Young Entrepreneurs: To Find a Good Idea, LOOK For One!
Nov. 20th 2009
The absolute best way to find a good idea is to look for a good idea.
As an EIT (Entrepreneur-in-Training), you need to realize that a great business idea will never just ‘fall into your lap’. In my experience, and from speaking to successful young entrepreneurs, you must actively partake in an ideation process.
There are many places that you can look for a good idea, but some of my favorites have been included in a past post that I wrote on Entrepreneurial Resources. Among those are:
Twitter: Following like-minded entrepreneurs who dedicate their time to reviewing and sharing entrepreneurial resources is very worthwhile.
Google Reader: It’s difficult to follow all the great entrepreneurial blogs out there but Google Reader helps me keep up to date. It shows all new blog posts and will mark them as ‘unread’ until I read through them – great system. Ben Yoskovitz mentions a few great ones in his recent post Check Out These Startup Blogs.
Newsletters: Check out Trendwatching and Springwise – enough said.
Magazines: Although I do a lot of online reading, I still enjoy sitting down to read a good old fashioned magazine every once in a while. I subscribe to Inc., Fast Company, and Canadian Business.
Free E-Books: We have many free e-books in our Resources section, but there are many more available on DocStoc.com as well as Google Books.
After you’ve been inspired, there are a few options for figuring out when you should become an entrepreneur.
First, you could put some time into researching and (using some suggested entrepreneurial resources to find an idea now) plan to pursue an idea as soon as you are able. You could use the above resources and, either individually, or as a team, review new start-up ideas periodically. In fact, you could start finding an entrepreneurial-minded team today on Garage Entrepreneurs!
You may also keep your eyes open as you pursue other career options. Many ideas stem from observations that entrepreneurs make in their immediate world. Entrepreneurs build companies to exploit opportunities or fix problems that get noticed in our own lives and you will be more likely to encounter opportunities when you have a hands-on approach.
Expand your horizons and place yourself in the “idea flow” of new business ideas. Websites like Springwise and KillerStartups review a large volume of new start-ups every week. Get a group together and review some of these ideas today!
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Great post! This is very true! Ideas are all around, you just got to find them! If you have a passion start there. Having passion about what you do is what drives us as entrepreneurs and showing that the impossible is possible!
Great post! I can add that the most effective way to get an idea is by monitoring what your customers are doing. Ask them about the problems, challenges and fears that they’re having. Listen to their responses: this alone will give you enough innovation and work to last a year!
Joe
I can’t help but feel we need more discussion on this article from the Atlantic.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200606/stewart-business
Too much time is spent on pop concepts masquerading as solid content. Junk food intellectualism, two minutes to wisdom, catch phrases and trends fill the mindspace of would be business people looking for a shortcut.
It all leaves me unsatisified and wanting to go back to reading classics where content played a bigger role than buzz. Although all the lets be chill/cool/friends speak make me warm and fuzzy.
When a telemarketer calls and I don’t like it, I do not condemn the phone. Rather I try not to take calls from telemarketers….I still use the phone. In fact, the phone can be used for many different things, all of which “I” can decide.
The blog world can be used for many things as well, both good and bad. We need to decide if contribution is our goal or if self promoting agendas are it, or even if it is to be used to complain. However, if we choose to use a blog for one’s specific use, we cannot expect that all others conform to “our” purpose of the blog content.
I hope this is as clear as mud!