Successful Startup 101 Magazine - Issue 8, Page 2

  Paul Graham sums it all in this short quote about what to create.

  The very best startup ideas tend to have three things in common: they’re something the founders themselves want, that they themselves can build, and that few others realize are worth doing. -Paul Graham

  These are the 80 ways to find your next big idea.

  1. Ask yourself how is the current product too complicated? What simple little thing could you do to just make it simpler.

  2. Ask again-why it doesn’t work better and how to resolve the problem.

  3. Don’t wait for a brilliant, paradigm-shifting, disruptive idea, find a real problem people have and solve it.

  4. Look for market gaps in the trail of successful concepts. You will likely need fewer resources to launch a market gap plug.

  5. What are the biggest challenges your colleagues at work face?

  5. Go shopping for a few hours and listen to other shoppers talk about products, complain about processes, and just gab.

  7. Look for problems that matches your skill set.

  8. Find an industry or situation where the customer is getting frustrated on price and the customer experience is poor.

  9. Think about combining two products into one.

  10. What tasks take up the most time during your day?

  11. Explore something completely foreign to you. The freedom from preconceptions will give you some unique insights.

  12. Get people commenting and giving feedback feedback about every possible idea you have.

  13. Look for problems not ideas.

  14. Go to a startup weekend in your city or near you.

  15. What inefficiencies do you notice in your daily routine work.

  16. Ask yourself: what abilities do you care about or want to enhance?

  17. Live in the future and build what people will need.

  18. Look out for cues when reading books or when taking a walk, in the bus, on the train, subway etc.

  19. A great start up idea is one you’ll be able to grow continuously. Think long-term.

  20. Get your best friends together, complain about life problems, brainstorm solutions, talk it out, and write everything down.

  21. Organize a Meetup  or find a meetup to share ideas.

  22. Many of the great businesses of the next decade will be about making information about our behaviors more visible.-Evan Williams

  23. Don’t think about just one niche, stay open to ideas from all industries.

  24. Think of something that everyone does with their friends and make it public.

  25. Identify tasks that take time/waste your time.

  26. Ask yourself what was impossible, or unnecessary a few years ago but with technology is possible today.

  27. What activity do you dread the most in a given day?

  28. Ask random people that you meet what the biggest annoyances in their lives and jobs are.

  29. When you encounter a problem think through all the possible ways of resolving it.

  30. Know about different disciplines, and have broad knowledge. Innovation often comes from crossbreeding different disciplines.

  31. Ask yourself why it hasn’t been improved in the way you think would work.

  32. What frustrates you most about a product, in that frustration is an idea.

  33. Stay away from TechCrunch or Mashable and look outside the box

  34. Put yourself in a new state of mind. Get out of your demography.

  35. It’s hard to make a good product if it doesn’t solve a problem you are personally facing.

  37. Maintain a sense of curiosity in the world around you, a mental flexibility to entertain odd possibilities

  38. Being creative is a habit you get into, maintain that habit constantly.

  39. Search yourself and look for problems you have yourself.

  40. Don’t think up startup ideas. Notice them.

  41. Ideas with no long term value generally fail. Look for what will still be relevant tomorrow.

  42. Transform a situation where people are isolated or lonely by connecting them in a novel way.

  43. Find an active forum. Make it easier for someone (or a group) to do something they’re talking about doing there, it could be your next startup

  44. Make use of your favorite to-do app consistently and write down your ideas the instant they come to you.

  45. Take a different route home.

  46. Look for markets that are not sufficiently served.

  47. Think about the most normal, expected solution to a problem would be, and then try to imagine the opposite.

  48. When you see something that annoys you, think about how to solve it.

  49. Talk about your ideas with friends. Get feedback. Tweak and repeat.

  50. Be in-the-know about breaking trends.

  51. Look at the most commonly searched phrases on Google trends.

  52. Look through the customer service sections of websites and find out what people are complaining about.

  53. Find product review forums and read about customer frustration about products.

  54. Listen when other people complain. Gather it by listening when people tell you what’s ruining their day.

  55. Bring an existing idea to a different platform.

  56. Study your employer’s business process and build upon it. i.e. improve it.

  57. Spend  time reading about other companies and their customer pain points

  58. Build something you need in your company, chances are others need it too. Think Yammer.

  59. Copy business-model ideas from another country that have yet to be imported

  60.  Taking a trip to a totally different environment is always a great way to spot interesting ideas.

  61. Try things: Experiment with everything. You’ll find things you like and things you don’t like.

  62. Spend time with successful people in your network and talk about the same issues. Each will have a slightly different way of thinking about things.

  63. Create a Twitter list. Add influential users whose ideas can inspire great ideas.

  64.  You can also go deeper by tracking registered patents. Innovative products are constantly being protected.

  65. The key to problem spotting is to capture a long list of problems before you start considering possible solutions.

  66. Take a service or approach applied to one market, and apply it to another. Cotap is the Whatsapp for business.

  67. Take a task that seems tedious and currently requires humans and automate it.

  69.  Ask yourself if it’s a product you will personally use.

  70. Take a single category out of the many offered by tech giants like eBay or Amazon and make it a simple niche business.

  71. Pair up people who don’t normally work together and give them room for brainstorm.

  72. The big guys leave a tremendous amount of opportunity on the table. Look for that niche.

  73. Think about your skills and whether they might be useful in a new area.

  74. Find a category lacking recent innovations. Identify markets that haven’t had many recent innovations.

  75. Talk to buyers in a niche and consider sending an online survey to potential customers to learn about their needs and interests.

  76.  Look into how entrepreneurs are combining social networking with the growing interest in mobile apps.

  77. Commit time to specific observation sessions where you stimulate your brain into thinking differently.

  78. Surf the Web differently. Search for terms in other industries. Read on creative thinking.

  79. Always be curious and never stop looking for answers.

  80. Don’t do things better; do things differently.

  About the Author

  Thomas Oppong is the founder @Alltopstartups. You can reach him at thomas at alltopstartups dot com. Connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and Instagram

  Entrepreneur, Fire Thyself

  By Kerrie
MacPherson

  When entrepreneurs first start their businesses, they are usually involved in everything: running operations, keeping the books, and making sales calls. But as a company grows, one of the smartest things an owner can do is to fire herself from role after role. Letting go of anything critical to business outcomes is a challenge, but successful entrepreneurs have all learned to replace themselves – and serial entrepreneurs even develop it as a skill.

  Why be in a hurry to hand off important work? By building a team to handle operational responsibilities, entrepreneurs can find more time to focus on strategic priorities and even bigger goals.

  In the EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women program I sponsor, which is designed to recognize high-potential businesses and help their women founders scale them, teaching this process is a priority. “You can’t micromanage your way to growth,” says Dr. Mary Jo Gorman, founder and CEO of Advanced ICU Care, which provides high-quality critical care to patients in intensive care units. A member of the 2011 North American class of Entrepreneurial Winning Women, Gorman says, “This is more than delegating. This is about building a team that allows you to not think so much about the day-to-day, and a team that comes to you with new ideas.”

  Gorman’s comment connects well with three warning signs we tell entrepreneurs to heed. You are probably spending too much time working in your business, and not enough on it, if you:

  Begin to get overwhelmed with small details of office management, which takes your attention away from the big picture.

  Find yourself with no one to challenge your thinking, because you’re the only one with all the answers.

  Are not challenging yourself on a regular basis.

  “The whole transition from working in the business to working on the business means letting go of what you’re comfortable doing,” says Gorman. “You always need to be thinking big and challenging yourself.”

  What should you do if you want to transition from being a small one-person band to the leader of a high-growth business? Consider these six tips as you begin the process of building your team – and firing yourself:

  Decide what will be for your hands only: Your time and attention should be reserved for those few things that only you can accomplish. For many entrepreneurs, this means focusing on the most valuable sales and marketing opportunities — meeting with key prospects and building markets for your product or service. If you, too, need to focus on being the face of the company, then tap into others for help with the rest.

  Focus on growth: Once you’ve brought in others to handle the tasks you don’t need to perform directly, such as bookkeeping and managing the office, allow yourself to focus more intently on the keys to growing the business. And by the way, there may also be growth-oriented activities, such as consulting services, that you will discover can and should be managed by others.

  Set the tone: As you delegate to others, set clear goals and responsibilities for each new position from the beginning, and make sure each person you hire understands them. Otherwise, you may find yourself spending too much time managing people instead of the next stage of growth.

  Hire ahead: Hire people who can grow with the company. If you hire someone who can perform a task required today, but nothing more, you will won’t have the talent needed for the next phase of growth.. “You usually don’t have time to do on-the-job training,” Gorman advises. Make sure the people you hire understand the company’s goals and where you want to take the business over the next three to five years.

  Manage expectations: Be careful not to give employees inflated titles. Entrepreneurs are often inclined to give a new hire an executive title, such as vice president, in lieu of a high salary or an equity stake in the company. But if the person is not equal to the demands of that role in a larger company, then your growth will force you to bring in someone above him or her. Why set yourself up for conflict that may distract you from the bigger picture?

  Find advisors who will keep you thinking: Consider setting up an advisory board to help you secure talent and determine the overall structure and strategy of your business. You need others to infuse new thinking and to help you figure out how to delegate your responsibilities.

  Tactics like these have helped many of the entrepreneurs in the Entrepreneurial Winning Women program build excellent organizations – teams of people who share their entrepreneurial frames of mind and their vision and energy for growing their businesses. At the same time, these entrepreneurs have learned to make strategic use of tools such as business reporting to get a better handle on the state of their companies and determine the best path forward. By stepping outside the day-to-day, they were not only able to grow their revenues and create jobs but also to build a valued team of colleagues who share in the responsibilities and rewards of their ventures.

  About the Author

  Kerrie MacPherson is a principal at Ernst & Young LLP and executive sponsor of its Entrepreneurial Winning Women program. She has served on EY’s Gender Equity Task Force, is an active leader in its Professional Women’s Network, and is the Diversity and Inclusiveness Champion in the Financial Services Office Advisory Practice.

  * This article originally appeared on The Harvard Business Review.

  5 Podcasts Every Small Business Owner Should Consider Listening To

  By Rob Marsh

  We know. You don’t have time for this. It’s yet another thing to add to the already long list of stuff you do every day. Hold on a minute and hear us out.

  Building a new business or keeping your existing business running smoothly is tough. It takes a lot of time, effort, and money. And often it feels like you’re all alone on your journey. That’s where the podcasts come in.

  There are about a half dozen small business podcasts that share new ideas, strategies, and ways to solve problems. Most of them are created by small business owners like you who want to share their experiences. We’ve found that when we take the time to listen to 2-3 podcasts a week, we almost never fail to come up with a new idea we want to try.

  We’re not recommending that you block out an hour a day to listen to podcasts. But there are smart ways to fit a podcast into your already busy day—do you have a commute? Turn off the radio and listen to a podcast instead. Taking a break for lunch? Grab your iPod and head phones. On the treadmill at the gym? Turn off CNN and grab a podcast. By repurposing just a couple of hours a week, you can find time to add these valuable resources to your day.

  So what podcasts do we like best?

  Start-ups for the Rest of Us: this is a fantastic podcast presented by Rob Walling and Mike Taber who talk about their own experiences with the start-ups they’re running. There’s a lot of good stuff in these shows and we highly recommend them.

  TechZing: this podcast is an informal chat show hosted by Justin Vincent and Jason Roberts. Each week they do one interview show and a second discussion show. It’s a little techy, but if you have a software business, you may want to check it out.

  Seth Godin’s Start-Up School: We’ve mentioned this podcast before. It isn’t a traditional podcast, but rather a recording of marketing guru Seth Godin sharing his thoughts on start-ups with a group of small business owners. It’s motivational but it will get you thinking about your business, or rather what you might do differently to improve.

  Monday Morning Memo: If you’re not familiar with Roy Williams, the Wizard of Ads, you are missing out. This short weekly podcast offers up ideas that will not just get you thinking, but innovating. Mr. Williams shares anecdotes, ideas, and other wisdom about business and marketing that is easy to devour (each one is about 5 minutes) and put into action. It is occasionally promotional (Mr. Williams runs an advertising school for business owners) but it’s worth putting up with the promotions to get the ideas.

  SEO 101: This podcast from Ross Dunn and John Carcutt is very tactical, but if you advertise your business online, it’s well worth the time. Unfortunately, it is a Webmaster Radio production, so there are
a lot of annoying ads throughout the show, but the information is very valuable if you do SEO. There are several other SEO oriented podcasts that are also good. Check the Apple iTunes Store for a bunch of others.

  Those should keep you busy with plenty of ideas and stuff to think about. If that’s not enough, check out the TED talks podcast (actually there are about 20 iTunes U courses), the Harvard Business Review Ideacast, and Founder’s Talk, all of which are both entertaining and thought provoking.

  Try adding a podcast to your week. Check out the iTunes store for others that might fit in with what you are building. And let us know if there are other podcasts worth adding to our list.

  About the Author

  This article was written by Rob Marsh and originally posted on the Logomaker blog.

  2 Startup Expenses You Should Never Shortcut

  By AJ Agrawal