Question re: entrepreneurship (NOT a seeking advice thread)

[holymadness]

Originally Posted by computerpro3

As for business ideas, I've noticed that many industries were invented to solve irritations, annoyances, or flaws in current methods of doing things. Look at the things that are pissing you off in life, and figure out how to solve them. Then narrow it down to things that you would be willing to pay to rid yourself of. Odds are that a lot of other people would pay to have those annoyances go away as well. I literally keep a file on my phone and make a note in it every time I get pissed off due to a design flaw or stupid decision on the part of a product engineer.

A perfect example I read about recently - one guy got pissed he could never find his car in large parking lots. He spends a couple of weeks coding an app for Android that guides you back to your car with a radar like display, and throws it up on the market. He's making over $145,000 a year with no additional work besides an occasional update. Why? Because millions of people were just like him and get pissed off when they can't find where they parked their car. I realize this is just one example, but it can be extrapolated to larger concepts. For example, my fathers industry - how come when you get an X-Ray taken, you always have to pick it up and physically drive it to a specialist? Boom, industry born - cloud computing combines with PACS digital archiving and 10 years later you've got 3.4 billion medical images in your company's archive.

All because you were pissed you have to drive an X-Ray around.
Agree with this x100.

Fulfilling an existing need is much easier than creating a new need and then filling it. For example, I know a fair number of expats here who want to move back to North America and open European-style bakeries, cafÃ

s, sandwich shops, etc. They think that since the food here is much better than back home (which is true), the product will just sell itself. I'm not 100% convinced this is the case. To be honest, I doubt most North Americans believe that they eat badly relative to the rest of the word, so the demand isn't necessarily there. Next, eating habits differ greatly between cultures, and I suspect many people would recoil at the idea of buying fresh bread every day or paying several dollars for a few macarons when they can go to Dunkin' Donuts and grab a dozen pastries for the same price. Some foods are also an acquired taste, and it could be a hard sell convincing people who eat ham & cheese sandwiches to buy chèvre and chorizo tartines instead.

 

[dpw]

if you want more than personal opinions:

kauffmanfoundation

if you want to do a biz plan:

nxlevel.org

 

[Gus]

One thing to keep in mind is that not all businesses fail within 5 years, but they get added to these totals. Many people choose to do something else. Or, they have a concept with a time-span of less than 5 years in which they make good money and profits.