ESYB2 127 - Question That Will Help You Start Coming Up with Business Ideas
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[00:00:00] Now that we've gone over industries, you want to pursue your goals for your business, and then how to combine industries that you chose and your specific interests in those industries. Now we can start to think about what business ideas are possible for you to pursue. So, in this video I organized a number of ways to think about business ideas and ways to come up with business ideas.

So let's go over them together. And in the last video we did a hiking example, so let's do a different example this time just so that It gives us more to think about. So let's say the industry you chose is fashion. And let's say what you want to do is design your own clothes. Like you want to become a designer.

So one of the arguably first questions you would ask is what problems. New problems or long [00:01:00] term problems are there in my industry that I can solve so for a designer there may be a tremendous problem of Getting past the gatekeepers, you know the people at large Clothing brands who decide this designers in the designers out but if you are an independent designer They're probably not going to pick you just because there are so many designers out there.

And so you're kind of on the outside looking in, and many talented people are getting passed by. That's a problem for you, and that's actually a problem for many, many, many other designers. And you're thinking, okay, oh, it's a problem for many people. If I can solve this, then there's a market for it, because There are many people who struggle just like me.

And so you start thinking, how can you create a fair system for evaluating designs immediately, [00:02:00] you might realize crowdsourcing. might be a great option. And if it won't replace gatekeepers by itself, it's certainly a good tool for gatekeepers. Like if you're a gatekeeper at a company, you may get designs and you may use your best judgment.

But what if there was a service that gave you a crowdsourced opinion across consumers and industry? Then you would probably want to reference that just to kind of check your own thinking. So your business idea might be to create such surveys and such systems where you can get that crowd sourced evaluation on designs by up and coming designers so that you can present that in an easy way to the executives at the big fashion brands.

It helps those executives make better decisions and it helps new designers who deserve a shot to get a shot. And you see, Five minutes ago, I [00:03:00] wasn't aware of this idea. But as you start thinking about what problems are there, there are plenty and plenty and plenty of problems in many industries, in many niches.

And the solutions, some are feasible, some are less feasible. But you just start thinking. You see, it opens up your thinking. Now, similarly, question number two, what inefficiencies can you solve? Maybe the way big brands get access to new designs is quite inefficient, and if you can make it more efficient and streamlined, then it will help the big brands evaluate new designs more fairly.

These are just questions, you see, these are just questions you ask yourself, which is supposed to ignite your thinking further, and you might get. Two ideas, three ideas, four ideas after each question. Because these are open ended questions. And the process will be first you get ideas, collect your ideas, and then you think through them.

Is this [00:04:00] feasible? Can I pull this off? Is it gonna take too much time? Am I passionate about this idea? And if you come across an idea that's like a yes, yes, yes, yes, then that's a really strong candidate to pursue further and begin getting feedback from. Industry experts, peers, friends and family, et cetera.

Then you start evaluating that idea further and further to see if you actually want to start it. But let's quickly just go over the other questions now that you kind of see how they work. Another question you might ask is, is there something that people in the industry wish for but they don't currently get?

Maybe early access to designs. Maybe more sample sales in the fashion industry. And generally speaking, if you are passionate about fashion, you would know much more about the needs and wants of the people in that industry than I do, because I'm an outsider. So for you, it should be much easier [00:05:00] to answer questions like this.

Another question can be, Can you make something fun and entertaining? Like the hiking idea that you might recall. With friends, with a group, it's more fun, it's more entertaining. Or, can you sell something? Like, that hiking example again, you know, hikers Even if they don't go in a group, they love hiking guides, hiking maps.

So if you can create something like that and sell it, that's an extra revenue source or a large revenue source by itself. And that's kind of similar to number six. Can you create content or products to sell? Content might be video, maybe educational courses. So if you're a designer, you might create an online course for aspiring designers on how to design.

Or how to create specific design, like how to create extra funny designs. Or how to create t shirts that people want to read. So you see that kind of a business [00:06:00] where you can educate, where you can create content. You can maybe even educate or coach. So a lot of these overlap. Now many of these ideas that we went over so far, they tend to be kind of smaller businesses, like Create a niche product, sell a niche product.

They support a single person, entrepreneur, or a small team, but they're not like billion dollar ideas. So number eight is really good for like billion dollar ideas. Can you use a new technology to change how the industry does business? This is called disrupting or disruption. So disrupting the industry.

For example, Uber. They took the satellite and Google Maps and they transformed how the taxi industry does business. So those are tremendous big opportunities. So you always want to look out, how can you use up and coming technologies, whether it's cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, virtual reality, new [00:07:00] technology opens up tremendous use cases.

And if you're first or one of the first people to come up with something revolutionary, that is way better, that's disruption that creates billion and multi billion dollar opportunities. And this is not the only way. If you find a big problem that you can solve, if that problem is big enough, enough people will pay for it.

It can be a billion dollar opportunity. Same with the inefficiencies that you might solve. Just sometimes you solve it for a small market, then it's a small business, but if you do it in a big market, that creates the potential of a big business. Now, number nine, can you provide existing products and services cheaper, better, or in a cool different way.

What I mean by that is just entering a market that already exists. Let's use our fashion example and let's say you want to sell t shirts or dresses or anything else. Well, guess what? Those [00:08:00] markets already exist. They're large, mature markets. All you have to do is figure out your differentiation in those markets.

One differentiation can be cheaper, like, for example, decades ago, when some fashion brands began manufacturing clothing instead of in the United States, overseas. That's way cheaper, so they were able to out compete competitors. Or, you can Create similar products, but better, like funnier t shirts, but funnier or funnier for a certain audience or take the same product or service that's existing in your industry and just do it in a cool or different way.

So definitely take your industry and take that through these questions and don't just go through it quickly, but think about it. Dwell on it, give yourself some days. If you. Don't come up with ideas right away because good ideas don't come, like, [00:09:00] within seconds. Sometimes you have to dwell on something, dwell on something, dwell on something.

Like, if you're a fashion designer, you're thinking, How can I make my industry more fair for up and coming designers? It might take you ten seconds to come up with a half baked idea, but it might take you a month of thinking, brainstorming with others, etc. to come up with A world beating revolutionary idea that's a billion dollar opportunity.

So definitely keep on thinking in these ways and you'll navigate to better and better business ideas. Especially if you can brainstorm with somebody else and riff on it. It makes things much, much, much easier. So definitely try this out. These are very, very effective.

