It’s not easy. Finding ideas is challenging. It is draining.
You just sit there in front of your laptop screen trying to come up with a fantastic online business idea. Yet, nothing comes to mind.
I have always believed that ideas won’t fall from the sky. Let’s be brutally honest — the world is not a fancy wish granting factory.
So, to find business ideas, we need to come up with a process that allows us to systematically come up with a bunch of ideas.
Later, we can think about testing it, validating our ideas, etc.
But, the first step in your journey to start an online business is finding business ideas.
Also, see a social media marketing specialist.
How do you do that? Get a process in place.
Lucky for you, I am showing a simple technique today which gets you 5 business ideas baked and ready in front of you.
The Flight Technique — 5 business ideas in 5 minutes
Somewhere in his book, Pat Flynn mentioned what he calls the Airport Test. Quite similar to what I am going to show you today.
The Flight technique is very simple. Picture this.
You are travelling via an airplane. You reach the airport. You get your boarding tickets.
You reach at the gate. You board the flight.
You get seated. The flight departs.
At this point, your phone cannot function with no mobile internet. You cannot make phone calls.
You can listen to songs though, but you choose not to.
There is some stranger guy seated next to you. You introduce yourself to him.
Your names are shared. You also share with each other about what you do, where you work, and other basic details.
Now comes the most interesting part. What are some topics you talk about now?
What are you most likely to talk about and be super interested to talk?
Let’s see.
- Is it about what are some investment options in the market?
- Is it on branding and marketing strategies by other companies?
- Is it just about healthy eating and habits?
- Is it about how you have started going to the gym and gained 2 kg muscle?
In other words, we are all naturally gravitated to some topics in our life. We just love talking about them.
Here’s the kicker — why not start a business around it? You love that topic, you are knowledgeable enough about it, and it’s something that comes naturally to you.
And best of all — you will enjoy it!
You can also try it another way.
Say you’re with your group of friends. Discussing a few things. Having a great time. Food, drinks, conversations, etc.
What are some topics you enjoy talking about everytime?
- Is it about how you arrange dinner parties?
- Is it about how you find travel hacks and cheap places when you go travelling?
- Or is it about how your new plans to buy something?
- Or maybe you show them magic tricks with cards and objects?
There are just so many ideas floating around you.
Real life example — From a weird-looking idea to 20K per month as a side-business
Let me share with you an actual example. One of my friends is a marketing analyst working at a company.
Using this technique, she came up with an idea of mind healing. It’s not astrology or something, but some proven methods in how you can heal your body.
She loves the topic. Always reads about it a lot. And was not sure if it was a viable idea.
Guess what? 3 months into it, and she was able to get 4 paying clients.
The key was not just the idea. But, few other things:
- She came up with this idea using this technique so she knew she loved it already
- She validated the idea, by studying the market, researching other people, talking to people in her network, etc.
- She found an audience of buyers. In other words, paying clients. No social media followers. No random instagram likes
I love these types of examples. There are no fancy rocket science things here.
What you need to understand is that finding ideas is a process. And with this technique, you should easily come up with atleast 5 business ideas just in 5 minutes.
