How to get an Idea for a New Business

The first thing when starting a new business is to have a great idea. But how do you get to that? There are two ways (of many, I’m sure). One way, is to find your passion. What are you passionate about and love doing? Very often if you pursue your passion, the money will follow. A school friend of mine loved running (in fact, won the Comrades Marathon at least twice and started a Running Franchise). Secondly, find a problem to solve. The bigger the problem, the greater the reward.

Another friend of mine found himself a number of years ago in a place where quite a few of his friends were unemployed. So a group of  5 or 6 of them decided to lock themselves away in a room for 4 days and the objective was to brainstorm and get an idea for an online business, have set up a website with credit card facilities, and sold ONE item off that website within the 4 days. But they had no idea yet what business it was going to be. By the end of the 4 days, they’d achieved their objective, and sold 1 product online, off the website. That website was www.bugzapper.co.za 

This experience made them realize that it works, and very soon they opened another website. In the first year they only sold 1 item off the website. But things have grown exponentially since then, that company has become quite well-known in South Africa (and is selling internationally too), they now source their products from all over the world and were one of the sponsors for MasterChef South Africa which aired recently. Yes, it’s www.yuppiechef.co.za a company that is experiencing exponential growth!

There are so many ideas out there. I believe that in the next 5 years there are businesses that will start with technologies that we haven't even heard of yet.