4 ways to brainstorm billion-dollar business ideas
Brainstorming ideas aren’t as hard as you think it may be
In the gold mine of startups, everybody is becoming an entrepreneur. But, before you are an entrepreneur, you need an idea. Oh well.
Brainstorming ideas doesn’t have to be scary and hard. Brainstorming ideas is the fun part! Let’s see different methods of brainstorming practical business ideas fast.
Method #1 — Find a problem
Find a problem in your life. The solution is your business.
It’s that easy! Of course, that is oversimplifying things, but that is the basic idea. In essence, all businesses are made up of an underlying problem that the business aims to fix.
For example, McDonald’s became famous because it fixed people’s problem of waiting for their food. It introduced a solution called fast food.
Method #2 — Dream big into the future
Entrepreneurs like Elon Musk don’t try to get a business that solves a problem right now, but instead think 10, 20 years into the future and try to solve a problem that will come up then. Tesla is aiming to fix the climate change problem which will increasingly become more important, and SpaceX aims to send humans to colonize other planets, fixing the problem of overpopulation on Earth, 20–30 years down the line.
The way to get this idea is like this:
- Ask yourself this question, “What important truth do very few people agree with you on?”
- Do not answer something like, “Our educational system is broken” or “There is no God”. The first answer is already widely agreed on, and the second one just takes one side of a familiar debate
The answer to the question is your idea. The future will be different, so a contrarian view of seeing the present is the closest we can get to see the future.
For example, in the early days, Netflix betted on the important truth, but what nobody knew was that DVD players were the future. And after that, Netflix betted on that people would want video-on-demand via the Internet.
Method #3 — The Copycat Method
This method is by far the easiest, however, you will face a lot of competition.
- Step 1 — Research businesses in the space you’re aiming for. You can research businesses in the fintech space, productivity, e-commerce, etc. Just find a space you are at least a bit knowledgeable about and have a passion for.
- Step 2 — Now, create a list of businesses. List their description, pros, cons, and biggest areas for improvement. Keep this in a nice organized list where you can come back later.
- Step 3 — Circle and highlight the businesses with the most significant areas of improvement. Let’s say some companies are outdated or are just out of touch with society. Find something to fix or add. Find a way to make it better and innovate. In other words, just find an improvement. After you’ve highlighted a few businesses, now just pick one and go!
For example, Google copied Yahoo and then made its algorithm 10 times better. That is why Google became a billion-dollar company.
Method #4— Trend Jack
Trend jack. Pickaxe-idea. Gold-mine. Many different names, but the same old method:
- Step 1 — Spot a trend. Read news articles, blogs, podcasts, etc. Find trends. For example, right now a trend could be crypto
- Step 2 — Find the gold miners. Here, you want your idea to be a pickaxe idea, meaning instead of mining for gold, you sell pickaxes to all of the gold miners. But before you can sell pickaxes, find your gold miners. In our crypto trend, our gold miners could be crypto investors, crypto followers, or crypto miners.
- Step 3 — List out possible pickaxe ideas. You should come up with a huge list of pickaxe ideas. Go with one, and let’s get going!
For every idea, there are 100 gold miners. But there are 1000 pickaxes left to sell.
Conclusion
You’ve just learned 4 effective methods for brainstorming business ideas. Try each method, and see what you come up with!
