Finding a Business Idea That You’ll Love
Are you waiting for the right idea to start, but unsure how to find it?
Do you have many side projects, but none seem worthy of a business?
You might believe you have to choose between profitability and meaning, and can't decide what to build.
I've been there, it's still an ongoing journey, but I have found a repeatable method for uncovering business ideas that are both profitable and meaningful in Sahil Lavingia's book, "The Minimalist Entrepreneur".
"We hear again and again from founders that they wish they had waited to start a startup until they came up with an idea they really loved." - Sam Altman
I've known from a young age that I wanted to start my own business. Still today, I enjoy creating things from scratch and aspire to be financially independent. However, there are a few things on the back of my mind:
- I want to contribute to making the world a better place, motivated by the concepts of tech for good and my experience in a mission driven B Corp company.
- I understand that I need to be passionate about my work to prevent getting distracted or giving up easily.
- I often worry about whether I'm making the best use of my limited time on Earth.
Though I have numerous side projects, I find it challenging to find an idea I can truly commit to and feel passionate about, in line with the criteria above.
I realized that brainstorming alone in my room isn't effective. I tried to address my own problems but only managed to identify minor "vitamins" rather than significant "painkillers".
Most of my ideas didn't seem worth dedicating years of my life to. The method of trying to conceive ideas in solitude wasn't working, but I found an alternative route from Sahil Lavingia's book, "The Minimalist Entrepreneur".
The book introduced an approach new to me: "start with community". It's more than just building an audience or networking for business and monetary gains. It's about forging genuine connections with people, helping them out of genuine concern, understanding their issues deeply, creating a systematic solution, transforming that solution into a product, and eventually scaling it into a business.
A quote from the book that resonated with me is: "Becoming a person who helps people precedes building a business that helps people."
The initial step to find a business idea you love is to identify a community you care about, the "Community-You" fit. Next, contribute and engage with the community, forge real human connections and gain insights into problems you could solve for people you genuinely care about.
This is how you can discover an idea you love, by resolving problems for people you care about.
1. Finding your community
Here's an exercise inspired by the book to help you identify your communities:
- Answer the following questions, listing responses under each:
- If I talk, who listens?
- Where and with whom do I spend my time, both online and offline?
- In what situations do I feel most authentic?
- Who are the people I hang out with, even if I don't particularly like them, but do so because we share something more important in common?
- Based on your answers, compile a final list of your communities.
- For each community, list locations (both geographic and online) where you can spend more time learning and contributing.
- Take action: Post in a subreddit, go to a meetup, comment on a forum post, etc. Start contributing
For most of my life on the internet, I’ve always been a lurker. Doing this exercise helped me turn into a contributor. I hated writing before, especially if I saw it as just a marketing tool, but I’m loving writing this post as I see it as being helpful to people I care about: you, the indie hackers seeking to make a difference in the world while keeping your freedom.
2. Finding problems
It takes time, but by getting involved in your communities and by connecting with people you should pretty soon get exposed to lots of real problems to solve. If you still struggle to articulate them, here is another exercise to help finding problems in your community:
- Make a table with 3 columns, with those headers: Person, Hobby/Activity, Problem
- On the left, list some people and community you’d like to help.
- In the center, write down how they spend their time.
- On the right, write down the problems with each activity.
- If struggling to identify problems, think of how you could:
- Make something inaccessible accessible
- Make something more valuable by rearranging existing parts
- Make something slow go fast
- Remove a middleman
As I learnt from falling for my old habits, this exercise should not be done in isolation, alone in your room. This should be a living document that gets updated as you learn from people in your communities. Keep listening, be curious and interested in people’s lives. As a bonus, they’ll like you for it, helping with creating genuine connections.
3. Choosing which business to build
Once you found some problems, here is one more exercise to figure out if they are problems you could build a business on:
For each problem, think of the business you would build to solve it and answer those questions:
- Will I love it?
- Will it be inherently monetizable?
- Does it have an internal growth mechanism?
- Do I have the right skill sets to build this business?
A business with a strong yes to each of those questions is likely to be a good fit for you.
By going through these exercises myself, I realized that you were part of my communities, and that I could contribute by sharing those insights. Hopefully it will help someone.
What community deeply matters to you, and what problems have you noticed within it that you feel passionate about solving? Share your thoughts!
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Really like this post. I do think you can go a little more in-depth into some frameworks for finding ideas. We use 12 at our biz ideas newsletter -
Half Baked - here are 6 of them for anyone interested.
Framework 1️⃣: Problem first mindset
Stop thinking in solutions, think in problems.
How it works:
- Observe the world around you to identify problems or challenges people face in their daily lives.
- Develop a solution that directly addresses the problem, ensuring it is both effective and accessible to those affected.
Framework 2️⃣: Trend Jacking
Capitalizing on emerging trends to gain a competitive advantage.
How it works: “Find the whale and become a barnacle on that whale” - Andrew Wilkinson. Being a 'barnacle on a whale' means hitching your business to a bigger trend or company that's growing fast. It's like catching a ride with a giant, using their momentum to boost your own growth and get noticed without having to work as hard to build up speed from scratch.
Framework 3️⃣:Remixing
Taking an idea from one market and applying it to another.
How it works:
Spot an Idea: Identify a successful product, service, or business model in one industry or market.
Adapt for Another Market: Modify or tailor the idea to fit the needs and characteristics of a different market or industry.
Framework 4️⃣: Reniching
Adapting a broad concept to serve a specific niche market.
How it works:
- Identify a Broad Concept: Start with a successful broad service or product.
- Find a Niche: Look for a specific group or industry that has unique needs not fully met by the broad concept.
- Tailor Specifically: Adapt and refine the product or service to meet the unique needs and preferences of that niche.
Framework 5️⃣: Geo arbitrage
Spotting something successful in one geographical market and then introducing it to a new one.
How it works:
- Identify Success: Find a product, service, or business model thriving in one country or region.
- Research New Market: Look for a new market where this idea hasn't been introduced yet but has the potential to succeed.
- Adapt: Make necessary adjustments to fit the cultural, economic, and regulatory environment of the new market and launch it.
Framework 6️⃣: Excel or notes
Transitioning from basic tools to specialized software for efficiency and functionality.
How it works:
- Identify Basic Tool Usage: Recognize tasks being managed with general-purpose tools like iPhone Notes or Excel spreadsheets.
- Find Specialized Software: Look for software specifically designed to handle these tasks more effectively and with more features.
- Implement for Improvement: Transition to the specialized software to benefit from improved efficiency, better organization, and advanced functionalities.
Thanks for the detailed suggestions!
I just joined the community and this is the first post I read! Well, this is really promising. Thank you!
Thanks, and welcome!
I had been a lurker the longest time because I care too much of what people would think of my opinions. I've now shaded those concerns and am engaging in more conversations all the time.
Like you said building connections is key to identifying problems. I'm inspired to contribute more in my communities, like Indie Hackers!
Appreciate you sharing your thoughts Marin!
That's awesome Geralda! I can relate on caring too much, online or in person, but it definitely gets better with time as you push yourself to connect with people more.
Absolutely true! Look forward to more updates especially on React Native :D
I agree with you completely. Your post will definitely help me on my way to becoming a successful business owner. Thank you!
Your post is so helpful! Thanks
Totally agree, thank you for sharing Marin 😉
Totally right. It is better to start building a community and discover what people need, that is, help them with something and then think about creating a product and/or service.
Thank you for your article. It motivates me to continue with my projects and not give up.
I'm so glad it helped you with keeping your motivation. Keep going, keep trying new things if the old ones don't work, and as long as you don't give up, success is inevitable.
One big takeaway is that there is no short cut. Another is that it's not the destination itself, but the journey that you will find rewarding.
This reminds me of the saying that execution is more important than the idea itself. I believe that finding a business idea that you love is a good way to enhance motivation for execution. Thanks for sharing!
Great post. Loved it.
Thanks for this sharing, really helpful Marin!
Marin, your method of finding a business idea through genuine connections and community involvement is refreshing. Thanks for sharing these actionable steps for fellow indie hackers.
Engaging read, Marin. Appreciate the thorough breakdown of finding a business idea with meaning. Building from community insights seems solid. Thanks for sharing these actionable steps!
Much appreciated useful insights in post
Good post Marin, its not the first time i have heard from the minimalist entrepreneur book, should be my next read
Thanks for creating this post Marin. Your insights are very interesing and easy to understand.
Good post, thanks for sharing. I am buying that book :)
I really appreciate this post, thank you for this very interesting development !
I'm glad you liked it!
You're welcome! Your satisfaction means a lot to me. If you have any more questions or need further assistance, feel free to ask!
Great post. These two are extremely important:
"Will I love it?" - This will help you not to stop during hard times.
"Does it have an internal growth mechanism?" - This is how you grow organically.
To find problems and pain points, I was reading Reddit posts with the mindset of "How can I solve this person's problem"
Then, I created a tool for myself that reads Reddit with AI to find problems and business ideas for me. (I can not post the link, but if you are interested you can find it in my profile)
That tool looks really cool!
I would love to have something like that but where I could select specific Reddit communities to analyse, so that the ideas would be tailored to my own communities.
Thanks! Yes, I have that feature on my roadmap. Nice to hear that! If the tool gets some traction, that's my first priority.
Appreciate the post! Given you said you dabbles in a number of side projects I wonder if you have any advice to those who might have a few ideas but haven't taken any steps to get them off the ground? Should you wait for the perfect idea or start building something?
One learning I haven't mentioned from the book in this post is that whatever you do, you should start then learn, not learn then start.
Build something, anything, and learn at the same time, then pivot if you realise that you're working on the wrong thing.
By being active and by building something you'll discover lots of issues related to the process of building itself, which could lead you to find your "perfect" idea.
'Perfect ideas' are hard to find and they are invisible. I recommend starting to build something you are interested in. You can later make 'perfect pivots' that would lead you to 'perfect ideas'
Very well said!
Micro SaaS Ideas can be good help too.
mate you just made me stop and think about what's important. what you're saying is so true. the community i am building a product for right now, even though it's a cool problem, is not a community that i care deeply about. which means i don't really have any intrinsic motivation to work on it really. thank you for making me think.
Oh, this is excellent; as an Authentic Selling Strategist to Introverted Entrepreneurs, this is a powerful message. Introverts often have feelings of Imposter Syndrome when they put on their sales and marketing hat. They feel it is foreign to them, but sales conversations are no different from regular conversations. The conversations often are authentic and meaningful with more like-minded individuals. Hang out with people who get you, and then build your self-promotion and business around your authentic self. Today that is necessary for a growing business, not just a nice punchline!
This is probably why I struggle with ideas. To find the pain points and problems, I need to experience more and I can see where getting involved in a community can help.
Thank you for the inspiration, Marin! I've been a lurker. You've motivated me to engage with communities. By showing care for people, understanding their challenges and assisting in solving their problems, we can make meaningful contributions and also thrive.
Good content here! Been a lurker for a long time too, caring too much about what other people may think. I'm not saying that opinions don't matter, but your confidence must not rely on them.
The community that matters to me is family and relatives, I've always helped them with IT-related stuff, and now heading into building my own IoT solution for home. Ain't easy but enjoying it like the geek that I am.
I have executed my idea for creating a marketing agency and im targeting mostly ecommerce , entertainment industry and i also see alot of problems with many businesses and trying to contact the owners seems that even though theyre not reaching their full potential they still dont accept the help from an agency, and also productized my service so i can offer better prices with a company having a whole team for whatever needs they have, i really appreciate you sharing your thoughts, do you also have any advice on how to get clients to buy your idea
It's hard to give advice without knowing specifically what is the pushback from those clients.
I would always make it about the customer, about their problem. If the problem is real, and the benefit of your product is obvious to them, then why are they saying no?
In some of them is mostly about budget and they're not sure yet how helpful it can be for them, thats what i think at least. But anyways thank you.
Thank you!
Great article, but what is the meaning of internal growth mechanism?
Thanks, I'm glad you liked it!
"Internal growth mechanism" is a part of a business that naturally encourages its growth without the constant need for external input, like paid advertising or manual outreach. It's about creating something within your business that inherently brings in more users, customers, or interest over time.
For example, a social media platform grows as more users join because they invite their friends, who then invite their friends, creating a chain reaction of growth. Another example could be creating valuable content that people love to share, which then attracts more readers organically.
It's about building a business that can grow through its own momentum, leveraging the network effects, content, or product value to attract new customers. It makes scaling more sustainable and viable even with limited marketing budgets.