Having a business is one of the top goals for many young professionals nowadays. After university studies and a few years in the corporate or small/medium business world as an employee, they are eager to organize themselves and get their hands dirty on their own business.
However, although the passion is there, it’s difficult sometimes to come up with a great business idea. This can be achieved by brainstorming, of course. However, sometimes it’s quite difficult to even do that.
That’s why today we’ll look at the best ways you can brainstorm for your new business ideas.
Get some quiet
Although this is possibly the easiest concept to grasp, it rarely turns into reality for many brainstormers. In order to give your brain the right amount of space to come up with some fantastic business ideas, you need a space that is free from distractions.
We know, the coffee shop is your favorite place to work, or that park in the center of town. However, those can be quite busy and there are so many distractions.
You need to get to a quiet place where your brain has room to breathe and create. This does not mean, of course, that you have to be alone. You and your team can work together on this, but you must find a quiet, distraction-free place to work.
Find problems to solve
The whole point of a business is that you solve someone’s problem for a price. That’s why it’s important when you brainstorm to think of people’s problems in your niche.
What do they want? What’s hard for them to do or to find? What do they do now, but can do better? Or what thing will solve their problem that hasn’t been created yet?
There’s also one problem you should consider in this session: your own. What problems do you have in your own niche, as a customer? What is difficult or frustrating for you that you wish had better options?
Chances are, if you are experiencing frustration, then others may be as well. And that’s a good place to start.
Keep your ear to the ground
While you should be following the advice above about people’s current problems to solve, you should also try to keep your ears to the ground and your eyes further on down the road. You need to try to figure out what’s coming up that isn’t here yet.
For example, before Facebook, there really wasn’t social media or social media marketing. If you could have predicted it (lucky you!) and you were in advertising, you could have set up yourself as an early expert in social media marketing and advertising.
Similarly, the market is moving so quickly and there are so many innovations, that it is almost certain that the next big thing in your niche is being developed right now. What are those things?
It isn’t just guessing. There are rumors, rumbles, discussions going on right now that will give you enough information to estimate a potential big entry in the future.
For example, Bitcoin started off as a discussion in a forum. If you had been there, and been an early believer and adopter (and bought 7500 of them), you could be rich right now.
Find out what’s trending, what’s coming up and being developed, and that could help you figure out what your business idea should be.
The best brainstorm tip
Of course, out of all of these, the best brainstorming tip would be not to worry too much about starting and just start. Just brainstorm. Let your brain explode and throw out hundreds of silly ideas, uninhibited.
You never know, one of those could be your next great business idea.
