The new business ventures started by entrepreneurs can be on a totally new idea (e.g. iPhone, 5G network, electric cars, etc.), or a new way of offering a service (grilled hamburgers instead of fried meat, online banking instead of visiting a bank’s physical premises, shopping for groceries online instead of going to the supermarket, etc.).
The ideas for an enterprise (meaning a project or business) may come from any of the following sources:
– A new idea invented by an entrepreneur himself for a company offering a good or service that does not exist on the market yet, for example, an iPhone was invented by Apple.
– Checking competitors’ products and adapting them to sell an existing good or service in a way that has not been offered before, e.g. coffee with ice cream, etc.
– An attempt to adapt a good or service in ways that no one else has tried before, e.g. a flying car or an autonomous car, etc.
– Offering an existing business idea, or existing good or service, in a new location, e.g. selling Chinese steamed bums in America’s biggest cities, etc.
– Own skills or hobbies, e.g. dress-making, tattoos, car bodywork repairing, etc. Very often these unique skills owned by certain people enable entrepreneurs to offer home-made products or local services to friends and relatives first to start of the business, e.g. wedding photography or baking pastry and selling them in the neighborhood, etc.
– Previous employment experience, e.g. working for a successful hairdresser, carpenter or a culinary chef allows a potential entrepreneur to see the working of such business and decide whether he or she could set up a similar business themselves, etc. This is how my father started his own business. He used to work for someone else for a few years after high-school, and then he switched to offering similar services by himself.
– Trade shows, franchising conferences and exhibitions offer a wide range of new business start-up ideas. For example, fast food restaurants can find new people who would like to open their own restaurant or a convenience store, but do not have enough experience in doing is. Working with experienced franchisors, such as 7 Eleven or Costa Coffee, will give the potential benefits of the support of a much larger franchiser business which may also find potential business partners in this way by participating in various industry events.
– Small-budget market research. Doing secondary market research for example on the Internet allows any user to browse business directories to see how many businesses there are in the local area offering certain goods or services. Such small-scale research might indicate gaps in local market that could be profitably filled by a new entrepreneur.
Based on your experience, do you have any other idea where ideas for a new business may come from?
