Business Ideas

[snowgoose]

How do you come up with / think of a business idea for you to follow up on and make a business for?

Are they just created around the things you enjoy or do you just go for a good idea wether u like it or not?

[akula]

depends..opportunity selection is done differently by diffrent people, depending on each person's preferences and lifestyle

for example, one entrepreneur I know uses the MAR model, I do geographical arbitrage, and some of my friends just fall into what ever their parents are doing

umm..why are you asking? do you want to get good at opportunity selection?

[snowgoose]

Im just really thinking and brainstorming about possible business oppertunities and potential business.

Something thats unique, new and something theres a market for, so basically iv tried a few things in the past and nothing has worked, but they were things i enjoy, so im just thinking about something totally different and new.

[bzboy]

I definitely believe to make something work, you have to be into it and passionate about it. Thats just my opinion though. I wouldnt sell something in my store if I didnt like it. IM in my business because I love it

[akula]

Im just really thinking and brainstorming about possible business oppertunities and potential business.

Something thats unique, new and something theres a market for, so basically iv tried a few things in the past and nothing has worked, but they were things i enjoy, so im just thinking about something totally different and new.

Well..ok...normally, opportunities to do with "unique, new and diffrent" stuff are bad opportunities, particularly if you're just starting out and don't have the risk profile to commercialize innovation, pay for generating a nascent demand curve, or manage all the mistakes and false starts that happen with highly differentiated products and services.

Be smart. If you're new to the game, formulate a less riskier investment thesis. Basically..change needs to happen with your situation if you wanna move forward.

You need to:
1. Get a strong grasp on the academics of opportunity selection.
2. Plug into your local startup ecosystem to access better opportunities
3. Use your thesis to attract a cofounder and lower your risk profile

To answer your question: "How do you come up with / think of a business idea for you to follow up on and make a business for?" By formulating an investment thesis that matches your risk profile, and the expectations of other people in your startup ecosystem.

Do you need an example for this?

[snowgoose]

Thanks for the help Akula,

An example of what you mean would be a help if its not too much trouble.

Thanks

[akula]

ok..i gotta go sleep now..in the meanwhile read up on opportunity selection and i'll give you an example tomm

also, where are u located geographically? it's important..

[snowgoose]

Ok Akula, Thanks for the help

Ill do as you say and read up on selection and im based in the UK so things are different to the most of the information on the forums but im sure its not much different

[snowgoose]

I have looked at the oppertunity selection information and it kinda, slightly makes sence

I did think about gathering a few speciliazed people to build up a team and a website offering other business startup needs, ( such as, completing business plans, legal advice, legal forms, and other stuff needed for starting a business ) but i have no idea how this would be achevied or even if it would suceed or not so decided not to do it.

[akula]

Ok Akula, Thanks for the help

Ill do as you say and read up on selection and im based in the UK so things are different to the most of the information on the forums but im sure its not much different

right...so we're talking about "what's best practice for opportunity selection"...I'll try to take you through the steps and at the end you'll have your self an investment thesis. note: like i've already mentioned, this is just one of many ways to do opportunity selection - it's the professional method - but nontheless, it may not be suitable for you.

1) Why do entrepreneurs exist? There's lots of answers. One answer is: to correct the competitive disadvantages of acquirers. This means that your job as an entrepreneur is to build a company which is gonna get bought by a larger company for the purpose of making your acquirer more competitive.

2) What's my sector preference? You wanna pick an industry that's going through a large set of changes (because of various mega trends) and where there is a lot of rivalry between competitors. In these industries, rivals go on acquisition trails and buy the kinds of startups that you're thinking of building.

3) Who else is investing? Every geography has it's own startup ecosystem with it's own specialisation. California does software, Perth does mining, London does financial services. In these ecosystems, there are financiers, entrepreneurs and suppliers who would be able to help you get your shop off the ground. So, you gotta do a startup that matches your ecosystem. You don't wanna go trying to start a mining company in Silicone valley, in as much as you don't wanna do a software startup in Perth.

So, for example: You're looking at the 2005 BVCA reports, and you notice that there is an increasing interest in your startup community for launching SMS/MMS and m-commerce startups. You look at the stats and the Yankee group is predicting that SMS related services are only gonna become more popular because of a few trends. So you decide that the core technology you wanna work with is mobile computing.

You log onto the relevant the database and track down every SMS related, vc backed startup that's gotten up in the last 5 years. You see what's working and what isn't. You notice that some US shop just got acquired for north of $600m. They do SMS tickets for events, movies, concerts, buses etc. So you figure that you wanna do an SMS ticketing startup in UK. The problem you wanna solve is this; anyone who has to publish and sell tickets has lots of costs. You give these companies the option to lower their costs by allowing the publisher's customers to buy tickets via SMS using your service. You'll make money by charging a subscription fee, plus a percentage of every ticket sold.

It's a good solution. Most tickets are bought on impulse. But if I'm advertising a symphony opera on the side of the bus, people who see this ad can't immediately buy the ticket. The SMS solution overcomes this problem by helping audiences to engage with events when they are away from the computer or the ticket booth.

And that's it...when people are gonna ask you; "why are you doing this and not some other opportunity", you can say, "it worked in the states, all the guys here wanna finance these kinds of shops and there is lots of trends that support the investment thesis". So yah...that's the sort of thinking you'd go through if you were looking for an accountable opportunity

Is any of this making sense?

[snowgoose]

Hi akura, im slowly starting to understand the above.

So are you saying i should check out the treands and such in the US first?

[strategy]

Heres one of the quotes I've used before:
Soak up idea's like a SPONGE. Sharpen your knife, and jump in for the kill.

(Find something that works, motivate yourself and estblish a plan, implement asap.)

That's all the basic foundation behind it.

People will tell you to do what you like; what you love. And you will make money. It's a bunch of bull. It does have logic behind it, but really NOW is all about opportunities.
Find a niche in the market and follow it through. Theres always opportunities, even niche's in niche's. (for instance myspace i.e. the big social network niche, has smaller niche's such as friends trains, resource sites etc.)
Find something that works, or something with high potential and implement it as fast as possible. And if you're a very un-motivated or lazy person, find what you love doing and execute that into a niche. Say you love cooking - there are hundreds of opportunities for blogging. Write a blog about cooking, or keep a diary, or even write recipes. Find something that has slim competition and get working on it. What are you waiting for?

[snowgoose]

lol

im waiting for some big new idea to pop into my head ( ill be here a while )

[sleighter]

Think of how to improve an existing product or service.Think of a product and service not yet being utilized.But most of all.Enjoy what you do,or it's all in vain.

[BusinessAdviser]

Heres one of the quotes I've used before:
Soak up idea's like a SPONGE. Sharpen your knife, and jump in for the kill.

(Find something that works, motivate yourself and estblish a plan, implement asap.)

That's all the basic foundation behind it.

People will tell you to do what you like; what you love. And you will make money. It's a bunch of bull. It does have logic behind it, but really NOW is all about opportunities.
Find a niche in the market and follow it through. Theres always opportunities, even niche's in niche's. (for instance myspace i.e. the big social network niche, has smaller niche's such as friends trains, resource sites etc.)
Find something that works, or something with high potential and implement it as fast as possible. And if you're a very un-motivated or lazy person, find what you love doing and execute that into a niche. Say you love cooking - there are hundreds of opportunities for blogging. Write a blog about cooking, or keep a diary, or even write recipes. Find something that has slim competition and get working on it. What are you waiting for?

Thanks for your advice to all. However, I would have to disagree with at least one point, which is that "if you're a very un-motivated or lazy person, find something you love doing and execute that into a niche."

If you're very un-motivates or lazy, you're just not going to succeed. You need to find something that motivates you or gets you off your ass in order to succeed.