At an expo this weekend, I spoke to a few hundred people in different stages of starting their businesses. One argument that stood out like a sore thumb was “I have not started because I do not have a business idea.” In my world, not having a business idea is the one thing that -cruld save you from certain failure and major financial losses – you should rather be happy that you do not have a business idea.

Ignore the idea at first

A business idea is a good thing, but it is just that. An idea that makes absolute sense in your world, but not necessarily in anyone else’s world. Most business ideas are born in our own world and we build and risk those businesses with exactly that same perspective, our perspective. These business ideas are usually supported by the purchase of very expensive machinery, software, offices and more. We get business services and machines before we get customers. When you are focused on a business idea, you are focused on a solution and that solution comes in the form of a product or service you already have in mind. Through this approach you are committed to a certain direction with your business that can be difficult and expensive to change if you discover that what you do is not what customers are looking for.

Focus on the pain instead

Instead of looking for a business idea, which is usually void of customer contact, you can focus on the customer’s pain to find the business idea you are looking for. This reduces the risk dramatically because you are not falling for your own arguments about why this is such a great idea. Instead, it is based upon a data driven external validation that there might be something that someone is struggling to do and it could hold commercial value if you could solve it. Remember that products and services reduce or remove pain from customers’ lives when they are trying to accomplish a certain task. The bigger the pain you remove, the bigger the commercial reward that awaits you.

I cover this discovery process in depth in my book, indivineur – Opportunity Accelerator | Start a low risk business TODAY, using what you have NOW.