You have made the decision to start a business but you are at a loss as to what particular business. Be rest assured that you are not the only one agonizing over the issue. This uncertainty leads many would be business owners into starting a business they are not prepared or cut out for just because someone else is doing it or the heard it is a good business. Taking a more structured approach to deciding what to do will increase your chances of success. So how do you go about it?
First step is to look for a problem.
For any business to succeed it must address a need. If it doesn’t address a need you cannot make sales. It is as simple as that. So to identify a need all you do is look around you, observe your surroundings and look for problems or challenges people around you face.
Next step is to find a solution you can provide.
When you identify a problem, look at it critically. Can you provide a solution to the problem that people will be willing to pay for? Once you can do this you have a potential business opportunity on your hands.
Let me illustrate with two examples of successful companies who used this approach.
Some years back, even though there was a demand for it, few people could afford to buy milk. Then Cowbell came on the scene and what did they do? They packaged milk in small sachets and sold it for N 10. This made milk affordable to the poor who could not afford it before and they took over the market. It took a long while for the big milk companies to recover.
A few years back, a young Nigerian did an online masters degree from a university in the UK. He and his fellow classmates in Nigeria faced a big challenge sourcing for their textbooks as they were not sold locally. They had to be ordered from overseas with credit cards. After he graduated, the young man set up an online book store. He ordered for these textbooks in bulk from abroad and sold them to those who needed them in Nigeria. All you needed to do was go to his website, select the book you wanted, pay into the bank and the book was delivered to your doorstep. From selling textbooks alone the book store has grown to selling all manner of books.
These examples show how businesses became successful just by solving other people’s problems. So nest time you or someone around you complains about a problem, take a second look because you might just be looking at a gold mine.
