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Every new business, new product or service and new marketing approach has
started with an idea. Generating new ideas can be a very burdensome task.
Putting them into practice can be much harder. Once an idea strikes, a person
has to fill in all the details of what he wants to achieve and how he is going to
achieve it.
Further, the new business that simply bursts from a flash of brilliance is rare.
What is usually necessary is a series of trial – and – error iterations, or
repetitions, before a crude and promising product or service fits with what the
customer is willing to pay for. For example, Howard Had made forty
different metal skis before he finally made the model that worked
consistently. With surprising frequency, major businesses are built around
totally different products than those originally envisioned.
There are three major hurdles to overcome before any idea can come to
fruition:
1) Identify a problem,
2) Idea generation,
3) Idea selection.
Categories of Idea Selection
The idea selection usually centers around the following broad categories:
2) Product where the entrepreneur has the marketing work experience with
the particular product.
5) Product where the export demand is high and with good margins.
Idea Generation
Idea generation stage is the first step in any entrepreneurial activity. As many
as new product ideas are developed in idea stage. Impractical ideas are
dropped. Ideas which employ the maximum of available resources be taken
up for further evaluation. The ideas should take care of customer
requirements.
• Type of need
• Timing of need
• Competitive way to satisfy the need
• Perceived benefits and risks
• Price versus performance
• Market size and potential
• Payment capacities of customer
• How you meet the competition from existing or substitute product/s?
The following steps are involved in searching and selecting business idea:
The ideas are generated from various sources and put for preliminary
evaluation and testing. Once the business ideas are generated, study,
screening and testing of these ideas is done based on the entrepreneur’s own
experience or with the help of experts in the field.
Creative Process
Clearly, action by itself has no meaning; it is of little value to simply “do
things” without having inspiration and direction. Entrepreneurs need ideas to
purse and ideas seldom materialize accidentally.
2) Skills in the Task domain: The extent of the knowledge, talents and
technical skills of the entrepreneur will help in his search for solutions, pin
pointing an idea and verifying the idea.
3) Skills in Creative thinking: These will help him to visualize different
solutions, generating a number of alternatives, se divergent uses of a single
idea etc. to come up with a workable idea or plan.
4) Seek stimuli: People who think of good ideas seek out stimuli from novel,
diverse and numerous sources. The range of stimuli is infinite and this tends
to suit people who have or benefit from a lifelong interest and curiosity in
many subjects.
i) Export potential
ii) The Government Incentives
iii) High profit areas
iv) Products where demands exceed supply
v) Scarce areas where demand is good
vi) Ideas for new products or services where government incentives and
subsidies are readily available.
The new ideas are generated from the input requirements of various
existing companies, and especially so, if they are imported items. New
ideas are also generated from observation of the nature of competition,
the attitude of the competitors regarding particular products or certain
market areas and comparing the price positioning and quality of similar
products.
For example, poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC) doors, chairs, tables are
substitution of wooden materials. Aluminum cast parts in place of steel
parts in two wheelers and automobiles. Replacement of Gel Ink in ball
point pens in place of thee conventional ink idea gave a large business.
ii) Media and Trade magazines: Print and electronic media have
emerged as fertile sources as fertile sources of project ideas. Television
show the trends in consumer preference fashion segments and life
styles. The trade and professional magazines give the details and
statistics of growth areas of markets and investment opportunities. The
professional magazines also give the trends and developments in any
particular field of specialization.
iii) Research Institutes: regular research data, bulletins are good sources
of information for developing new project ideas. Correspondence with
the research institutes or correspondence and search for thee relevant
data may crystallize useful project ideas. Government research
institutes and departments also publish industry data or periodical
changes in the economic structure of the society, trends of growth of
economy which are used for generation of new ideas.
The five year plans, industry policy resolutions and incentive schemes
from time to time help an entrepreneur in choosing business ideas.