Eavesdrop your way to success!
One of the most common questions I get asked from clients wanting to build an online business is ‘how can I come up with a business idea?’ The reality is there are ideas everywhere but knowing which ones to run with and which to leave behind are the key to success! Of course, the execution of the idea matters enormously, but that’s the subject of another blog.
This sounds ridiculously easy, but the best way to discover new, untapped business ideas is to just listen – listen to your friends, your children, your colleagues, to strangers (and to yourself) as you go about your daily business – at work, at home, at parties, on trains, at school pick-up, and in particular, listen out for these 3 key phrases:
- Wouldn’t it be good if…
- You know, they oughta…
- Why doesn’t somebody…
Why are they important phrases? Because they indicate that a particular need has not been resolved. Unmet needs = new business ideas. This is the easiest, fastest, and cheapest way to discover new business ideas.
Let’s take this a step further and reverse engineer what questions might have been the genesis for the creation of a couple of very successful apps and online businesses.
For example:
- Wouldn’t it be good if…we could take a picture on our phone that would instantly delete as soon as it was viewed. (Snapchat)
- You know, they oughta…create an app that tells us where all the best fishing spots are. (Fishfinder)
- Why doesn’t somebody…help start-ups raise money for their projects and take a commission for their efforts. (Pozible)
- Wouldn’t it be good if…you could wear a device that counted the number of steps you took per day and the calories you burned doing it. (Fitbit)
Clearly, you’ll want to do more testing to see if the demand is there, but as for just finding new business ideas, you can’t go past listening out for these key phrases. How hard can it be to eavesdrop on others’ conversations? It could be the beginning of a profitable venture!
