How to Find 1,000 Great Business Ideas

Scenario: "Dude, we gotta research the sucker that we'll build. We gotta segment customers, define market regions, plan price strategies, and the whole enchilada. We'll be billionaires. Yay!" Blah. We hate conventional wisdom -- as you might've noticed from reading our past entries. And if you're subscribed to some "great" blog by some business "expert" who espouses strategy like it's the second coming of Christ, hit the delete key. They're full of crap. (Yeah, we said that sucker.) People who find great ideas don't plan. They don't use strategic planning charts, and all of the blah, blah, blah buzzwords you hear.

Why?

It's in the freakin' research: Planning sucks.

According to a study by The National Federation of Independent Business:

"2,994 start-ups showed that founders who spent a long time in study, reflection, and planning were no more likely to survive their first three years than people who seized opportunities without planning."

People who find great ideas use something way beyond planning. It's something seemingly very secretive: They just do something. So how do you do something?

Finding Great Ideas in Three Steps

Use the Trizoko 3:

  1. First, focus on your all-world talents.

    If you're a note-taking, pocket-protector-wearing, nonathletic, mathematical genius, you don't aim for the NBA. You do math. It seems like such a simple concept, but most entrepreneurs break one of the few business rules: If you can't be the best in the world at something, don't do it. But some of you saying, "Ooooooh, I can't be the best. Blah. Blah. Blah." Suck it up, you timid twit. (Kidding: we're not that mean.) Everybody and their mother can be the best in the world at something. You probably just haven't found what that something is. And a note: You don't even have to compare yourself on a national level. It can be something as simple as: "I can be the best in the world at making innovative skateboard t-shirts in Columbus, Ohio."
  2. Think small at first. Grow later.

    Don't put all your eggs in one basket. If you do, and you fail, you've crashed your entire business. That's how most entrepreneurs fail. And, that's why you won't. You're a badass. You use minimal resources to see if an idea's worth pouring more into it. Most ideas will fail, so you'll stop investing in them. For the few that do show potential, you'll invest more -- and if again, it still shows more potential, you'll invest even more -- as the cycle continues. Not only does this keep your financial resources healthy, but it'll allow you more room to find and nurture more ideas that will kick ass for your business.
  3. Experiment, experiment, experiment -- like there's no tomorrow.

    You'll fail. Deal with it. As Trizzy's rule of thumb goes: The more failures you have, the more successes you'll find. Remember: You can't plan for success. Just study the world's most revered companies: Most of Google's product innovations have miserably failed so far; yet, they continue freakishly fattening its bottom line. That model's similar with Apple, Starbucks, and 3M, and any other freakishly innovative company.

The moral:

Planning sucks. Failure rocks. The more failures you have, the more successes you'll find.

 

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Posted on October 02

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