Chapter 4: Small Business Ideas: Creativity, Opportunity, and Feasibility
Factors Lead to Business Ideas
1) work experience 2) a similar business 3) hobby or personal interest 4) chance happening 5) family and friends 6) education and expertise 7) technology 8) idea sites
Avoid Pitfalls
1. Identify the wrong problem 2. Judging ideas too quickly 3. Stopping with the first good idea 4. Failing to ask for help 5. Obeying rules that don't exist
Screening Ideas
1. What is your product or idea? 2. How is your product or idea better? 3. How would you define the best initial set of customers? 4. Why will they buy it? 5. Describe how you create value for your customers. 6. What is the market and its size? 7. Can you develop IP protection for your idea? 8. Who are the people behind the idea? 9. What resources are needed to take the idea and sell it to the customer? 10. Can the idea generate sufficient profit?
S.C.A.M.P.E.R.
S-Substitute C-combine A-Adapt M-Magnify/modify P-Put to other uses E-Eliminate R-Rearrange
Scamper
a creativity tool that provides cues to trigger breakthrough thinking
Pilot Test
a preliminary run of a business, sales effort, program, or website w the goal of assessing how well the overall approach wors and what problems it may have
Adapt
adaptation from existing products or services
Imitative strategy
an overall strategic approach in which the entrepreneur does more or less what others are already doing
Education and Expertise
decide first to own a business, then searching for a viable idea for that business ex: consulting company
Good technology is nice;
good idea is better
Work Experience
idea grows out of listening to customer complaints
License
legal arrangement ranting you rights to use a particular piece of intellectual property
similar business
might see a business in an area that intrigues you
Family and Friends
open to their suggestions and experiences
Royalty
payment based on the number or value of licensed item sold
Combine
possible combinations that result in something completely different,
Radical Innovations
rejecting existing ideas and presenting a way to do things differently
Serendipity
right place right time
Eliminate
search for opportunities that arise when you get rid of something or stop doing something
opportunity recognition
searching and capturing new ideas that lead to business opportunities, involves creative thinking that leads to discovery of new and useful ideas
Magnify/Modify
taking an existing product and changing its appearance or adding more features
Incremental strategy
taking an idea and offering a way to do something better than it is done presently
feasibility
the extent to which an idea is viable and realistic and the extent to which you are aware of internal and external forces that could affect your business
Hobby/Personal Interest
turn hobbies into successful business
Technology Transfer and Licensing
universities and govt agencies!
Idea Sites
websites where people post ideas they have and products/services they would like to see
Substitute
what might substitute for something else to form an idea
Put to other uses
Think of ways you could generate a high number of opportunities for your product or service
Rearrange
what can you rearrange or reorder in the way your product or service appears
Creativity
a process introducing an idea or opportunity that is novel and useful, frequently derived from making connection among distinct ideas or opportunities
Build a company culture
a set of shared norms, values, and orientations of a group of individuals, prescribing how people should think and behave in the organization
entrepreneurial alertness
a special set of observational and thinking skills that help entrepreneurs identify good opportunities, the ability to notice things that have been overlooked, without actually launching a formal search for opportunities, and the motivation to look for opportunities