearer idea of how much time and money you will need.
- Raise the capital: Capitaland funding is the enabler - it’s what gives you the financial resources to turn your idea into reality. Startups and small businesses in Australia have a range of funding options, from government grants, angel investors, crowdfunding and loans among others.
In addition to business plans and raising the capital, another concern entrepreneurs have is protecting their business idea and trying to protect it from being used by anyone else.
It’s quite common to see stories of lawsuits in the media between businesses battling over intellectual property infringement.
What is intellectual property?
“Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; and symbols, names and images used in commerce.” (WIPO)
Your intellectual property is one of your most valuable assets, and it’s important that business owners know how to legally protect their ideas.
How do I legally protect a business idea?
You can legally protect your business idea and other intellectual property primarily by patents, trademarks and copyrights.
Here are some additional measures you can take to protect your intellectual property:
- Confidentiality agreements
- Employment non-disclosure agreements (NDAs)
- Have an awareness of the effects of over-publicity
- Run an intellectual property audit
Can you sue someone for stealing your business idea?
By law, you can’t sue someone for stealing an idea itself. However, if you have expressed that idea in some shape or form, i.e. you have created a prototype, drawing, video, etc and have.
You could potentially sue another business for stealing your idea if:
- You sought legal protection of your intellectual property before someone stole your idea
- You and another party signed a non-disclosure agreement
How do I get investors to support my business idea?
There are various ways to get investor funding and capital for your business ideas such as:
- Asking family and friends
- Bootstrapping
- Crowdfunding
- Angel investors
- Bank loans
- Unsecured business loans
How do I write a business idea proposal?
A business proposal is different to a business plan as it focuses on describing a specific idea or project to help you secure a business agreement.
To write a good business idea proposal, you should make sure it covers the following things:
- Title page
- Table of contents
- Executive summary
- Explain the problem or need that your idea addresses
- Explain the proposed solution
- Describe why you’re cut out to do this
- Detail your pricing model
- Summarise the terms and conditions
How do I pitch a business idea to investors?
Follow these tips to pitch a business idea that will impress potential investors.
- Be able to sum up your idea in 30 seconds: There’s a general notion (also known as the elevator pitch) that if you really want to win someone over you need to be able to sell it to them in 30 seconds or less (i.e. the time you usually stand in an elevator).
- Demonstrate what you’re capable of: If you have expertise in a niche area or if you’ve been doing something for years, tell people and let them know what you’re capable of and why.
- Create sensible forecasts: Aim for the sky but make sure the journey there is realistic. Make sure you can outline where and how you will get to a certain point with data to back it up.
If you already have a business idea and you’re ready to take the next steps, find out what you need to do to get your business up and running.
You can also reach out to a business consultant for advice and practical guidance on all things relating to startups, entrepreneurship and business-related challenges - whether it’s determining how viable and profitable your business ideas are, writing a great business plan or helping you source investor funding.
We understand that it takes a big leap of faith to start your own business despite the many risks and challenges that come with it.
But one key thing to remember is that people have walked the same path as you many times before, and they often say it’s that first leap that is the hardest.
We have loads of useful resources, professionals and fellow entrepreneurs here on SavvySME to help you navigate through the adventure of starting your own business.
