“New ideas pass through three periods: 1) It can’t be done. 2) It probably can be done, but it’s not worth doing. 3) I knew it was a good idea all along!”
– Arthur C. Clarke
Key Points in Step 2:
- When looking for online business ideas only the sky is the limit since the most important factor for success are your determination and persistence.
- There are many methods and tools to help you generate business ideas.
- You should search for ideas that fit your goals, expectations and strengths.
- When brainstorming ideas follow your passion, interests and expertise.
- As a starter, consider ideas that fall into the Differentiating or the Niche Marketing strategy.
- Differentiation means being different and/or better than the competitors (in one or more areas of your business),
- Niche marketing means serving small market segment unattractive for the other business)
- The selected idea(s) could be tested for viability and profitability in order to increase your chances for success.
- When you finally have your business idea, outline a business concept to get you going.
Contents:
2.1. Identifying Acceptable Business Ideas
2.2. Generating Online Business Ideas
2.3. Testing Your Ideas
2.4. Outline a Business Concept Based on Your Idea
(Download Step 2 in PDF [PDF – Desktop] – [PDF – Mobile])
Every business starts with an idea. Many entrepreneurs have started their business with a single idea, others had many ideas but had to choose only one to pursue. In both cases, business could fail or succeed. As you may know, 7 out of 10 startups fail, but that’s the way entrepreneurship works. The process of generating, filtering and testing business ideas should decrease the risk of failure but should also give you wider perspective of available online business opportunities.
The business idea can be considered as a concept for starting and developing a viable business. Usually it focuses on a product, service or information that can solve a problem or satisfy customers’ need. Other important aspects of a business idea are the market size (potential customers) and the revenue mechanism (monetizing potential).
A promising business idea should be Relevant (must fulfill customers’ needs or solve their problems),Innovative, Unique and Profitable. Anyway, it is easier to have many ideas than to turn single one into a successful business. The idea is a good starting point but its implementation is also very important, if not crucial.
The ideas for an online business may have some specifics compared to ideas for a traditional business. The online environment provides specific business models and revenue sources. Having that in mind, the online business idea should be related to that specific model. For example, if we want to create an informative website our business idea would simply be a topic that we would cover, like fishing tips, local news, home decorating etc. In other online business models the idea may come from the way we serve the customers online (online tutoring, live streaming, dating etc) or from the features a website can provide (communication, blogging service, image editing etc).
Many innovations in the business are not inventing new products or services but delivering the existing in a new way. When it comes to online business ideas, the innovativeness may lay, not in the products or the services themselves, but in the way of presenting them, the methods of pricing, the ways of approaching customers, content richness, website enhancements etc. Amazon didn’t invent books but made them available via website and delivered by post. Google didn’t invent search engines but made new better search algorithm. E-Bay didn’t invent auctions but placed them online.
If you can’t find an original idea duplicate or follow someone else’s idea and do it in a better or a different way. In many cases, having and online business could mean that you copy exactly what other businesses do. If you follow this approach, make sure you choose a trending industry (with a substantial annual growth) or an industry/niche that is not already saturated (too competitive). Even in this approach, doing something better or in a different way will just increase your chances for success on a long run.
Each idea, no matter how brilliant, initially has no real value. A plausibility check gives more information about an idea’s chances in the marketplace and helps to check its feasibility and profitability. After an idea is finally selected, it enters the implementation phase where it needs conceptualization, resources, management, and in many cases a devoted team.
Suggestion: If you want to start an online business for the first time, start with an informative website (as business model) and don’t waste too much time on finding the right idea. Such online business model requires minimal investment and you can start with more than one project (topic). Experimenting with ideas may bring you a success by circumstance, but will surely bring you a valuable experience even if you fail. If it happens that you succeed with the informative web site you can expand your business model, for example by offering online services or opening an e-shop.
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