Hamisi worked for a gas stove importer for five years before he decided to open his own business. His aunt owns a successful hardware supply and rental shop, so she offered to be his financial partner and provide funds for his start-up. She does not want to be involved in the operation, but only to share the profit, while letting Hamisi run the business himself. Hamisi starts thinking about possible business ideas.
He enjoys making sisal bags and wall hangings, which many of his friends admire. Therefore, at first he thinks about making and selling them to tourists as souvenirs. However, after talking to a number of local shopkeepers, he learns that there are too few tourists in his area for such a business to be profitable.
Hamisi worked for a gas stove importer for five years before he decided to open his own business. His aunt owns a successful hardware supply and rental shop, so she offered to be his financial partner and provide funds for his start-up. She does not want to be involved in the operation, but only to share the profit, while letting Hamisi run the business himself. Hamisi starts thinking about possible business ideas.
Hamisi thinks about opening a gas stove shop, as he knows how to source imported gas stoves and he is familiar with the functions and quality of each brand. He does some market research and learns that there are quite a few gas stove shops in his area and their sales are low. They are offering various discount and promotional schemes, but none of their promotions have increased sales significantly. He decides that he better not enter such a tough market.
While still thinking about a business idea, Hamisi helps his aunt move to a new house. Although it is easy to find a van to rent, no one offers moving services, such as packaging, loading and unloading. Hamisi has to ask some of his friends to help him package and carry his aunt’s furniture and belongings.They spend a whole weekend looking for packaging and then disassembling the big items, wrapping and packing them, loading them in the van, unloading them at the new house and then unpacking and reassembling them. Hamisi wonders why there is not a moving company in the area. Realizing that this might be a business idea, Hamisi does some research and then describes his business idea as follows:
You can learn a lot from people in your area who have already gone through the process of establishing a business.
Find out from them;
•What kind of idea did these businesses start with?
•Where did the ideas come from?
•How did they translate their ideas into successful businesses?
•How does the business fit into and benefit the local environment?
Sometimes what you enjoy doing may not translate into a profitable business idea. Hamisi would not have been able to make a profit from selling sisal bags.
The first idea may not always be the best one. It is important to get factual information about the market before acting on the idea. Hamisi found out about the lack of a market for his bags before he started the business.
You find a good idea but lack sufficient training in some aspects, you can employ qualified staff or establish business links.
May be necessary to source financial help before you can start a business. Hamisi’s business idea was successful because it was based on an obvious business opportunity and knowledge of the market.
Think of three businesses in your local area that you consider to be successful. Try to select businesses that are at least three years old.
After you finish talking to the business owners, complete a Business Ideas Analysis Form for each business, listing as many details as possible.
Note your experiences as a customer or what other people have said about their experiences as customers in the table below.
Then write down the related business idea that would provide customers with the goods or services they need and want.
Another way of discovering business ideas is to look around your local community. Find out what type of businesses are already operating in your area and see if you can identify any gaps in the market. Visit the closest industrial area, markets and shopping centres, shopping malls in your area.
•Confirm which business fields you prefer
•Visit the local area and observe what fields are available
•Identify not only what is available but what is needed by the local people
Use the form below to write down the different business options that are available in your local area and that are within your field interest
You can use your creativity to find more business ideas by considering all the resources available in your area. What natural resources do you have in your area, what skills does the local community have? Can something be done with waste materials for instance?
Take time to look around your own community and make notes for each of the following:
We started with the word “Mash Poa hub (A Public service Vehicle company)”.
Get your family or friends together and ask them to help by writing down ideas they have when they hear the word or subject matter. Write down anything that comes to mind related to the subject
Let’s look at the example of cotton t-shirts.
Pick a product you know something about. Use the diagram in the space. start a structured brainstorming for each production line, selling line, re-using or recycling line, spin-off line and service line
Having gone through the different steps, now use the below form and fill in your idea list.
ICST Enterprise Developers is a business development service provider.We are partners of the International Labor Organization (ILO) to implement their Business Management programme dubbed Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB).
