How to find a business idea

Start it with yourself...

You may find it too "basic", but I consider the very first part of starting a business the most critical and somehow complicated one. It is not just about having a good idea (which is extremely difficult on its own), but you also need to set and admit your own limits and avoid every misbelief. I have experienced several cases, when my acquaintances wanted to establish their own firms, but they did not know their capacities and did overestimated their knowledge and skills, which are essentials to be a businessperson.

Make money in your area of interest

So the first step is to know our field of interest. We will spend most of our time on doing the sanme thing in the fore-coming years, especially, if we want to earn our living from this activity..
Of course, it's important to enjoy running our business (obviously we spend more time, sacrifice more energy, free-time on things we love), but it won't be enough. Hopefully, we will not think on starting the millionth restaurant in the city, just because we like making breakfast...

Support your business idea with your competences

We also need to take into consideration our strengths, skills, knowledge and experience. Going on with the previous example, we would not be advised to open a restaurant if we cannot cook. In the beginning we would look for opportunities to save money, which could be being the chef at weekends. Similarly, you would not open an accounting consultancy firm, if you and numbers have nothing in common, or would not organize birthday parties, if your time-management is awful. On the other hand, if you was the best at the drawing classes, or you take awesome photographs, maybe worked in a gallery, you might start your first online gallery.
I could list thousands of "necessary" skills, but I do not believe in that. A good businessperson has to be flexible, creative and sober. The rest will come with time...

Necessary resources

Finally, you have to look at your resources. Of course financial background is extremely crucial, so I devoted a separate section to it, but other things are worth mentioning a few words.

As a kid, I never believed in networking, I also wanted to solve my problems on my own, without any help. However, I had to realize that having a few connections at the right place makes things much easier. For example if you want to be an interior decorator, it will be useful to have a friend at a company dealing with renting, or with painting end so on...

Another valuable resource is time. It sounds worn-out, but according to some studies, 60-75% of the business owners have to close up, because of low profit rooted in the lack of time. If you really want to make your living by running your company, you need to face the fact: you will not have too much free-time in the first couple of years.

Check the step by step guide