So where do you think is a good place to start for business ideas / concepts?

[Ariana]

Hi,I followed my instincts and researched till I found reliable professionals to help me. They opened out a whole new world and offered professional help of how to look at an opportunity and understand the possibilities of implementing plans and ideas. They will help to make your dream come true like they did for me. Please visit: www.businessforsmarties.com and get all the help you need.

[Simone Wylie]

Originally Posted by Seachange

Angela and BrightBiz,

Thanks so very much for your comments and encouragement. I have skills in HR, Training and Business / Community Development. Guess that will be the framework i will start my "navel gazing".

I really believe that you need to look at a category which is growing is a good start. I also believe that while you are starting up it is important to have great support and leadership around you to mentor you. A business with a system you can follow which has leverage in it will always prosper if you apply yourself. Another quick tip, plan enough budget to put into your marketing after you set up your business. Don't spend all your money on setting up your business, and not be prepared to promote it.

That's like creating a masterpiece painting and hiding it in the cupboard. Simone

[Loreden]

Originally Posted by B.B.

The secret to starting your own business is to 'find your passion'.
As we all know - "if you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life".
Good Luck with the Journey!
B.B.

Rightly said buddy !!!. Find your passion is really the key to success and can earn you great benefits too.

[gyelas]

I really think you need to start with market research to test profitability an validity of your idea.

Here are some things i suggest:

- Find a need/problem you are passionate to help solve
- Do market research to see if there are other people doing what you want to do
- See how they are doing it, are they profitable and what marketing methods online/offline do they do. Google is a great tool for this so is amazon
- Check out the sponsored listings and free organic searches in google to guage competition
- Find pricing/marketing/sales funnel gaps in what your competitors are doing


From their then plan your business on how you are going to address the pain/problem you are trying to solve and differentiate yourself from the competition.

Happy Business Building!

[JamesMillar]

Originally Posted by LeelaCosgrove

Just to throw a spanner in the works ...

For your first business, something that you are passionate about is not ALWAYS the best way to go.

Sometimes it's good to get into a "practice business" (these are often service based because they require little to no start-up capital) - and spend a couple of years making mistakes and learning the ropes. It's often a good idea to keep your day job through this process so that you're not under too much financial pressure (especially at the moment!).

You'll learn all kinds of things about sales, marketing, cashflow (CASHFLOW! CASHFLOW!), admin, finance, etc, etc, etc - that you just can't learn from reading a book ...

Personally I think the 'never work a day in your life' thing is total crap.

I love my work.

I love what I do.

But I work my ARSE off to make it happen.

As an SME owner - and especially as a soloist - you don't just get to do the fun stuff. You get to be consultant, sales and marketing director, financial director, HR director and janitor all wrapped into one package - especially in the early days before you can afford to outsource.

I really believe comments about doing something your passionate about making it not work are misleading.

It doesn't matter HOW much you love what you do, after you've pulled a few all-nighters ... or had to get up off your sick-bed because you have a deadline to meet ... or had to work through Christmas ... you'll be cursing it.

I'll lay money on the fact that even the Richard Bransons, Kylie Minogues and Rolf Harris' of the world have days where it's all too much and they would rather stay in bed.

You need to be realistic.

It's not a walk in the park.

It IS work.

Long, hard work.

And the most rewarding work you'll ever do in your life.

IF you can handle the monotonous, boring, hair-pullingly annoying parts of it ... if not ... find a nice, cushy private sector job with holiday entitlements, sick days and super.

Couldn't agree more.

I have seen passion cloud judgment way too often in small business. It sounds nice in theory to love what you do but its not that simple. The businesses I've backed (and the clients of ours that have been the most financially successful) have not really been focused on living their dream - it’s been an investment with a planned financial return within a given timeframe. That's it. (But note that was qualified with "financially successful").

The initial part of one of our SME advisory services focuses on the stakeholders particular motivations and goals of being in business (we won't try and advise them on growth and expansion plans if they are content with staying a small / micro business). The spectrum goes from pure profit motive at one end to pure lifestyle business at the other. Are the two mutually exclusive - more often than not yes. Is one more right than the other - it depends on your goal to begin with. We have many happy clients that are comfortable in maintaining fairly average performance from year to year. On the flip side we have others that have started, run and exited businesses where they've had little personal interest in the underlying concept / product / service (but they were still excellent at making it work).