Where to find small-business start up ideas

By Kasper Rugholm

If you know that you want to start an online business but aren’t sure what direction to go in, you may be getting frustrated and even be thinking about giving up your aspirations and just resolve to keeping your “regular” job working for somebody else. This, however, does not have to be the case. There are innumerable opportunities for successful small online businesses, you need only select the one that is right for you and put your hard work and dedication into building it.

When you are looking for small business start up ideas know that you don’t have to look to far or be overly ambitious about what you are going to do. There is no need to “reinvent the wheel” per se, only find ways to create a business that is strong, effective, and appealing to customers both in concept and in execution.

There are many ways that you can find small business start up ideas in your day to day life. Some of the places that you should look for ideas include:

• Your hobbies and pastimes: what do you like to do? What are you good at doing? Is there anything about these activities that could be translated into a business? Think about teaching, holding workshops, or creating products that are applicable to these activities.
• Your jobs: what kinds of jobs have you had in the past or have now? What skills do these jobs require? Is there something particularly enjoyable about these jobs or something that you think you could change?
• Your education: what did you learn while you were in school? Why did you follow this educational path? What type of electives did you take? Is there something that you would have liked to have studied but didn’t and now would like to pursue?
• The type of books that you enjoy reading: what genres are the most appealing to you? Why do these books appeal to you? What about them is exciting, stimulating, or intriguing? Are you more drawn to fiction or nonfiction? Do you tend to read about a specific topic?
• The sports that you enjoy: do you play any sports or are you strictly an observer? What about the sport do you love? What about the sport would you like to change? What problems do you recognize in these sports that you think you could address?
• What was the last online purchase that you made? How was the experience? What do you think that you could do better?
• Have your friends or family ever discussed small business start up ideas with you? Would they be interested in partnering with you?
• Are there any products that you often wish were available?

It can be extremely helpful to sit down with a piece of paper and write down all of your ideas. You may even want to carry around a notebook and pen, or take advantage of the note taking feature of your handheld electronic device. This will ensure that you are prepared if any ideas strike you throughout the day and you want to record them.

After you have written down all of your small business start up ideas, go through them more carefully and evaluate their potential. There will be some that are obviously out of the realm of reality, so you can cross those off. Others will require a little more investigation. As you narrow down your options you may find that one really sticks out at you. If so, this is the one that you should go with. Once you have made your choice it is time to start your business plan.

Kasper Rugholm has a Master’s Degree in Business Management and Economics and is an eager writer of articles about online business touching on topics about small business startup ideas, how earn more per customer and much more at http://www.startitupnow.com.