Hi George,
Daniel Scocco here, and this is the Daily Blog Tips newsletter.
Most people don't start a business (be it a brick and mortar
business, an online app or even a website/blog) because they can't
find the right idea to pursue. They think about it regularly (i.e.,
about starting something), but no spark of inspiration comes, at
least not one that will motivate them enough to wrap up the sleeves
and start working on it.
One of the causes of this pattern is that people tend to associate
businesses with money. When they think about starting a business,
they start thinking about how they can make money. And while the
money aspect is important, focusing on it right away might not be
the best strategy. Why? Because no business exists solely to make
money (except banks perhaps...). Businesses exist to solve problems.
In other words, if you are looking for that next idea to pursue you
should think about what problem you want to solve. Only after you
figure that out you can start thinking about how you can actually
make money while solving that problem.
The question then becomes: whose problems should you solve? The
problems of the eskimo's kids on northern Alaska? The problems of
the members of the UK Royal family?
How about your start solving your own? As they say in business
circles, how about you scratch your own itch? Simple as it sounds,
this strategy created some of the largest fortunes on earth.
Here's an example: Back in 2005 Chad Hurley and Steven Chen shot
many videos on a dinner party they attended in San Francisco, and
they wanted to share those videos with friends over the Internet.
They tried some of the solutions available, but none worked well,
so they decided to create their own website where people would be
able to easily upload and share videos. That website was called
YouTube.
Another one: In the early 1970s, a 20-something Steve Wozniak fell
in love with computers. The problem was that only large mainframe
computers were available at that time, so you needed to either rent
computer time from corporations (which was very expensive) or use
one at a university (which had time and other constraints). The
solution? He decided to build his own personal computer so that he
could use it at his home. His friend Steve Jobs figured that many
other people would want to have a computer at their homes as well,
and they decided to found Apple Computer to start selling those.
Practically speaking, here are some exercises you can make to come
up with that next idea:
-Think about businesses/websites/apps that you would love to use but
that don't exist yet.
-Think about services and products you already use but that make you
mad because one aspect or another.
-Think about stuff you would like to do but are not able to because
there's no product/service for that in the market.
Now go solve that problem!
Talk to you next week,
Daniel Scocco
http://www.dailyblogtips.com
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2972 Columbia St. Suite # 8161 - Torrance, CA 90503 - US
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