You see it all the time. The guru experts who come up with programs that can, for example, build self-confidence in seven days guaranteed. What do you make of this? How is it possible to develop self-confidence in only seven days?
Yes, perhaps a program like this can show you how to become more self confident. Maybe it takes just seven days to inform you how to do it but to go from low self-esteem and a shaky self-confidence to high levels of self-esteem and self-confidence in just seven days is a claim that is hard to believe.
Much the same can be said of the advertised programs that claim to be able to help you come up with a business idea in seven days. Perhaps some people will be lucky and come up with a new idea in such a short time. But is it really possible for the rest of us?
Coming up with a new business idea that will lead to a new product or service could take a year or longer. Opportunity identification is not something that can be turned on like a tap. Like anything else it takes time and practice to identify new business opportunities. There are many tools and techniques available to come up with new ideas including idea generation prompts, observation, listening and researching markets. It is possible to learn how to come up with new business ideas in a matter of days but to find an opportunity could take much longer than you think.
The next area would be testing your idea through a pilot or trial. This step enables you to come up with a minimum viable product or service that you can take out into a subsection of you identified potential customer market and test it. In this stage you will be looking at customer reaction, market demand and finding out what your product or service shortcomings are and try to make your produce or service better.
The implementation and operation stages of a startup require much research and planning and the acquisition of resources. If you don’t have what is called domain expertise or simply experience, skills and knowledge in a particular market or industry, you’d have to think very carefully how to bridge this divide. As an example, if you’ve never run a restaurant and want to start one, you really need to learn the business or find someone who is willing to help you out.
Plenty of people attend business skills and entrepreneurship courses but don’t end up coming up with their own idea for a new product or service or small venture. It takes a special mindset – the entrepreneurial mindset – to identify and develop a business opportunity. Without a new business idea, you don’t have a business. No amount of cramming your head with knowledge is going to help you unless you find a new business idea.
