Every day entrepreneurs are looking for the next big idea to send them into early retirement. Good and profitable ideas are hard to come by, which can lead to frustration and a huge loss in motivation when nothing comes to mind. The secret to finding an idea is raking your brain and following your own interests, not simply following the biggest trends at the time. Get away from preconceptions about different markets and their respective values, go for what you want to do and the market will be there waiting for you.
The other key thing you need to do is formulate a logical path to the ultimate idea. This involves lots of jotting now, linking themes and then researching current market growth and size. But firstly you must look at yourself and write down your opinions on current ideas and your interests. It is important that you enjoy the venture you undertake as this will determine your level of motivation to perservier and succeed.
These are the 5 steps that will help you to realise which business market is best for you to follow. They focus on your interests, the size of the market and the level of competition. I should add that this may not lead to the next big idea, but is intended to help you formulate your thoughts and assess their potential in a logical manner.
Step 1
Write down five of your main interests.
Step 2
Head over to nichebot.com and search for each of your five interests, taking down the ‘ratio’ figure for each one. This gives you an idea of the competition and demand for the potential market category you’re looking at, sourced by online searching figures.
Rank the interests 1 to 5, from lowest (1) to highest (5).
Step 3
Now go to eBay Stores item search feature. Replace “INTEREST HERE” with each interest you’ve noted above. From the search results, take down the number of matching stores for each interest.
You could also search all the items on eBay to get a better picture of the market.
Rank the interests 1 to 5, from highest (5) to lowest (1).
Step 4
For each interest, add the two ranks you have formulated together to give a total figure between 2 and 10. Look at the interests with the lowest total rank, this should be the most attractive market to follow. Out of the five, it has the lowest (web based) competition and highest (web based) potential market.
Step 5
Head back to nichebot and search for the “winning” interest. Note the other keyphrases that appear on the page to give you an idea of further niche markets to exploit, keeping in mind the competition ratio.
Now that you have a clear focus in terms of a high potential market, to meet your interests, you can then start mind-mapping your ideas around the main interest. Nichebot can help with that. Also use Google to search related companies and websites already out there in order to get a better idea for the market and stitch together your own vision. As one of your main interests, you should pretty clued up about the market, however don’t stop learning (check it on wikipedia) and keep up to date with how the market develops.
This is all very speculative as interests can of course vary widely, so don’t forget to use common sense and some business nouse. However hopefully what I have said will help set a clear path in your mind to target your own ideas and maximize your success. You would be lucky to get your destined big idea from my 5 steps, that’s not really the purpose of this. The formula I have developed is just one example of how to use logic to get to the business that is profitable and suitable for you. Whatever happens, make sure you enjoy whatever you chose to follow!
More resources:
7 steps to business success
9 steps to business success
Evaluating your idea
Still craving the ideas of others?
