All achievements start with an idea. This is as much true of every day life as it is of the business world

The lack of a business idea is an illusion. It’s an excuse that we tell ourselves to justify inaction.

The first place to start is with your imagination. We all have a powerful imagination, although we often imagine that we don’t. For example, we use our imagination every time we read a book. The pages of the book are white, with black text. And yet our imagination transforms the text into a whole world of colour and activity. We create mental images (using our imagination) of the characters, locations, actions, even smells and noises. 

So, you most definitely have an imagination! But you don’t always give it the time and space to generate business ideas. Instead you probably use your imagination to conjure up negative scenarios. Or you may be so busy rushing from one place to the next, one task to another, that you hardly use your imagination at all. Imagination is suppressed by frenetic activity. To set your imagination free, you will need to take some time out from all that rushing around. You will need to slow down for a while, to relax. Let’s leave the busyness behind and set our sights firmly on business.

How will you relax? Only you will know what relaxes you most, but here are some suggestions: you could take some time to visit an art gallery, to read a fiction or non-fiction book, to have a long hot bubble bath, or to do some meditation. When you are in the process of relaxing, don’t try to force business ideas to come into your mind. Just be, and the ideas will most likely come to you under their own steam. Keep a pen a paper handy in case you need to write down the ideas that you will have.

Once you are in more of a relaxed state, take a look at the following questions.

“Imagination is everything. It’s a preview of life’s coming attractions.” – Albert Einstein

What do you know?

Budding authors often get told to write about what they know. Although you must not be limited by the boundaries of this concept, it’s a great place to start for generating business ideas. What do you already know about? What are you familiar with? What do you know more about than your friends or family?

Start with your current job (if you have one). What does the business you work for do? How does it make money? What do you know about the business? For example, your current employer may use the services or products of other companies – what do you know about the needs of your company, and could you supply products or services to your employer (and other similar companies) that would better serve its needs? What do you know about your company’s customers? Could you set up a business that better serves the needs of the customers, or provides additional or alternative products or services?

What do you know outside of your work? What are you good at? What do your friends say that you are good at?

What challenges do you have?

Helping people to meet their challenges, or solve their problems, is at the heart of many successful business ideas. Start with yourself. What challenges do you have? How could your life be made easier? What would you like to do if only it were possible?

What about people you know? How could their lives be made easier? What product or service would they buy if only they knew of its existence?

If your business can solve a common problem, you are well on your way to great wealth and success. Here are some examples of challenges that have been solved by business ideas:

• How can I walk in the rain without getting wet?

• How do I get from Central London to Central Paris in 2 hours?

• How can I attach a picture to my wall without damaging the wall?

• How can I be sure that the food I eat includes nothing artificial?

• How can I buy milk and eggs whilst sitting on my sofa?

• How can I keep my body flexible and agile, and meet people at the same time?

• How can I travel easily with a heavy suitcase? (In 1988 Northwest Airlines pilot Robert Plath had the idea of adding wheels to the bottom of his suitcase. He revolutionised the travel industry, made people’s lives much easier, and turned himself into a multimillionaire.)

What problems could your new business solve?

How can you make people feel good?

It’s so obviously true, but most definitely worth repeating: people want to feel good. They want to feel good about themselves (in particular) and about life (in general). Aspirations of good feelings drive our behaviours. And so it stands to reason that people make purchasing decisions based on their feelings. They are much more likely to go into shops and stores that make them feel good than ones that don’t, no matter what the product that is being sold. If they have a choice between two or more products, they won’t necessarily buy the cheapest, or the best. They will buy what makes them feel good. What does this mean for your new business? You could conclude that your success will be more likely if either the buying process or the product/service that you are selling makes customers feel good.

How will your business lead people to feel good?

Can my hobby be a business?

People often worry about transforming their hobby into a business. There is a weird notion that whilst a hobby is something you love to do, and the way you earn money is something that you must dread doing. What utter nonsense this is. It’s completely possible, and totally appropriate, to love doing everything you do.

And if you love doing something, you will be better at doing it than doing the other things you do. This means that you will be in a much better position to set up a successful business around your hobby.

In reality you have several business ideas every day. For example, you have a business idea every time you complain about something that doesn’t work or which causes you difficulties or challenges. Solving such problems can be at the heart of business success.

Another rich seam of business ideas is to ask how things could be done differently where you currently work. Could you supply services or goods to your organisation in a better or different way? Could part of your organisation’s business operations be outsourced to a new company run by you?

Chapter X looks at how you can get started on coming up with business ideas. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that every human need and desire is already adequately met by existing businesses. There truly are opportunities everywhere! There always have been, and there always will be.

What wrongs need to be put right?

Is there an aspect of suffering in the world that you feel strongly about? If so, what could you do to help? Could you set up a charity? After all, charities are businesses. They raise money and they pay their staff. They develop innovative ways to raise funds for worthwhile projects. If that sounds like something that would engage your passion, you could start to think about what problems you will put right in the world. One of the challenges I support is called Whizz Kidz. This charity, which provides suped-up wheelchairs (with headlights and switches and all sorts of exciting electronic gadgetry) for disabled children, was started by Mike Dickson, author of ‘The More You Give, The More You Get’. His charity is a highly successful business that provides untold happiness to hundreds of children and their families. Mike’s strong conviction is that giving to others produces huge personal abundance.

Could you set up a business that rights a wrong in the world?

Turn Your Job into a Business

This is my favourite one (mostly because its what I did, and its the subject of my forthcoming book. To be the first to be informed when the new book is available, complete the contact form below.