Coming up with a business idea is extraordinarily easy. Thinking of a viable business idea and plan is infinitely more difficult. Where do you start?
One approach is to find something that irritates you and find a solution to it. Buses don’t run to your area at a certain time? Start a taxi firm. If you have a problem, other people do too and if you provide a solution then you can charge people for using it.
A good example of a company that has come with a business idea by solving a problem is car insurance company, ingenie. For many young drivers, the price of buying insurance is just something they can’t afford. Ingenie has taken a rather clever approach to solving this problem. They’ve created a small black box that you fit into your car. As you drive, the box monitors your driving style, including things like braking, speed, acceleration, turns, etc. Every 10 days the box assigns you a score out of 100. The higher your score, the bigger the discount you’ll receive on your insurance policy come the three month review period. Ingenie claims to help customers, often students, save up to 50 percent of what they would otherwise be paying. And, there is the added bonus of encouraging people to drive better.
Ever heard of GoPro? They’re a camera company that got started in 2002. Founder Nick Woodman had recently been on a surfing trip to Australia in which he was hoping to capture quality action photos. Nick was unable to find amateur photographers who could get close enough to get good action-shot pictures of him surfing. The solution to the problem was The GoPro camera—a wide-angle lens HD camera capable of taking excellent video and action shots, and which could go where other cameras couldn’t. Snap one into a case and you can literally do anything with it, from scuba diving and extreme mountain biking to flying (and crashing) a model airplane. GoPro produces various mounting accessories for its cameras including a 3-way mount, suction cup, chest harness, jaws-type flexible clamp, dog harness and surfing mount.
What problem do you have that could be solved by the creation of a new business?
