A few days ago I received an email from a reader of my blog in which she asks me the following in short: I have no ideas, but I want to start something of my own, what can I do?

It’s a very common question I get by email and I’d like to answer it here to cover some future questions. Her question is below as she sent it to me:

What is a good business idea?

Without being an expert on the subject (all that is mentioned in this Blog, comes only from personal experience and investigation of global articles), I do not know if there is any official definition of “what is a good business idea”.

Since there is no clear definition, I would like to make an attempt to approach it by finding the characteristics of a good business idea.

So what are the characteristics of a good business idea?

• To provide a solution to a problem that a portion of the world has
• The problem it solves must be so important that a sufficient number of people can be found to pay for it
• Have a monopoly if possible
• Can be scaled up if response begins
• To generate satisfactory profit

How can I become better at thinking of good business ideas?

• Talk to as many people as you can. Learn about the daily problems of friends, fellow students or people in your family environment.
• Read forums on the internet about the problems they have and try to think of a solution to a problem
• See what is happening in other cities in your country. What new start? What can you bring to your city?
• Think about what you are good at. From our childhood if we reflect on what made us forget time and what we were good at, we can approach what we would like to do professionally.
• You don’t need to think complexly. Sometimes opening a store that exists in our city, but does not exist in the right place, can be a surprisingly profitable business idea.
• You don’t need to open a store and incur expenses if you haven’t tried to find some prospective customers first. You can start providing the service you are thinking of doing as a business, completely non-profit. Even if it costs you time and money, if you find interested prospects, that means they might be paying for your service. Try it.

What can I study to become better at finding good business ideas?

In order to become better at coming up with new ideas you need to be exposed to good business ideas. The Internet is full of articles and videos that show you the way

• Personally, whenever I find time I like to watch a couple of Reality shows. It’s in English and you can find it on Youtube if you want to see excerpts. One is called Shark Tank and the other is called Dragon’s Den. Search to get some ideas.
• Read (or rather listen to) these 10 books (audiobooks). Investing in yourself is the best investment.

You must have skills

In a world where specialization is everything, the best thing to do is to specialize in something. You don’t need to go to a university or take an exam for anything. If you get to a point where you know a subject better than 70% of the rest of the world, then you can get paid for your expertise.

But what about specialization? What does it mean to have a skill?

• Are you good at math?
• Do you know how to play a musical instrument?
• Are you good at math?
• Do you know how to make crafts or jewelry?
• Are you good at handling kids and making them have fun with you for a while?
• Do you know programming?
• Do you know how to make a website?
• Are you good at graphic design?
• Can you organize an event properly and keep the guests satisfied?
• Can you edit videos?

All of the above are skills and you can take advantage of them to start making money.

I note once again that if you have any of the above talents or skills, you can provide them for free to a friend or acquaintance, in order to facilitate them. Do it a few times for free so that your name is heard and your “customers” are satisfied with your services and after a while start charging. If you succeed and get paid, then you’re on the right track.

If you still don’t manage to get paid, don’t get discouraged… maybe the service you provide needs even more expertise, even more practice to perfect it, or it may not be suitable for getting paid. At least you tried, you didn’t lose a lot of money and you can now try something else.