A key source of information often overlooked for coming up with new business ideas is motivation.
Motivation can be the energy or fire that leads you to a new idea.
If you want to come up with new business ideas, perhaps it’s important for you to look at how strong your motivation is. Do you burn to find a new source of income? Are you willing to put in the effort to come up with a new idea that makes a difference?
An interesting example of motivation is how a team of women in France came up with an all-female garage outside Paris that offers manicures, massages and lessons in car mechanics. It is doing a roaring trade since it opened in May. The business is challenging stereotypes of car repairing being a masculine domain.
Only Girls caters to women who feel they have been taken for a ride by male mechanics who think they aren’t interested in what goes on beneath the bonnet.
Sandrine Hautenne, 42, says: “Once I went to three different garages and got three different estimates. Since then I’ve sent my uncle to get estimates and – guess what? – The prices dropped!”
At this unusual garage there is the inclusion of a “beauty corner” which includes a nail bar and massages. They also have a children’s playroom. These women mechanics had a spanner in the works of their lives because despite having a degree in car mechanics they were unable to find work. Their strong motivation led to them coming up with Only Girls.
Change can also act as a strong motivator. Ben Michel did a four-year apprenticeship at a garden complex. When his bosses retired and sold the nursery for development, Ben decided to go out on his own in landscaping. His landscape business, which now includes gardens for private homeowners and builders, is doing well. He and his wife also expanded by opening a garden centre to sell and showcase many of the products they use in their other businesses in landscaping and garden design.
Climate change is even helping Ben with his landscaping business because he says that garden design is changing. With the climatic conditions in the last 12 years since he went into the business he has helped people who have limited water especially through testing drought conditions. “The only problem we can’t solve is non-gardeners who come in and ask for low-maintenance plants.” Ben says he has to advise them of the stark reality.
Taking a good look at your personal motivation, your deep-down drivers, is a good way to begin when you are in the idea search stage. It will help you find clarity for exactly what you want to do, prevent many false starts and increase your odds in coming up with a winning idea that suits your personality and lifestyle.
