How To Generate A Business Startup Idea
Sewing A New Venture Startup Seed with Your Own Business Ideas
The problem for many entrepreneurs is that they either have a general overview of their own business ideas, their future projects, unique business ideas or no ideas at all. It might be very difficult for you to come up with your own business ideas that are new or different, rather than just copying what you see everyone else doing (or selling)
In this ARTICLE, we want to help you to “release” your creative side and think more creatively about your own business ideas. You might just find the next big idea to take the market by storm.
Thinking Skills And Your Business Ideas
The difference between logical and creative thinking
“…Thinking is a skill that can be learned, practised, and developed. But you have to want to develop that skill. You need to learn how to ride a bicycle or drive a car…”
Edward de Bono
Programmed, logical or convergent thinking recognises that our brains are pattern-recognition systems and that they do not function like computers. It takes years of training before we learn to do simple arithmetic – something that computers do very easily. On the other hand, we can instantly recognise patterns such as faces, language and handwriting. The only computers that begin to be able to do these things do it by modelling the way that human brain cells work. Even then, computers will need to become more powerful before they approach our ability to handle patterns.
The benefit of good pattern recognition is that we can recognise objects and situations very quickly. This helps entrepreneurs and new venture startups to recognise the niche in their own business ideas
Imagine how much time would be wasted if you had to do a full analysis every time you came across a cylindrical canister of effervescent fluid. Most people would just open their can of cold drink. Without pattern recognition, we would starve or be eaten.
Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs and new venture startups get stuck in their patterns. They tend to think within them. Solutions we develop are based on previous solutions to similar problems. Normally it does not occur to us to use solutions belonging to other patterns.
When we are faced with a familiar problem, especially as entrepreneurs, logical thinking enables us to tap into our personal experiences and find a suitable solution with a minimum of effort.
By assessing a situation against your relevant experience, you can choose the most appropriate path, and move towards a solution. This logical approach is very efficient when thinking
However, it can become a barrier when you have little relevant experience; when there is more than one potential solution, or when you need a brand new solution for your own business ideas but have low investment.
A startup that is able to work outside the boundaries of his / her experiences will be more successful in the long run. We use lateral, creative or divergent thinking techniques to break out of this patterned way of thinking about our own business ideas.
Creative thinking is the process that we use when we come up with our own business ideas. It is the merging of ideas that have not been merged before. This creative thinking process can be accidental or deliberate.
Without using special techniques, creative thinking does still occur, but usually in an accidental way; like a chance happening to make you think about something in a different way and you then discovering a beneficial change. Other changes happen slowly through the pure use of intelligence and logical progression. When using this accidental or logical progression process, it often takes a long time for products to develop and improve. In an accelerating and competitive world, this is obviously disadvantageous.
Using special techniques, deliberate creative thinking can be used to develop our own business ideas. These techniques force the merging of a wide range of ideas to spark off new thoughts and processes.
Developments of products and the recognition of own business ideas can occur much more rapidly using these deliberate techniques than by accident. Many people are known for being creative use these techniques but are not aware they are doing so because they have not been formally trained in them. Lateral thinking techniques help us to come up with startling, brilliant and original solutions to problems and opportunities about our own business ideas that will help us earn money
Each type of approach has its strength. Logical, disciplined thinking is enormously effective in making products, services and our Lateral thinking better. It can, however, only go so far before all practical improvements have been carried out. Lateral thinking can generate completely new concepts and brilliant improvements to existing systems. In the wrong place, however, it can be sterile or unnecessarily disruptive.
Divergent or creative thinking involves opening up your mind to find new solutions and new ways of doing things. Instead of taking your usual, logical approach to a problem, you can learn to suspend your judgment and look for different, more inventive solutions to your own business ideas. Once you have generated as many ideas as possible in this way, use a logical thinking process to refine your business ideas and identify the best solution to the problem.
With practice, ongoing creative thinking (the continuous investigation, questioning and analysis that develops through education, training and self-awareness) occurs all the time. Ongoing creativity maximises both accidental and deliberate creative thinking. Ongoing creativity takes time and deliberate practice to become skilful, but it’s surprising how quickly it becomes an attitude, not a technique.
The first step to take is to learn the creative thinking techniques so that you can deliberately use them to come up with your business ideas. You should then practise the techniques to increase your skill at ongoing creative thinking. (After a while you may even find it unnecessary to use specific techniques because you may be having too many of your own business ideas anyway.)
Creative thinking techniques work to stimulate original ideas. Creative thinking happens when two or more ideas are accidentally or deliberately merged when they have never been merged before. Creative thinking techniques provide the method for deliberately combining ideas in ways which you would not normally come across or think about. This combination generates truly original ideas for you.
Creative thinking is all about merging two previously unrelated or unmerged thoughts, products or processes. In practice, of course, it can be very difficult to find the ideas to merge and develop that own business idea into a workable solution.
Processes for extracting Your own business ideas from a stimulus
Extract concepts or principles from the stimulus and reuse them.
- How does it work?
- What does it achieve?
- How does it achieve it?
- What does the stimulus do?
- In what order does it work?
- Who is involved and why?
Extract a feature of your own business idea from the stimulus and reuse it
- What are its physical attributes?
- Why is it that shape?
- What process is involved and why?
- Who is crucial to its success?
- What is the timing of events?
Extract a positive attribute of your own business idea from the stimulus and try to replicate it
- What is good about the stimulus?
- Why is the stimulus good at what it does?
- How does it succeed?
- In what situations does it work best?
Extract the differences between the stimulus, your own business ideas and the current solution
- How do the stimulus and the current solution achieve the same thing, but in a different way?
- Why does the stimulus do something one way and the current solution another?
- What is the difference in physical characteristics?
- What is the difference in process?
- In what way are they used differently?
Merge the stimulus and problem and then reapply the processes of extraction on the mixture. After you have exhausted extracting your own business ideas from the stimulus itself, you should merge the stimulus into the current situation and use the same idea extraction principles described above to the new mixed product. Remember, this involves using your imagination – which is a lot cheaper than physical experimentation – and that you’re only using it to stimulate your own business ideas; it does not matter if the intermediate ideas don’t work.
- Physically include the stimulus in the current situation and see what happens
- Force yourself to use the stimulus as a solution
- Mix the stimulus with the current object/method and extract the good ideas from it (and extract the ideas this creates …)
- Imagine what would happen if you followed the process involved with the stimulus within your current process.
- Examine what happens on a frame-by-frame basis and examine the benefits at each frame. Is there a benefit at one time and not at another?
- Under what circumstances is the merged solution useful? (A different time, place, culture, market, …)
- Physically include part of the stimulus in the current situation and see what happens
Take a part of the stimulus (e.g. a feature, a process, a physical section, a person involved) and place that into the current problem situation and examine what happens. Start extracting the principles and ideas as before. Look at the intermediate idea on a frame-by-frame basis and examine under what circumstances your own business ideas would be useful and generally find some beneficial ideas you can reuse and reapply.
When the stimulus is a question, do the following:
- Answer the question directly without embarrassment or inhibition.
- Answer the question in as many different ways that you can. Most questions have many answers.
- Answer the question from a variety of different points of view. Give answers from radically opposing views.
- Answer the principles behind why the question was asked. See the question as asking many things.
- Answer the question both broadly and in great detail. Summarise and expand on your answers. Answer the larger question too.
By following the above guidelines with each thinking technique, you should be able to extract your own business ideas from every stimulus you are given. You will never be stuck for a new idea if you apply the above guidelines and use the creative thinking techniques to supply you with fresh and original stimuli
The concept and application of creativity
There is normally a great deal of confusion between the terms: Creativity, innovation, own business ideas generation and value engineering.
Creativity is a process utilising imagination and originality for own business ideas and products of imagination, art and fashion etc. Creativity refers to a person’s ability to think creatively. It refers to the act of getting own business ideas for products or services. The emphasis is on finding the correct ideas and features of a product or service
Innovation: To create your own business ideas, results from the introduction of a process or way of doing things. Innovative ability refers to the use of creative abilities to create something concrete. Innovation refers to the implementation of own business ideas – the translation of own business ideas into products or services. The emphasis is on finding the benefits that must be provided by a product or system in order for people to value it sufficiently to be willing to change. We can define innovation, as the commercialisation of own business ideas by changing the existing products, systems and resources.
From the comparisons made above, we can deduce that innovation cannot take place without creativity, because creativity initiates innovation.
Value engineering: To use own business ideas and take something of a certain value, by changing a process or a design and increasing the value of the item without substantively changing itself.
How Creative Entrepreneurs Solve Problems:
- They are not afraid of a lack of knowledge.
- They allow thoughts to mill around in their minds without categorising them.
- They do not restrict their own thinking unnecessarily.
- They search for unusual solutions (different, unexpected ideas).
- They detect problems (and solutions) where others do not expect them.
- They have great energy that drives them to do things (achieve), even under difficult circumstances.
- They don’t let themselves be limited by their environment.
- They criticise themselves more than others do.
- They like ventures involving calculated risk.
- They examine things from another viewpoint.
- They want to combine usefulness with a better-looking product.
Difference between analytical and creative thinking
Analytical thinking: A way of thinking in which a substance (such as a problem or business statement) is divided into its parts to identify it or to study its structure.
Creative thinking: A way of thinking in which imagination and originality are shown. This is the power to bring into existence, originate, produce or give rise to ventures or products or own business ideas.
Creativity is the ability to consider a topic in various ways and to come up with own business ideas. Although some people are born with the gift of being creative, it is possible for anyone to develop and improve his creative abilities. It is important to understand that creativity is just as much an attitude as a manner of thinking. It is thus possible to think of your own business ideas by attuning yourself to creativity.
Secrets To Improve Your Creativity And Your Own Business Ideas
Actively seek ideas: You can learn to seek your own business ideas actively by judging everything that you read or observe on the strength of ideas that you can develop from it. If you think in this way regularly, it later becomes a habit, and Your own business ideas will manifest themselves.
Write your own business ideas down: Make it a habit to write down an idea as soon as possible each time you have one, even if you feel it is not a good idea. Regularly read through the ideas. This will give you the opportunity to review them, compare them with other ideas and combine them into a new concept.
View a topic from another person’s perspective/point of view: Put yourself in somebody else’s position, and you get a different perspective on your own business ideas. With better understanding of other people’s points of view, you will gain new insights and ideas. By asking yourself for example what the mother of a pre-school child thinks of the concept “to see red”, and then to put the shoe on the other foot and see it from the perspective of a busy businesswoman or a widowed grandmother, you can generate totally new ideas.
Break your routine: A good way of stimulating your thoughts is to break your routine when thinking creatively about your own business ideas. Here are a few suggestions:
- Take note of how you perform everyday actions, like feeding the dog and do them differently.
- Spend a whole day without something that is a part of each day’s routine, e.g. your car.
- Read a book on a subject that you know nothing about.
- Start a conversation with a stranger: someone you wouldn’t normally speak to.
- Do something you have never done before, like going to the opera, riding a horse or starting a new hobby or sport (in other words, broaden your horizons).
- Explore the grey areas: If you tend to see only the usual right and wrong sides of a case, it is time to explore the grey areas between right and wrong. Make a habit of looking for different solutions and possibilities. Start by completing the following incomplete questions.
In the comment section below, See how many solutions you can find to each in ten minutes:
- What will happen if I……………………………………………?
- In what different way can I …………………………………..?
- Who will benefit by……………………………………………………..?
Take some time to tune your mind for creativity. This mindset will eventually help you to identify new or better small business ideas.
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Do you now have a long list of your own business ideas? Do you have ideas on how to use creativity to come up with your own business ideas? Do you have some self-limiting beliefs in your startup? Are you comfortable with your own business ideas now? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!