How to Generate Viable Business Ideas

The business idea gives a business opportunity. Don’t expect business successes if you don’t have viable business ideas. Business ideas are what you need to start getting more opportunity to make more money. Today, you will learn how to generate viable business ideas.

 
Here are few sources of business ideas

 
Imitation – A product or service offered somewhere else but not in your community can be imitated and offered for sale.

Buy a franchise – An entrepreneur can buy a right to sell or manufacture an existing product/service. The franchise would gain a lot from the franchise, such as a proven product that would not suffer market resistance, marketing expertise, professional guidance, recognized standards. Others are financial assistance, as he/she can have trade credit, start-up costs and working capital for inventory from the franchise.

Hobby – An entrepreneur could turn his hobby into a business.

Work experience – Work experience garnered from a particular industry can help you avoid many mistakes and build up competitive advantages through offering your product/service differently if you find yourself in business.

Brainstorming – Brainstorming is a process where individual members of a group are asked to come up with ideas that can be analyzed in more detail and use.

Inspiration – Finding something valuable through stimulation of creative abilities. Sometimes business opportunities can come through inspiration.

Frustration – When one listens to one’s neighbor’s frustrations daily, it could give one a business idea. What one desired and could not get can make one decide to do something about it, thereby creating a viable business opportunity.

Innovation – Consumers’ demand is continuously changing with time. The changes, as a result of growth in knowledge and information in the food industry, for instance, range from basic considerations such as food safety, nutritional value, convenience, reduction in waste, palatability, etc. Probably all products and services from most sectors in the Nigerian economy are yearnings for innovative technological changes.

Passion – To generate viable business ideas from a passion, the potential entrepreneur should list at least five things he/she likes doing and five things he/she does not like to do. For instance, you like to read, to make use of a computer, to grow vegetables, to rear chickens; on the other hand, you may not like public speaking, meeting with strangers, traveling always, etc.

Evaluating a Business Idea

A business idea is viable when it can meet the need of certain targeted customers whose purchases would be large enough to sustain the business.

 
In evaluating the business idea, you start by:

Asking questions – Talk to people and ask: Would you buy or use this product/service?

Do you have the expertise to exploit it? Do you have the know-how and the start-up capital to make the business idea a success?

Is there a demand for the product or service? A business idea must meet specific needs for specific target customers.

What are the objectives of setting up the business? Can the business meet the objectives? If it is a profit-oriented business, the business must be able to pay its way, meet costs and make a profit.

Do you have managerial skills? You need to have managerial skills such as marketing, financial, technical and human resources, people skill and time management skills to run the business.

Who are the targeted customers? You must know the market, its size, competition, and the benefits of your products to the market. The market could be the general public or a segment of the market, like the industrial businesses, government agencies, and non-profit organizations; specific industries like transportation, financial sector, construction, manufacturing, etc.

 
Do you run an online business? Do you need help to make it more successful? We can help out generate viable business ideas to make your business more successful.