How to Find Business Ideas That Attract Investmentsset up public voting

Eureka moments aren’t tied to a specific place or time. Whether it’s a bus that drives you home every day, a new office space, or a nice, picturesque corner somewhere in the South of France, a one-in-a-million business idea can suddenly materialize in your mind anywhere and anytime. From the moment it arrives, you must treat it gently to ensure that it doesn’t run away from you. In this article, we explore various ways to research and validate your business idea the right way.

How to find the perfect business idea

Okay, let’s put this another way: “Do you have to LOOK for a viable business idea? Or should it just arrive by itself?” Well, there are people who discovered America by accident, so great things obviously don’t need to be looked for. Take Howard Schultz for example. The CEO of Starbucks never intended to run a business until the thought of opening upscale espresso cafes in the U.S. struck him during a trip to Milano. On the other hand, there are also people, like Pierre Omidyar and Steve Jobs, who always had an entrepreneurial drive in their blood and had been dreaming of business ideas from an early age. It doesn’t really matter how you get there. What’s really important is whether your idea will be made use of or lost.

If you’re set on building your own business, there are several simple tips that can increase the chances of creative ideas knocking at your door:

• Research the market. Whether it’s something that your target industry misses entirely or just a smarter alternative to an existing product or service, there should be a place for it on the market. Take a look at the industry landscape, and then dive deep into the areas that seem to lack something. Your perfect business idea might await you there.
• Look into franchise opportunities. Starting from scratch might be risky, especially when it comes to industries that are oversaturated with ideas similar to yours. In this case, making use of a lucrative franchise opportunity might be a great solution. Check out the catalog of business opportunities from Entrepreneur, where you can find information about investment requirements and the expected profits for a huge number of franchises.
• Be curious. Even a Friday beer with a friend can be the catalyst for a viable business idea. Being curious and passionate about everything that’s going on in their communities, industries, and families is the habit of outstanding businesspeople. Read as much as you can, communicate, explore the industry that fascinates you, and always have a notebook with you to jot down ideas.

Examples of the top 6 business ideas

Depending on how much you are ready to spend, there are business ideas with high, low, or no investment. Here is a list of business ideas you can use as examples when building your unique business strategy:

Business ideas with high investment

1.Launch a creative evening/weekend camp. Running your own camp isn’t cheap, and what’s really frustrating is that you can’t make much money from seasonal camps, no matter how much you invest. Build a camp that is open all year round, and encourage people to come in the evenings or on weekends. From tech talks to language classes, such camps can come in many flavors.

Takeaway: Take an existing in-demand product or service and polish it.

2. Make use of tech buzz. Impressing the world with smart tech is not a new strategy, but it definitely still works. Take TriSpecs, for example, the product that combines sunglasses, bluetooth, and headphones. Don’t you think it would make your routine better? Exactly.

Takeaway: Leverage an all-in-one approach.

Business ideas with low investment

1.Reuse/recycle. In 1946 Takizo Motonaga started making slippers from recycled tire tread that one could easily find during World War 2 right on the streets. An internationally known retail business today, Island Slipper was actually started with zero investment.

Takeaway: Don’t be afraid to use materials that no one else uses. Recycling has huge potential.

2.Go weird. There was recently an article in the Washington Post about the Silicon Valley’s elite spending millions on chickens. To relax after staring at a screen all day long, the nation’s tech masterminds spend time in their back yards watching chickens that wear diapers and eat salmon. Weird? Definitely. But what if you could profit from weird trends like this? As an example, you can launch a chicken rental service, in which your only investment is a few dozen chickens and a good marketing campaign.

Takeaway: Earn on the elite’s lifestyles.

Business ideas without investment

1. Run a hackathon. Build a new product in 24 hours on a bootstrap? It’s actually possible, particularly if you believe in the power of hackathons. Since such coding marathons often attract highly-motivated professionals who are eager to test their skills, you may end up with an excellent product.

Relevant: How to create a new cryptocurrency through a hackathon

Takeaway: Look for people who want experience rather than money.

2.Consult. Sometimes it’s enough to just invest knowledge and expertise instead of money. Set up a consultancy business that relates to the hottest trends, such as blockchain or data protection, and earn profits by giving advice.

Takeaway: Be a trend hunter.

How do you know whether your idea is good?

Going from an idea to a booming business isn’t an easy task. The key thing is that you have to walk this road with the right idea. Validating your business concept at the start of your journey will help you avoid numerous pitfalls. Here’s how to run a business idea test drive:

• Find your target persona among your friends or family. If you want to start a successful business, you have to know at least one person who will love it. Prototype your ideal customer, and find him or her in your community. The more information you have about the preferences and interests of this person, the more targeted your solution will be. It’s also a great strategy to involve your target persona in your product’s testing to reap relevant feedback.
• Pitch your idea. By participating in a startup pitching contest, you can discover whether your idea has good investment potential, how it is perceived by both target users and seasoned business professionals, and what you can improve to make the idea stronger.
• Develop your custom metrics. Based on your KPIs and the results that your competitors demonstrate, set up custom metrics for the evaluation of your business idea. It’s important to apply metrics during the testing stage to collect actionable data before the launch.

Conclusion

Creative small business ideas pop up around the world every day. Unfortunately, not every idea has a long life. By validating your idea early on, you can set up public voting avoid the trouble of wasting your time and resources on a nonviable business.