How Do I Find Business Ideas?
I am currently in idea generation mode. As an entrepreneur, you need to keep track of trends and if you are lucky, catch the wave of a rising market.
In this post, I break down for you the resources I use to generate new ideas.
Good ideas come from solving problems that you know exist. Problems you face everyday as part of your personal life or in your job. However, great businesses come from solving problems at the right time. You need to be tracking whats happening around the world and in your industry to ensure you strike at the right time.
The best idea launched at the wrong time will inevitably fail. 2 years later or even 2 months later it might flourish.
Always Learning
When generating ideas, you need to filter out 90% of the noise and tune in to the good stuff.
Since starting The Entrepreneur Experiment, I have drastically reduced the amount of information and media that I consume. Instead of being a passive consumer, I switched to an active consumer. I am now 100% selective about what I read, watch and listen to.
This is for a number of reasons:
I felt overwhelmed with endless scrolling on social media for relevant information and stories.
Listen to any great mindset coach and they will immediately tell you to avoid negativity. I stopped listening to the radio or watching mainstream TV in 2018 and never regretted it.
I needed to start reading and consuming above my level. What this means is I started reading newspapers such as The Financial Times Weekend and The Wall Street Journal. If you keep doing the things you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got!
Books
They are my number one source of new ideas and methods of thinking. I aim to read one book per week. Sometimes this is more, sometimes less. You can keep track of this journey on my Instagram.
The 5 books I’ve read in the last 6 months are:
My email has become far more important to me since I’ve reduced my social media consumption. I spent a few hours unsubscribing from 99% of emails I had subscribed to. I kept only the ones that give me enormous value. The top four are listed below.
Benedict Evans (Silicon Valley VC)
Nat Eliason (Entrepreneur & excellent writer)
The Hustle (Tech/Business - news that does not take itself seriously)
James Clear (Productivity - Author of Atomic Habits book mentioned above.)
Podcasts
I listen to between 30-60 minutes of podcasts per day. Since getting a puppy, I’ve started walking him morning and evening so this gives me the time to listen and learn.
How I Built This (Business)
Joe Rogan (General)
The Brian Keane Fitness Podcast (You can guess)
Business Wars (Business History)
Tim Ferriss (General)
Steven Bartlett (Social Media/Business)
Traditional Print Media/Digital
Each weekend, I buy paper newspapers. On Saturday, I get The Financial Times Weekend, and on Sunday, The Sunday Times and The Sunday Business Post.
FT Weekend is fantastic for longer form articles that dig deeper into subjects. It also helps me understand global business and the events that are shaping my world. Since I’m not consuming daily news, it ensures I’m kept informed without being overwhelmed.
The Sunday Times catches me up on mainstream Irish/UK news and Business Post keeps me up-to date with the Irish business scene.
I would love to hear where you get your business ideas from? Comment below or tweet me.