You and anyone can be innovative at anytime, anywhere and can come up with great ideas that solve problems while you make good money.
Wondering how to come up with a good idea to start or grow your business to the next level?
Well, there’s no science to coming up with good business ideas.
In fact, the ability to come up with new ideas is more of an artistic or a creative process. And all it takes is, practice and a conscious effort to boost that skill.
You and anyone can be innovative at anytime, anywhere and can come up with great ideas that solve problems while you make good money.
In this article are 8 easy tips to help you whip out ideas just like the master artists, inventors, creatives and successful entrepreneurs of our time.
1. rewire your brain
Our brain is a muscle. In fact, it’s the biggest muscle in the body; and as such, exercising or challenging it regularly, improves its performance.
For instance, the brain has these little neurons that allow us to make decisions, sense our environments and issue commands to our body.
These neurons are also responsible for how we think, what we think, our skills – and abilities to come up with new ideas. And they do that by constantly making little connections with one another.
Now, all you need to exercise your brain, is to challenge yourself or step out of your comfort zone; for instance, you can:
- pick up new interests and hobbies
- change your behavior or environment
- or learn a new skill
2. be in tune with your environment
It doesn’t matter where you are, we all live in an environment. It can be your home, workplace, on the street, place of worship, school, social media – literally, everywhere.
And within every environment are problems that needs to be solved; and the more you’re in tune with your environment, the more you’re likely to find a problem that you can solve with a business idea.
For instance, it can be a big problem like affordable housing, food security, diabetes, etc. Or a small problem like shopping, cleaning, children’s clothing, etc.; and these are some few tips that can help you do that:
- observe everyday people and animals going about their day
- read books or travel
- study other cultures
- escape your normal daily routines
- and always be curious.
3. hang with open-minded people
Science and history have shown that humans are more innovative and productive when we are among friends and family – and work together.
After all, that’s how we humans invented agriculture, built cities, bridges, pyramids, cars, satellites and every other little or major invention in the human evolution.
However, not everyone close to us are opened to new ideas or new ways of doing things or even shares the same passion or interests with us.
Now, platforms like start-up hubs, seminars and festivals offer the opportunity to meet and surround yourself with such open-minded individuals. With that said, you also have the internet and its many social media platforms to find, connect and brainstorm ideas with such people.
4. don’t always focus on originality
History is filled with individuals who created something new that changed an industry or even the average person’s way of life – and many of today’s entrepreneurs, also aspire to do the same.
But the truth is, you don’t always need to do that.
In fact, the vast majority of successful entrepreneurs didn’t break new grounds – they just focus on how to be better.
For instance, Netflix isn’t the first online movie streaming site; it’s just better. Same as Facebook, which is a better version of Myspace; as well as Starbucks, McDonalds, Tesla, etc. – all better versions of their originals.
Ultimately, why worry yourself trying to “reinvent the wheel” when you can make it better?
5. ask the right questions
Questions are quick, precise and they make you understand what’s going on, in and around you. It’s straightforward and makes you focus on one particular problem.
However, it’s only works when you ask the right questions from the start.
Stuck in Paris on a snowy evening, unable to find a taxi, Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp, co-founders of Uber, asked themselves “What if you could request a ride, simply by tapping your phone?”.
Later, they realized that their idea wasn’t working, because they weren’t asking the right question. Which then lead them to ask the question:
“How can we make transportation as reliable as running water; with style, convenience, and a stress-free payment for everyone anywhere” and voila! That’s was the birth of Uber.
Now, there are some few ways for asking the right questions:
- Rapid Fire Method – Just ask a question and quickly write down the same question in 10 different ways. For instance, you might ask the classic question “How can I build a better children’s toy”.
- You then refine it to “How do I get a child to play with the toy” and “What does a kid want in a toy?” Or “How can I make the toy more attractive to a kid?” – till the last question becomes better than the original one.
- Fix-your-life Technique – This technique is all about finding solutions to problems that you come across every day by doing a critical review. You take a weak product or imperfect situation; you then make a list of its defects and try to think of ideas to make them better.
6. look into your skillset or expertise
It’s always advisable to stick to what you already know or what you’ve really mastered and can do without any sweat. In fact, it’s best to do that, most of the time.
For instance, if you have the skills or trained as a baker, then it’s best to come up with an idea that’ll deliver better or affordable baking goods or services. Or, an idea that’ll offer better or unique armchairs if you’re trained as a furniture maker.
You can even go ahead and hire or partner with someone whose skills can help you execute the idea successfully – if you feel your skills is not enough.
7. find inspiration in your interests and hobbies
You can also come up with a business idea by just looking at your interests and hobbies in a different way.
These are activities that you do at your spare time; something that you love to do, create or make over and over again; so, it won’t be that surprising if a business idea is inspired by one of your interests or hobbies.
In fact, most businesses start as a hobby; from pottery shops, bakeries, restaurants, tech companies, make-up or cosmetics, sports events, writing, interior decorating, custom car services, wardrobes or hair styling, etc.
8. don’t be scared of making mistakes
One crazy thing about creating ideas is that, there are no good or bad ideas. The only way to really tell whether an idea is good or bad, is to test it.
Besides, testing your ideas allows you to make corrections to your original thought – which then makes them even better.
Mistakes are a natural part of the process, so don’t be scared or ashamed to make them; neither should you discard nor shelve ideas because they aren’t perfectly formed or strong.
Just go ahead and explore areas that you’re interested in; experiment with the ‘what if’ or ‘maybe’ or ‘how’ or ‘why’ ideas.
Test those ideas as soon as possible; experiment and see where any of them will lead you; and then, select or improve on the promising ones – before you decide to start a business with it.
Looking into the window of possibilities
In order to come up with new ideas, it’s important to be curious; study your environment and even venture outside your comfort zone or what you already know.
That’s how you open yourself to the possibilities around you; and not limiting yourself to what you already know; and the more you do that, the more you’ll experience and the more ideas you’ll have at your disposal.
Small To Sprout 