No need to complicate things. I’ve seen people write huge essays on generating profitable business ideas, so I’m going to share my secret formula for creating winning business ideas. The best thing is that this formula consists of only 2 steps.
If you don’t know me my name is Dale Partridge, I’m a business author, social media influencer and founder of dozens of multi-million dollar startups.
Before I get into the matter, I would like to give an introductory lesson to the two steps of this process. I do it because even if I want to believe that the creation of business ideas is less complex, there are 5 intellectual prerequisites to enter this game.
1. Ideas are not the most important: I don’t care how much profit potential your business idea has. Success has little to do with the ideas and the brilliance of the people behind them.
2. Take care of your problems: The most successful people never start businesses trying to solve other people’s problems, they start solving their own problems.
3. It’s been done before: In business, the worst place to be is at the top. Being in second place gives you the advantage of being able to copy what works and avoid what doesn’t.
4. It is financially realistic: If you know me, I am an anti-partner, anti-debt, and anti-investor person. If you are not able to start your business idea on your own, do not do it. 87% of partnerships fail within the first 30 months.
5. Quick money: If your business idea does not make money after 30 days of being launched on the market, it is a bad idea.
As I mentioned above, my idea is simple. It is made from 2 important questions that have kept me from pursuing brilliant ideas that don’t work and fun ideas that don’t make money.
Step #1: Time.
In my experience, the best entrepreneurs are those who manage to develop the ability to see into the future and anticipate. The ability to see where the market is headed before anyone else. However, I repeat it again, let’s not complicate things. Nobody expects you to develop the talent to predict the next economic crisis.
An entrepreneur must have the ability to foresee where the market is heading. Click To Tweet
However, if you are a real estate agent, for example, foresight will be necessary to understand the landscape of the industry, as well as the emotions of the people involved. Everything that people are thinking, feeling and saying. Foreseeing will allow you to create public solutions to the problems that everyone frustrates everyone.
Create public solutions to problems that everyone is privately frustrated about. Click To Tweet
In Bill Gross’s brilliant TED talk entitled: “The single biggest reason why startups succeed”, he demonstrates that the driver behind the success of a business idea is not the idea, nor the team, nor the model or its financing: It’s the time. Click here to learn how they came to this great conclusion.
Critical questions: Are you launching your idea too early or too late? Are there external factors like the economy, industry, or location that are holding back or driving the adoption of your idea? These are critical questions to consider before you pull the trigger.
Finally, time goes beyond the industry. Successful ideas are developed at the right time in your life, from maturity, the availability of relational capital and financial stability. At its core, entrepreneurship and starting a business is simply a commitment. By constantly educating yourself, building a realistic schedule to work on your idea, and saving enough money to invest in it, you will put yourself in a strong position to succeed.
Conclusion: Do you think you are one of those people who finds himself at the right time and place? Did you anticipate the success of SnapChat? Were you about to buy Apple stock in 1999? Did you bet that Netflix would triumph over television? If so, it is because you have definitely mastered the skill of timing, which will serve you very well to generate winning business ideas.
Step #2: Troubleshooting.
Seth Godin once said:
Don’t look for customers for your products, look for products for your customers Click To Tweet
The structure of a great company is based on solving problems. Whenever customers have problems, they will be looking for solutions.
However, problems come in different shades. The best problems to solve are built around three elements.
one. Requirement.
2. Pain.
3. Urgency.
As entrepreneurs we must look for problems that generate products that customers have to buy and not products that are “nice” to have. The idea is to focus on products that solve real problems and not luxury items that people buy when they have extra money.
Additionally, the level of pain determines the level of power. If your idea brings relief to the pain of your customers, you will have sales immediately.
Finally, those problems amplified by urgency will speed up your path to success.
The role of the entrepreneur is the search for inefficiencies and the creation of easier, better or more pleasant ways to solve them.
Critical questions: Is your business idea based on a product that the customer needs to have? Does your idea ease the pain of your customers? Does your idea solve problems rooted in some urgency?
Remember that history is written by the winners. The secret is to find ideas built on proven benchmarks of success, no need to reinvent the wheel. Don’t let your passions push you to pursue ideas that leave you in utter poverty.
And remember, if you are really interested in creating your own business and want to find more information on this subject, buy our book “How to create a company while working: Discover how to manage your time, manage your money and motivate yourself while creating a company and working for another” , where you will find all the information you need to found your own company, without having to leave your job.
