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