Growing an income opportunity starts with an idea. Try these proven idea generation methods to stimulate your imagination and come up with money-making opportunities you can run from home in your spare time
The lousy economy may give you a shove into thinking about coming up with ideas for income opportunities in your spare time. But it shouldn’t be the only reason. Imagine how it would be to have a second income that flows into your banking account proving your self-reliance, passion and providing you with greater peace of mind.
Though there are many tools for generating ideas, we will help you get started with some of the more creative and powerful methods.
This method stretches your creativity
If you want to explore techniques and tools for generating your own ideas for products and services, one of the easiest is to quickly come up with a list of 101 ideas. You may think it’s a lot but when you try it out you will find that this technique forces you to stretch your creative juices to the limit. Often your best idea is hidden in the last 10 ideas that you list. Try it out. Don’t censor or judge your ideas – just write them as quickly as they come to you. You can review your list after a few days. Select your best three ideas and see how you could expand on them.
A tool to produce ideas at any time
Another tool is the 20 Idea Method. Write down 20 ideas quickly to a problem you may have. Don’t overcomplicate things. You may want to focus your idea generation session with a question like, “In what ways could I increase my income this year by 25%?” Review your ideas after a day or two. When you’ve completed your list, choose your best idea and write down a plan to implement it. Put your plan away and review it after a few days.
Try these for amazing results
Try out other methods such as brainstorming on your own. Drawing mind maps (write a central subject or theme in the centre of the page and add related thoughts as quickly as you can for 10 min). Freewrite 10 minutes without consideration of grammar and punctuation. Try a random process such as selecting a word from a dictionary (use nouns) and free associate them with your problem at hand.
Income opportunity ideas to spur your own
Once you get started on idea generation your income opportunity ideas will flow. For example, you may have an idea for offering to copy records to a DVD or making MP3 files. What about a photography service with a twist such as updating photographs for small businesses such as restaurants? Check Twitter for ideas. Randomly link trends to your topic.
You could consider a jewellery business, computer support business, pet sitter or cleaning business, or offer a virtual assistant service for home-bases businesses such as updating websites for small (even one-person) businesses, typing documents, transcribing audio files, uploading podcasts, calling people to build up a mailing list (a valuable asset for on-line promotion). Think of who these services would be offered to – check your online Yellow Pages, local Chamber of Commerce, speak to friends. You just need one customer to get started.
If you’re interested in serving the woman’s beauty market you could, for example, think about taking your service to working women. A mobile hairdressing service in our city involves the hairdresser riding a motor bike to your home any day of the week, including Saturday afternoons. The service is so excellent it rivals any regular store-based salons at a competitive price. But the personal attention and convenience outrivals conventional hairdressers. A similar service could be nail salon business for manicures, pedicures, polish changes and nail art.
For those with an interest in the automotive world, generate ideas for services such as mobile minor repairs, emergency services, battery replacements and hand wash car cleaning.
Training is a big market and anything from computer skills to on-line courses offer opportunities for you to apply to your idea generation session.
Questions for the reality check
But whatever business idea you come up with you need to ask yourself:
- Does a need exist for the business?
- What is the profit potential for this business?
- How long will it take to reach the level of sales to make this profit?
- How many hours in a day will I need to give to this business?
- What is the experience required for the business?
- Does the business require hiring specialised skills?
- What is the capital required to start and run the business?
The Internet provides many opportunities for small home-based businesses. Take a look at the Internet and see how many businesses are selling health products, information products, marketing services, package businesses. Biz-op type kits abound.
Sleep better at night
Generate your own ideas using these idea methods and come up with income opportunities that will help you sleep better at night. Don’t be discouraged if nothing happens immediately. You have planted seeds that will eventually allow ideas to pop from seemingly nowhere. Use the same idea generating methods to brainstorm an implementation plan. Before you know it you will be on your way, whether you are man or woman, old, young, to turning your ideas into money making opportunities.
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