We’re living through the greatest era of business opportunities and scalability where the chances of entrepreneurial success are unmatchable as compared to the past. It has never been this easier for small businesses to get on to the pedestal of startup funding. It doesn’t mean it’s a cup of cake, though. The opportunities always come with the challenges, and startup funding for small businesses is no exception.
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We’ll go deep down into the rabbit hole of small business ideation and try to figure out the art of finding the right startup ideas that could scale. We will also be looking at what makes a startup attractive enough to get the funding and how budding entrepreneurs could leverage the small business ideas to win the game.
All in all, the purpose of this blog post is to share the tactics and growth hacks for startup founders who are pondering on the startup funding for scalability and budding entrepreneurs who haven’t jumped into the game yet but trying to find the right business idea to work on.
The core elements of this blog post are:
- The importance of business ideation
- Coming up with the right idea
- Break into the crowded space
- The reality check of the entrepreneurship world
- The myths around startup funding
- The best way of finding the best small business idea
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Let’s take a couple of minutes to understand the fundamentals of entrepreneurship that the majority of the people in this space don’t talk about and every startup founder must know before signing up for this. A lot of startup founders get caught up in the awesomeness of the startup culture, whereas the hardship often goes behind the curtain.
An article on Fortune also hinted the difficulties and challenges of being an entrepreneur, especially in today’s world where entrepreneurship seems all good.
Here are some of the fundamental points every startup founder should know:
- Is entrepreneurship for everyone? One of the biggest misconceptions about entrepreneurship is that everybody could be an entrepreneur. It’s not the case. If you’re a purebred entrepreneur, you’ll prove it to yourself whether it takes 3 years or 12 years, meaning, it doesn’t matter to them. So someone thinks that I’ll give entrepreneurship a try and see if it works for me, then it’s a clear sign that they don’t have an entrepreneurial spirit.
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- Isn’t entrepreneurship cool? It’s understandable that communication mediums like social media and internet have made everything so excited that entrepreneurship seems to be a fun thing. A lot of budding entrepreneurs think that entrepreneurship is cool and all they have to do is come up with an app idea and then it will be a home run. Entrepreneurship is all about giving your sweat and energy for God knows how long, even when nobody is paying attention. The entrepreneurs are always passion-driven; they aren’t after the money, most of the times.
- Is it tough to be an entrepreneur? A lot of people try to become entrepreneurs because they think it’s easy. In reality, it’s no easy game. It’s about trying day in day out. There is no such thing as easy in this game. There might be heart-breaking failures, losing accounts, and tough times along the way, but real entrepreneurs never back off. So the answer is that it’s tough to be an entrepreneur.
- Is it a long-term or a short-term game? There is no doubt that entrepreneurship is all about the long-term play. If you think to win in the short term and neglect the long-term benefit, then you’ve already lost the game.
The great startup ideas come naturally, or sometimes by the surrounding. However, if someone is seeking out what matters in the creation of small business ideas that attract startup funding in the future, then I’ll give you a rundown. Here are some of the key elements that help you find the best small business idea that could attract startup funding:
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1. Look out for the Problem Solving Ability
If the startup is purely designed to solve a specific problem in the first place, and it does the job perfectly, then the chances of scalability are broad. Meaning, it could attract startup funding in the future. However, there is no guarantee that it would happen, though. If the startup is more focused on the local audience rather than the international, then the chances are that it won’t attract international investors quickly, unless something exceptional happens.
The key here is the value it provides to the end consumers. If it does solve the problem and takes away the specific pain of the consumer, then it could attract startup funding. The reason for this is that people talk when a great product pops up, publications write, and social media reacts to it. It comes down to the problem-solving ability of the startup.
2. Become Innovative in Approach
One of the essentials of coming up with great startup ideas is the newness. Every startup that becomes big or attracts startup funding always offer something new. Hundreds of thousands of startups are coming in every month, but how many of them would survive after three years, is hard to believe.
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According to a Forbes article, 90% of the startups fail. So it’s imperative to understand that have to do everything in your power to make your product work.
Nobody likes the second copy of a successful product. So you’ll be better off if you work on creating something unique, entirely new for the consumers. The innovativeness in the product could be a lightning rod.
3. Incorporate the Decision-making Power
The decision-making ability can’t be underestimated, especially in entrepreneurship. Facebook outsmarted Orkut, Myspace, and Friendster by providing a better platform based on the very same formula of socially connecting people online. Facebook came on top by offering a wide array of products under one umbrella.
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On the flip side, Facebook offered billions of dollars for buying Snapchat, but they couldn’t buy it – now Snapchat has become a social media sensation.
This article briefly mentioned how Evan Spiegel didn’t sell Snapchat to Mark Zuckerberg which shows Spiegel follows the gut over outside influence.
The viral internet “Backpack Kid” who took the social media by storm barter traded the backpack from his friend. He gave his sneakers to get the pack, and later on, came up with the dance moves, and it went viral on social media.
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So the decision-making power does have a vital role in finding the business ideas that could scale to the next level. If you’re looking for the greatest startup idea of all time, you’re not making progress. Just make a decision, build a product, and put it out there.
4. Using the Strengths in the Ideation Process
If you’re finding the small business or startup idea, focus on your strengths. It’s true that world pays more attention to the new, creative ideas that help change the world, but it also makes sense that there is no guarantee that the idea would work.
Every idea in the entrepreneurial world doesn’t get traction – the challenge of turning a startup idea into a business is a whole lot bigger than it seems – that’s where the strengths (of an entrepreneur) and mindset are tested.
Gary Vaynerchuk talked about the strengths and weaknesses, in a keynote speech, and his point came down to the mindset. He hinted that how the worst situation could be strength and how a lavish lifestyle could be a weakness in life.
Matt Sawyer, the co-founder of AdWap, in the interview with Entrepreneur, also emphasized on focusing on the strengths and studying the market to sync them both for creating opportunities. He also shared that focusing on your strengths is the most important thing because it tells you why you can be successful and analyzing your weakness can push you to partner up with the right people to fill those gaps.
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Final Words
Being an entrepreneur isn’t easy – there is no debate on that.
The process of starting up, especially coming up with a good idea for a business is hard in today’s world where you see some great startups started from scratch and became one of a kind. Don’t let these realities mess with your mind.
Deploy empathy and patience at best; understand the behavior of the market; learn from the failures, and envision the outcome.
Mark Zuckerberg well explains the audacity to fail in entrepreneurship and finding the ideas in a speech; he said, “The great successes come from having the freedom to fail. Ideas don’t come out fully formed; they only become clearer as you work on them. You just have to get started.”
It sums up the whole point of writing this piece of content around finding the startup ideas that could attract funding in the long run.
What will you do next to find your startup idea?