Brilliant ideas and grandiose plans can turn into the same grandiose failure. Today we will talk about how cool ideas are born. How to come up with a million-dollar idea on which you can earn a million
- Stop thinking that the idea is the most important thing
How about a juicer that doesn’t need to be washed? If you have ever tried to wipe off the juicer, then you will appreciate the idea. This juicer was invented by Doug Evans. To get the juice, you just need to insert a bag of fruit pulp into a special device.
Investors liked the idea: the startup Juicero raised $ 120 million. When the juicers went on sale in 2016, the plans of their creators were spoiled by common sense. It turned out that Silicon Valley’s $400 Juicer May Be Feeling The Squeeze, that a $ 400 device is useless: you might as well squeeze the juice out of a bag with your hands.
Even promising start-ups can fail, while ordinary businesses like bakeries or beauty salons work and make a profit. To start a business, you don’t have to force something unique. Just do well what already exists.
Study the cases of similar projects to understand what to prepare for in general, and calculate how much money you will need. The small business blog B2Blog collects stories of real entrepreneurs about how they started their businesses.
- Copy and improve
The ingenious Henry Ford is often credited with inventing the conveyor belt. The conveyors existed in the History Of Conveyors before him, and the first car was not invented by Ford. His merit is that he combined these entities and created the in-line production of cars.
If you think that all the interesting and useful things have already been implemented by someone, then you are mistaken.
The founder of the Dodo Pizza chain, FedorOvchinnikov, did not invent pizza and did not invent delivery. But he was able to become a millionaire and create a huge chain of restaurants. No magic at all: Fedor simply improved what already exists-from the pizza itself to the delivery.
- Do what you like
When you work for hire, you can come to the office at 9: 00 and leave at exactly 18:00. You also have two days off a week, guaranteed vacation, and paid sick leave. With your own business, this will not work: you will have to roll up your sleeves, forget about the weekend and plow.
Any business requires a full return. In its development, you need to invest a lot of time, money, and moral strength. If the business you are doing does not bring pleasure, it will quickly turn into hard labor. And vice versa: if you have a hobby that you like and enjoy, you can try to make a business out of it.
Think about what hobbies you could earn money from. Do you knit hats or make soap? Fine, craft items are now in the price. Do you like quizzes? Try to create your own intellectual game or look for a ready-made franchise. Do you love to put things in order and put everything on the shelves (no, but what if)? You will make a great space organizer: you will help people once and for all defeat the chaos and establish a convenient storage system.
Finally, turn what you’re good at into money. If you get along well with children, you can make it a business and start a children’s development center or a playground in a shopping complex.
- Follow the information flow
If everyone is talking about something, it’s not for nothing. There is a chance that it is time to forge the iron while it is hot. When others vying to discuss games in virtual reality, this is a subtle hint that you can try to start a business on VR quests. As long as the audience is warmed up, it has every chance to take off.
Subscribe to all the important publications and leading experts in the industry that interests you. So you will be aware of the latest news and will be one of the first to make money on promising trends.
- Find the problem that hasn’t been solved yet
If something is inconvenient to do in your daily life, it can be an idea for a successful business. One day, programmer Gareth Williams was going to France and wanted to find cheaper tickets. To make it easier to compare prices, he made a table in Excel, scored all the available options there, and chose the appropriate one. It turned out that Gareth wasn’t the only one with this problem. So there was an exclusive interview with Skyscanner CEO Gareth Williams airline ticket aggregator Skyscanner.
Try to solve problems that are so infuriating that people are willing to give any money just to not do it. For example, moving is always a headache. I need to pack my things, find movers and a car to move my belongings from one apartment to another. A service that takes care of all this could make life easier for many. Do you have one in town? If not, go ahead.
If you are going to engage in cargo transportation, register an individual entrepreneur or LLC, so that corporate clients can pay you by bank transfer. It is more profitable to buy a truck, even on credit, otherwise, all the profit will go to pay for rent.
- Develop business thinking
Ideas for a new business can be found everywhere.
Try to entertain yourself with the game “How can you make a business out of this?»
A man walks through the park with a dog. Why not create a service for walking dogs, or even a hotel for the animals, so that the owners leave them there for the duration of the holiday? (Just be sure to protect yourself from liabilities that can come up due to the nature of the business. Typically people create an LLC to do this.) In the evening, too lazy to cook, so you finish the corn from the jar. Maybe we should make a dinner constructor? It’s a pity to spend money on board games — great, I would like to open a showroom with payment for time, where you can play and buy what you like. Over time, this game will help you catch on to something important.
- Find a community of like-minded people
At the start of the business, you will have a lot of questions: where to look for employees, how to choose a reliable supplier, what to do if advertising does not work. It will be easier to solve them if there are people who can help out at least with advice.
To find such people, join the local business community. You probably have a business support fund or even a business incubator in your city. These organizations often hold seminars, classes, and forums for aspiring merchants. Here you can make useful acquaintances, find new partners and get practical advice on how to run a business and not end up broke.
Find out what small business support programs are available in your city. For example, business incubators often give new entrepreneurs offices to rent on preferential terms. So you can save money to invest in the business, and not spend on furniture and equipment.
- Read useful articles and develop
To start a business and keep it afloat, you will have to learn a lot — and it is better not to do it on your own mistakes. Even writing a paper requires some learning and preparation.
