{"id":905,"date":"2021-07-20T01:31:12","date_gmt":"2021-07-20T01:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/salarydistribution.com\/affiliate-marketing\/2021\/07\/20\/business-ideation-how-to-discover-new-business-ideas\/"},"modified":"2021-07-20T01:31:12","modified_gmt":"2021-07-20T01:31:12","slug":"business-ideation-how-to-discover-new-business-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salarydistribution.com\/affiliate-marketing\/2021\/07\/20\/business-ideation-how-to-discover-new-business-ideas\/","title":{"rendered":"Business Ideation: How to Discover New Business Ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In 2007, a pair of roommates moved to San Francisco. They were broke, jobless, and they didn\u2019t have money for rent.<\/p>\n

They needed to come up with a quick hustle. With a conference coming around the corner, they noticed that all the hotels in the city were sold out. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s when one of them came up with an idea. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

They bought a few air mattresses, put them in their living room, and were able to rent it out. <\/p>\n

That company is now known as airbnb.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Last year, I left the affiliate marketing space after 13 years. Everyone started wondering, \u201cCharles,<\/em>\u00a0what are you going to do next?<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

The truth is that I didn\u2019t have a master plan. I was burnt out from the space and wanted to do something different. <\/p>\n

So then I started asking myself, what DO <\/strong>I want to do now? I didn\u2019t have any crazy ideas in my back pocket. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s what led me down the path of studying business ideation<\/strong>\u2014the process of coming up with business ideas. <\/p>\n

It can be a disappointing journey because everything centers around either \u201cFollow your passion<\/em>\u201d or \u201cScratch your own itch.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

Another problem is that founders tend to rewrite history. As soon they grow to a certain size, a public relations manager comes in and starts changing the story. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s kinda like how Facebook was founded with the noble goal of promoting free expression and giving a voice to the powerless. It DEFINITELY<\/strong> didn\u2019t start as a hot-or-not rip-off. <\/p>\n

I dove deep and researched everything I could find on business ideation. I studied the best practices of different startups. I probably listened to 100+ episodes of How I Built This<\/a>\u00a0(The pandemic lockdown gave me too much free time<\/em>). <\/p>\n

Every origin story is unique, but I started seeing some patterns. Most successful companies don\u2019t start with a \u201cEureka!\u201d moment. <\/p>\n

Founders are more like mad scientists. <\/p>\n

You come up with a hypothesis for the future and start running experiments. It becomes a process of rapid iteration in a race to beat the competition and to become profitable before the bank goes to zero. <\/p>\n

This is my attempt at organizing business ideation into a simple to understand framework. Through this framework, I was able to figure out different ideas that I\u2019m excited to pursue. <\/p>\n

If anyone\u2019s interested in a more strategic way of coming up with your next business, this is for you.<\/p>\n

Picking the Right Market<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In the venture capital world, there are a few main pillars for a startup:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The Market. <\/strong>How fast is the market growing? How well do the existing solutions satisfy the market? What is the total addressable market?<\/li>\n
  2. Product. <\/strong>How well is the product designed? Does it solve the customers\u2019 problems? Are they dying to throw money at it? How polished is it? Does it \u201cspark joy\u201d when people use it for the first time? \u00a0<\/li>\n
  3. The Team.<\/strong> What is the quality of the CEO, cofounders, and staff? Do they have experience? Have they done this before? How well do they work together?\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Which of these do you think matter the most?<\/p>\n

    Marc Andreessen runs the most influential venture capital firm in the world, Andreessen Horowitz. <\/p>\n

    His answer?<\/p>\n

    \u201cPersonally, I\u2019ll take the third position\u2014I\u2019ll assert that market is the most important factor in a startup\u2019s success or failure.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Why?<\/em><\/p>\n

    In a great market\u2014a market with lots of real potential customers\u2014the market pulls product out of the startup.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

    The market needs to be fulfilled and the market will be fulfilled, by the first viable product that comes along.<\/em><\/p>\n

    The product doesn\u2019t need to be great; it just has to basically work. And, the market doesn\u2019t care how good the team is, as long as the team can produce that viable product.<\/em><\/p>\n

    In short, customers are knocking down your door to get the product; the main goal is to actually answer the phone and respond to all the emails from people who want to buy.<\/em><\/p>\n

    And when you have a great market, the team is remarkably easy to upgrade on the fly.\u201d<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

    \u2013 From The Only Thing That Matters<\/a><\/p>\n

    I\u2019ve been exposed to hundreds of markets during my time as an affiliate marketer. I\u2019m telling you, NOTHING matters more than the market and the timing.
    <\/strong>
    I\u2019ve seen people who were able to pull in five figures a day without even knowing how to properly track their campaigns. How? They were promoting when the market was hot, and they were early.<\/p>\n

    Do you remember when the pandemic first started? Even the shittiest convenience store in your city was sold out of everything. \u00a0<\/p>\n

    The most important decision you have to make is which market to pursue. There are two skills that you should develop.<\/p>\n