Tag: new business ideas

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Where do you look for your new business idea that you can turn into gold?

English: , Hungarian fashion model
Hungarian fashion model (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A fashion model in Sri Lanka came up with an idea for a new business when she was selling hair care products to salons and garments from the boot of her blue station wagon. Although she was a successful model her father wanted her to do something in business. Her idea was to come up with a fashionable brand that could cater for both local and international visitors. Now her fashion house is one of the largest and the only publicly listed such company in Sri Lanka.

It all started with a promising new business idea. Some business advisers like owngrading the value of an idea mainly because they are interested in selling their business training and consulting time. But the creativity, the most valuable part, the core element is the idea that comes at the right time. As the fashion house owner who built a business from scratch says, an entrepreneur finds a gap in the market even in a sector that is highly saturated and does something which may never have been seen or done before, or does something differently – something that is correct for that time and for the future. Continue reading “Where do you look for your new business idea that you can turn into gold?”

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One thing your start-up must do to avoid crashing and burning

IMG_3093When we arrived at a farm where we were staying overnight we went out to the fields on a Saturday afternoon and found the whole family working in the fields. When it’s not raining, it’s an ideal time or the best time to harvest wheat. At times like this, the farmer works from early in the morning right through into the evening.

Life on a farm teachers you the value of hard work. Farmers are not shy of hard work. Two large harvesters were being used on the farm to harvest the wheat. You see, if you harvest when the wheat is wet, you risk spoiling the wheat because of fungi. So when the good weather comes, sunny and hot, it’s the best time to harvest the wheat. The farmer and his son started out early on Saturday morning, after harvesting the previous day and went on into the night continuing to harvest the wheat. Continue reading “One thing your start-up must do to avoid crashing and burning”

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Wouldn’t it be great if you came up with an idea like this?

swell-water-bottlesWhy can’t you come up with something like this?

A tax auditor was more interested in entrepreneurship than accounting but put plans to start her own company on hold. A few years later after consulting and real estate she attended a panel about the global clean-water crisis.

Some months later Sarah Kauss was hiking and all she had for water was a cheap, thin metal bottle that had warmed in the sun, according to a report in Fortune. She suddenly thought, “Why not create a more upscale, fashionable, reusable bottle that would keep the liquid cool?”

The bottles called S’Well retails from $25 to $45, depending on the size. She has sold about 4,000,000 to date. Continue reading “Wouldn’t it be great if you came up with an idea like this?”

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Finding a gap in the market

IMG-20150808-00845A fashion model from Sri Lanka decided to go into business for herself when her father wanted her to do something in business. She decided to give it a try. She started selling haircare products to salons and subsequently also added garments from a factory which she sold to family and friends. Through selling garments she learnt all she could about the fashion business and eventually came up with her own fashion brand. She now owns a publicly listed company. Continue reading “Finding a gap in the market”

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Do you need to review your goals?

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Some time ago I went to the farewell party of a successful entrepreneur who built up a marketing consulting business over many years. It was interesting to learn how many awards he had achieved over the years for brilliant work and how he had always been able to attract blue-chip clients. But now that he’s in retirement, he has had to set new goals. He will be lecturing at universities, engaging with the media and communicating brand and marketing leadership and helping to nurture young brand leaders.

Continue reading “Do you need to review your goals?”

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How to destroy a small business

An entrepreneur who combines art with business.
An entrepreneur who combines art with business.

The other day I was reading a story about Mixit. The company became South Africa’s biggest social network reaching something like 10 million monthly active users, who sent 300 million daily messages and it was used in 126 countries. The story said a combination of shareholder disputes, missed opportunities, bad timing and sheer bad luck led to the demise of this once-flourishing network. But worst of all the company was eventually taken over and the new managers including a former banker quickly destroyed any value the business had. Continue reading “How to destroy a small business”

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What is your purpose in starting a new business?

Port Beaufort-20151227-01165I came across an artist who built his own home, sells his artwork and gives people private lessons. His life is fascinating because he lives his passion. But it also has a shadow side. He has to keep expenses down to the bone by doing most things himself. He was able to buy his house from his previous job but now makes enough to live on from his artistic pursuits so you won’t need to ever go back to a “regular job”. Continue reading “What is your purpose in starting a new business?”

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Can you use strategic doodles for coming up with new business ideas?

 

IMG-20160101-01170A business magazine was extolling the virtues of strategic doodles, which is really defined as scribbling absentmindedly, saying that it has gained credibility so much so that one Internet giant has appointed a chief doodler and give staff time to doodle and generate ideas.

Apparently doodling can help because when you draw your thoughts it slows down your thinking, allowing new perspectives and time to “go deeper following a particular thought”. Strategic doodling in teams or with business partners and clients gives them a deeper level of “ownership and understanding”. Apparently the term used for doodling has gone so far as “strategic doodling”, “visual thinking” and “graphic facilitation”. Continue reading “Can you use strategic doodles for coming up with new business ideas?”

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How do you turn a promising business idea into something tangible that will provide a source of income?

IMG-20150616-00599I came across a Grade 8 student who produced a solar air heater using basic materials. The solar air heater will be presented at a science and technology competition in 2015. Something like this solar air heater is a project that more students at schools should be looking at because it teaches them about solutions for the environment, technology as well as starts to build basic entrepreneurial thinking. Continue reading “How do you turn a promising business idea into something tangible that will provide a source of income?”

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Do you have the ability and experience in generating new business ideas?

(Copyright © 2016) by Chesney Bradshaw, all rights reserved)
(Copyright © 2016) by Chesney Bradshaw, all rights reserved)

A professor who teaches on a Masters of Commercialisation and Entrepreneurship program recently said that our ability and experience in being able to generate ideas is not in question but felt that there was general inexperience in applying the tools for innovation to transform these ideas into something more tangible.

While I agree with the part about inexperience in commercialisation of business ideas, I question his assertion that our ability and experience in being able to generate ideas can be almost taken as a given. Yes, I think anyone, almost anyone, with the will to succeed can use their creative imagination, observation, listening skills and personal brainstorming to come up with a promising business idea. But how often does this happen? Is it really so easy? Continue reading “Do you have the ability and experience in generating new business ideas?”