Business ideas

Business ideas

All businesses start with an idea – so how do you find the right business ideas?

We have listed a few ideas that could help you find the right business.

Talk or meet with other small business owners

Other small business owners are a great source of ideas and support. If you talk with them you will be able to glean a lot of information and support. There are now a number of online communities. One of the best that I have discovered is Ecademy. Although it originated in the south-east of England it is now starting to build a more dedicated following north of the border. Ecademy can be found at www.ecademy.com

Home business ideas

There is a new page on the Ideas Helper website that contains a number of home business ideas.

Keep an ideas notebook

Once you start thinking you will be generating hundreds of ideas. Rather than keeping them in your head, write them down – no matter how daft they may be. You may be amazed how useful they are later on.

I keep a small notepad and pen with me. It can fit in my back pocket and store many hundreds of ideas in it.

For inspiration – visit an art gallery

You must think that we are nuts to suggest this – but if you want to generate some ideas an art gallery is as good a place to think as anywhere else. It should get you out of the business environment, give you some visual stimulus and generally give you space to think. Make sure that you take a notebook. Give it a try – it may not be as crazy as you think.

Avoid “get rich quick” schemes

Your Mum probably told you if you wanted to do well then you would have to put in a lot of work. That is absolutely true in running business. If only it were not the case, but there are very few short cuts in business.

The problem is that with the Internet, there are thousands of people trying to make a fast buck. This is how to spot them.

Avoid all business ideas that have the following wording

• Sound too good to be true?
• Sit back and relax and get paid
• Become a millionaire
• How we make £400 per day
• Secrets of millionaires
• £1,000 per week
• Immediate profits
• Get millions of dollars
• Rake in thousands
• Vast incomes
• More or less anything with the work “Network Marketing” included in it (with a few notable exceptions)
• Most things that require a significant up-front investment.

If something sounds too good to be true – it probably is. The only person who is likely to get rich is the person behind the scheme.

Test marketing

And when you have found your perfect business idea – all that you have to do is test it out. Read our article about testing out your business idea.