Creating a Business: The Best Ideas Can Kill You!
Business-Idea Business-Plan EntrepreneurWhere does the idea of starting a business come from? How to distinguish a good idea from a bad one? How to test your idea? How to find a business idea?
Creating a business always starts with an idea, indeed supported or driven by motivations or a particular situation.
The idea often carries within itself the germs of the success of the project or its failure: if the idea is coherent with the creator's desires, needs, know-how, and knowledge, then it will have more chances of success, Even if these elements are not sufficient.
Many business creators wake up one morning with a brilliant idea, even revolutionary, and decide to implement it by thinking that nobody thought of them before them.
This constitutes a major trap of business creation, combining a lack of information and excess confidence. It's a deadly trap.
If you have a supposedly great idea, tell yourself that others had it before you, and may have broken their teeth. Do you know why there is no low-cost perfume in tobacco shops? Just because there's no market for it. The Bic brand experienced it at its expense in the late 1980s.
Market "flaws" are rare: the idea that a pan of the market to exploit could have been "forgotten" by competitors is very often false. If an idea has not been used, it means that the risks were considered too high by the competitors, or that the market was not considered sufficiently mature.
This is not to say that there will be no room for you. A good strategy is to concentrate on a niche, that is, to do the same thing as its competitors, but in a more targeted, better-marketed and more qualitative way.
Mostly you are launching a revolutionary idea, you will have to create your own market: to make yourself known but also to make your innovation known, to educate your customers, to explain to them how it works ... it will be expensive and costly.
In conclusion, if an excellent idea falls on you, ask yourself why you hang on to it: does this not just prove that you need a change in your professional life?
This very analytical method is useful, but perhaps a little "cold" ...
The idea is to intervene in the stable growth phase of a trend, at a time when the competitive pressure is weakest due to the rapid development of sales.
Example: I want to create a range of cosmetics based on argan oil: I must, first of all, know where the trend is: has the boom gone past or still in progress? What is the evolution of the number of press articles on the theme of the benefits of argan oil? How are the competitors?
The study can concern companies already installed, on their offer, their turnover.
It will also be necessary to observe the behavior of the clients and ask them questions, for example by a questionnaire.
This involves getting into action, going to the field without waiting.
But it is a method that can be effective if the creator gives himself the means to accede to reality, to go down again on earth. Here, it is assumed that any idea can be viable if the economic and organizational model is adapted.
A fictitious example: the inventor of an airliner that operates on wind turbines is likely to fail if he plans to produce his own aircraft. Why not go through intermediate steps, such as launching a range of toy wind turbines?
Creating a business always starts with an idea, indeed supported or driven by motivations or a particular situation.
The idea often carries within itself the germs of the success of the project or its failure: if the idea is coherent with the creator's desires, needs, know-how, and knowledge, then it will have more chances of success, Even if these elements are not sufficient.
There are actually two types of entrepreneurs:
- The one who wants to undertake and therefore who seeks an idea,
- And one who has an idea and therefore wishes to create a company to exploit it.
The origin of the idea.
The reasons for starting a business can be very different from one entrepreneur to another:- Desire for independence, a desire not to have a leader over oneself,
- Want to manage your time,
- Difficulty in returning to paid employment,
- Need or desire to settle where you want, for example, to leave a large city,
- Want to test, to prove oneself,
- Character entrepreneur, creator,
- Want to create your own job so you can use your full potential and do what you like,
- Desire to take revenge and prove things to others (entourage, family, colleagues or former boss),
- Want to earn more money,
- Desire to give meaning to life,
- Want to exploit a " brilliant " idea or an exciting opportunity.
Each of these reasons is legitimate, but must be moderate:
- The desire for independence: do not forget that your new boss will be the customer!
- Ability to manage time: it is actually your customers, suppliers, and partners who will determine your schedules!
- Difficulty in finding a paid job: do you think that you can create a company by default?
- Ability to locate where you want: do you say you will find many customers in rural areas? Do you think that working remotely will be sustainable in the long term?
- Do what you like: you will have to do what the customers ask!
- Desire to prove things to others: do you think that you create a company solely for the eyes of others?
- Earn more money: remember that the average pay of a VSM leader is often less than that of an equivalent level of experience,
- Give meaning to your life: if the goal is only to make sense of your life, get involved in an NGO or create an association!
- Exploiting a "genius" idea: it is a classic trap (see next point).
- The idea must be consistent with the personality, values, skills, desires and constraints of the entrepreneur,
- The idea must also respond to a market expectation,
- The idea must make it possible to distinguish itself from the competitors, without necessarily being revolutionary.
Attention, the best ideas can kill you!
Attention, commercial flop in sight.Many business creators wake up one morning with a brilliant idea, even revolutionary, and decide to implement it by thinking that nobody thought of them before them.
This constitutes a major trap of business creation, combining a lack of information and excess confidence. It's a deadly trap.
If you have a supposedly great idea, tell yourself that others had it before you, and may have broken their teeth. Do you know why there is no low-cost perfume in tobacco shops? Just because there's no market for it. The Bic brand experienced it at its expense in the late 1980s.
Market "flaws" are rare: the idea that a pan of the market to exploit could have been "forgotten" by competitors is very often false. If an idea has not been used, it means that the risks were considered too high by the competitors, or that the market was not considered sufficiently mature.
This is not to say that there will be no room for you. A good strategy is to concentrate on a niche, that is, to do the same thing as its competitors, but in a more targeted, better-marketed and more qualitative way.
Mostly you are launching a revolutionary idea, you will have to create your own market: to make yourself known but also to make your innovation known, to educate your customers, to explain to them how it works ... it will be expensive and costly.
In conclusion, if an excellent idea falls on you, ask yourself why you hang on to it: does this not just prove that you need a change in your professional life?
How to find a business idea?
Method 1: Start with the available resources.
This process consists of taking stock of the resources (internal or external) available to draw natural conclusions about the activity that could be exercised:- Know-how, skills, knowledge,
- Facilities, assets,
- Network, contacts,
- Equipment (tooling, room for disposition),
- Personal money and money were mobilizable in the entourage.
This very analytical method is useful, but perhaps a little "cold" ...
Method 2: Starting from market trends.
This is to listen to market trends, for example by reading the specialized press or surfing the internet. The goal is to learn about fashion's ability to last over its life cycle.The idea is to intervene in the stable growth phase of a trend, at a time when the competitive pressure is weakest due to the rapid development of sales.
Example: I want to create a range of cosmetics based on argan oil: I must, first of all, know where the trend is: has the boom gone past or still in progress? What is the evolution of the number of press articles on the theme of the benefits of argan oil? How are the competitors?
Method 3: Starting from the field.
This method consists of observing the terrain in a quasi-scientific way, to identify what works and what does not operate in a given sector of activity. This process is close to market research, although further upstream.The study can concern companies already installed, on their offer, their turnover.
It will also be necessary to observe the behavior of the clients and ask them questions, for example by a questionnaire.
This involves getting into action, going to the field without waiting.
Method 4: Start from his dream and give himself the means to achieve it.
It is a risky way, as we saw above. By starting too passionate, the creator leaves blinded and has trouble getting off his cloud. A brilliant idea can turn out to be a massive commercial failure.But it is a method that can be effective if the creator gives himself the means to accede to reality, to go down again on earth. Here, it is assumed that any idea can be viable if the economic and organizational model is adapted.
A fictitious example: the inventor of an airliner that operates on wind turbines is likely to fail if he plans to produce his own aircraft. Why not go through intermediate steps, such as launching a range of toy wind turbines?
