Are you dreaming about your own company but afraid to start?
Are you eager to work but not sure on what?
In the past few months, I have come across many wannapreneurs. Many of them are in cushy or not so cushy jobs at the current time. More often than not, they are eager to start up but not ready to quit. The most common excuse being that I have yet to formulate an idea.
I think hunting for an idea as a first step is really flawed. You could spend ages waiting for an idea to come through. Alternatively, you could begin by changing your focus towards finding a problem. A problem you face or wish to solve for others. As a country, we are full of problems. Spotting a problem that you are passionate about is easy. The challenge is figuring out the gravity of the problem and its impact on the users.
The second step in this process is to talk to users. Large companies term this as market research. In essence it is as simple as first crafting a survey or reaching out to experts and asking to talk about the problem. Understand the depth of the problem. Understand how your users are functioning today. Through this process, you may discover the top three challenges faced by this user group. Your initial problem statement might not lie in this bucket but what you will be left with is a clear problem with priority of attack in place.
The third step is to now figure out a solution. More often than not, if you can carefully listen, your users will tell you what they would really like. Some of them might be attempting to solve it through inefficient means. Now, before you start building the next fancy e-commerce site, app or software product, please go back to the some more users again. Confirm if your solution fits their needs. Is it feasible? Is it solving their problem or creating a new one? Is it better than existing solutions or tools? Will they pay for it?
These three steps will help you go from “I want to do something on my own” to “I want to build a company on…”. Another big advantage is that most people will be more than happy to talk to you about their problems when you have nothing to sell. It is human to do so. They will also be happy to brainstorm on something new when you have nothing to sell. When your product is ready and you are in sales, everything you say will be viewed from the lens of influencing a purchasing decision.
So, again, who says you need an idea to get started? Look for a million dollar problem instead.