People’s problems constitute business ideas and opportunities. You cannot be a successful entrepreneur if your products do not meet any specific needs – and these needs must be problems that consumers are aware of and are eager to obtain solutions for.

Many people are desirous of going into private business but lack the business ideas on what to do – they get it wrong by actually looking for business ideas because they may never obtain any or fail at the ideas they try out, they actually need consumer problems.

What Are the Consumer’s Problems to Solve?

People always have problems and will continue to have problems. You also have problems yourself. And your search for business ideas is a problem in itself; it can be solved by a particular individual, and by a particular solution system.

Problems are everywhere people are. In fact, people represent problems and problems represent people – and this means you’ll always have problems awaiting solutions wherever people are. You only need to identify people’s problems to identify business ideas.

The moment you identify a problem that people face, then you have an idea waiting to be worked upon, and you only need to put together a product or service that serves as the solution to the problem. And this is where the big money – people are ready to pay you to get their problems solved.

Are you still asking what the problems are, or where the problems are? Look around you. Are things the way they are supposed to be within your locality, community, and society? Do people have complaints?

People’s complaints must constitute ideas for a product to sell. There are personal problems, professional problems, family or household problems, consumer problems (food, shelter, clothing, etc.), community and societal problems, economic and political problems, among others. The constituents, make-up, or compositions of each problem is the ingredient for product and business ideas.

The way to get start-up ideas is not to try to think of start-up ideas. It’s to look for problems, preferably problems you have yourself…by far, the most common mistake start-ups make is to solve problems no one has. – Paul Graham

How to Come Up With a List of Problems to Solve

According to Paul Graham, founder of Y Combinator, “The way to get start-up ideas is not to try to think of start-up ideas. It’s to look for problems, preferably problems you have yourself…by far, the most common mistake start-ups make is to solve problems no one has.”

• Be present in mind and body. Open your eyes and mind to what is going on around you and observe or take note of what people need or complain of.
• Make note of things that you think people will need as you go through the day.
• Listen to people’s complaints, problems, and experiences.
• Talk to people and ask them if they have any problems and see how to get them solved if they are willing to pay for this.
• Develop a survey. People feel easy filling out surveys because it gives them the kind of security and anonymity they crave, and it offers them the liberty to reveal their fancies and opinions without risks of being identified. This could be a good way to investigate what should sell to enable you to research what people would need and are capable of paying for.

Many entrepreneurs have spent several months and years researching and testing business ideas to know how they will work, and several others have spent fortunes paying for business ideas they believe will work.

You need ideas to succeed as a newbie entrepreneur or as an established organisation, and the truth is that every successful business organisation or multi-national company took off from a single seed-idea from a single individual.

Generating ideas that work is not so easy but it can be done. You only need to open your eyes and apply some research procedures and you’re set to launch.

It may require months and years of thoughtful research to generate a workable idea and it may just take a conversation with the right person to spark off ideas that will sustain you and your generation for life. To generate viable business ideas in a few hours, the following are what you need to do:

Relate with consumers and community people

The best and surest way to obtain information on what to do business-wise is to relate with people who could be your potential customers.

People at the grassroots and at the community level are the best to relate with if you desire to obtain ideas on the kinds of product and service to serve them. They know where the shoe pinches and they are free at voicing their views and oppositions and whatever feedback that will help you to generate viable business ideas.

Speak to professional experts

Speak to industry professionals and thought-leaders at seminars and business events or anywhere you meet with them and they will inadvertently supply you with results of researches they have conducted into the consumer markets.

They have been in the industry before you and they have greater experience at dealing with consumers and at conducting researches into consumer wants and behaviours. You’d gain a lot from these interactions and even obtain insights into what you need to do and how you need to position yourself.

Move around your neighbourhood, community, and towns

Walk around your neighbourhood, community, and town and have a feel of what people are going through. Try to buy or sell anything and listen to what people say; you must also look at what can be missing or done to improve the community or lots of the people and – bingo, you’d have a viable idea that is worth pursuing within hours.

Keep an ear to the ground

Keep your ears open and your eyes peeled to understand what people are passing through and what they are complaining about.

This is the best way to obtain feedback on products and services, and you can use this feedback to generate product ideas to meet the needs of the people. You won’t know what customers need until you are able to access grapevine information and process them for your own good.

Pay for information

Buy newspapers and pay to attend business seminars and do whatever is worth doing to secure credible information on what you need to do to meet the needs of consumers.

Pay for information and you’d get it within hours or days. Information is key to generating ideas and you must do whatever is in your capacity to obtain information that would help you generate or process business ideas for your own good.