1
00:00:02,404 --> 00:00:04,435
- I really, really need to re-write that

2
00:00:04,435 --> 00:00:06,517
because that's all like...

3
00:00:06,517 --> 00:00:07,794
So what are we starting with?

4
00:00:07,794 --> 00:00:10,378
(upbeat music)

5
00:00:18,178 --> 00:00:20,832
- Nine ways to come up with great business ideas,

6
00:00:20,832 --> 00:00:22,641
that's what I'm gonna share in this video.

7
00:00:22,641 --> 00:00:24,615
But maybe you're in a position where you're working

8
00:00:24,615 --> 00:00:26,940
nine to five, and you're like "I wanna do something,

9
00:00:26,940 --> 00:00:28,673
"but I don't know the right ideas to work on."

10
00:00:28,673 --> 00:00:32,222
Or you might have a bunch of ideas, but I feel like

11
00:00:32,222 --> 00:00:33,942
maybe they're not the right ones, and I need to figure out

12
00:00:33,942 --> 00:00:36,616
if there's other strategies to come up with even more.

13
00:00:36,616 --> 00:00:38,302
That's what I'm gonna cover in this video.

14
00:00:38,302 --> 00:00:41,446
When I was getting going, 17 years old, wanting

15
00:00:41,447 --> 00:00:44,092
to be an entrepreneur, and I guess my motivation

16
00:00:44,091 --> 00:00:46,021
was really like I just didn't feel like I was gonna

17
00:00:46,021 --> 00:00:46,926
be employable.

18
00:00:46,926 --> 00:00:49,721
Like I didn't think anybody would wanna have me around,

19
00:00:49,720 --> 00:00:51,569
I had to come up with ideas.

20
00:00:51,570 --> 00:00:54,128
And this is truthfully the first business idea,

21
00:00:54,128 --> 00:00:57,017
and I say it in air quotes because I'm not sure

22
00:00:57,017 --> 00:00:59,539
if it was very legal, and it was definitely,

23
00:00:59,539 --> 00:00:59,540
but it made money.
if it was very legal, and it was definitely,

24
00:00:59,540 --> 00:01:00,640
but it made money.

25
00:01:00,640 --> 00:01:02,999
So that's my filter.

26
00:01:02,999 --> 00:01:04,477
That it was a product I built, that people paid for,

27
00:01:04,477 --> 00:01:05,785
and it was a simple idea.

28
00:01:05,784 --> 00:01:08,620
Back in the day when I was starting off, I had a computer

29
00:01:08,620 --> 00:01:12,161
and I had a DVD burner or a CD burner, and a lot of

30
00:01:12,162 --> 00:01:15,542
friends would come over to look at my list of music

31
00:01:15,542 --> 00:01:18,911
that I had purchased legally online, and create their

32
00:01:18,911 --> 00:01:22,753
mix CD for their girlfriend, whatever.

33
00:01:22,753 --> 00:01:25,543
And it was just like, frustrating that they would be

34
00:01:25,543 --> 00:01:29,069
in my house, on my computer, doing this process

35
00:01:29,069 --> 00:01:31,409
of going through hundreds of songs and making

36
00:01:31,409 --> 00:01:33,686
those lists to eventually burn.

37
00:01:33,686 --> 00:01:35,176
So what I did was I said, "Look, there's gotta be

38
00:01:35,177 --> 00:01:38,523
"a better way," I'm going to instead create a simple

39
00:01:38,522 --> 00:01:42,204
application, a simple tool, that sits on their computer

40
00:01:42,204 --> 00:01:45,301
that connects up to the internet, downloads all the songs

41
00:01:45,301 --> 00:01:47,326
that I have with the length there, because really it was

42
00:01:47,326 --> 00:01:49,337
like "Okay, how many songs can I put for the amount

43
00:01:49,337 --> 00:01:53,003
"of space on the CD," and it would let them create

44
00:01:53,003 --> 00:01:54,766
their playlist, and then when they were done,

45
00:01:54,766 --> 00:01:57,731
it would send over the "order" and 20 bucks.

46
00:01:57,730 --> 00:01:59,141
Well it didn't take the money, they just gave me

47
00:01:59,141 --> 00:02:00,804
the cash when I gave them the CD.

48
00:02:00,805 --> 00:02:04,146
That was the first product or idea I ever came up with,

49
00:02:04,146 --> 00:02:06,364
and it was really just solving my own problem.

50
00:02:06,364 --> 00:02:07,964
And a lot of you guys are saying well "I'm not technical,

51
00:02:07,965 --> 00:02:09,711
Dan, I could never build something like that."

52
00:02:09,711 --> 00:02:11,616
These ideas, these strategies I'm gonna share with

53
00:02:11,616 --> 00:02:13,661
you, nine different ones, it's to give you the

54
00:02:13,661 --> 00:02:17,503
opportunity to just be creative, think about different

55
00:02:17,502 --> 00:02:19,697
industries, think about your skills, how those could

56
00:02:19,698 --> 00:02:21,262
be applied.

57
00:02:21,262 --> 00:02:23,753
Talking to the right people to get more ideas,

58
00:02:23,753 --> 00:02:24,876
that's what we're gonna cover.

59
00:02:24,877 --> 00:02:27,725
So the first one is talk to customers.

60
00:02:27,724 --> 00:02:29,814
I think that there's a difference of just asking

61
00:02:29,814 --> 00:02:31,544
your friends "is this a good idea?"

62
00:02:31,544 --> 00:02:34,018
versus going to the mall and seeing somebody

63
00:02:34,018 --> 00:02:36,149
walk out of a store, and just say "Hey, do you

64
00:02:36,149 --> 00:02:37,973
"have a few minutes, I'd love to talk to you about

65
00:02:37,973 --> 00:02:41,159
"this industry, this problem, this purchase

66
00:02:41,159 --> 00:02:41,160
"you just made."
"this industry, this problem, this purchase

67
00:02:41,160 --> 00:02:42,347
"you just made."

68
00:02:42,347 --> 00:02:43,701
And yeah, some people are gonna be like "I'm too busy,

69
00:02:43,700 --> 00:02:45,848
"I can't talk to you," but you'd be surprised how many

70
00:02:45,848 --> 00:02:48,566
people are gonna be like "Yeah, how can I answer

71
00:02:48,567 --> 00:02:49,552
"your questions?"

72
00:02:49,551 --> 00:02:51,320
And you can do the same thing at the farmer's market.

73
00:02:51,320 --> 00:02:53,335
Go to the farmer's market, stand at the door.

74
00:02:53,336 --> 00:02:55,219
People go in, they walk out with product, and you go like

75
00:02:55,218 --> 00:02:57,153
"Do you mind if I ask you a few questions about

76
00:02:57,153 --> 00:02:59,633
"the vegetables I just bought, I'm thinking of starting

77
00:02:59,633 --> 00:03:02,311
"this new kind of food truck for organic vegetables,"

78
00:03:02,311 --> 00:03:03,504
whatever it is!

79
00:03:03,503 --> 00:03:05,683
But you talk to real people that have spent money,

80
00:03:05,683 --> 00:03:08,728
here's why, is those people are qualified.

81
00:03:08,728 --> 00:03:11,352
They've actually proven they had the problem,

82
00:03:11,352 --> 00:03:13,574
spent the money, and now you're getting their advice

83
00:03:13,574 --> 00:03:15,961
on how could that process have been easier

84
00:03:15,961 --> 00:03:16,794
for you.

85
00:03:16,794 --> 00:03:19,368
So talk to paying customers, not to people just

86
00:03:19,368 --> 00:03:20,717
asking for good ideas.

87
00:03:20,717 --> 00:03:22,778
Second one is mix and match, okay now this is gonna

88
00:03:22,778 --> 00:03:24,592
sound crazy, because again, this is not just for

89
00:03:24,592 --> 00:03:26,609
software entrepreneurs, that's my background,

90
00:03:26,610 --> 00:03:27,977
this is for anybody.

91
00:03:27,977 --> 00:03:31,804
Just go to the hardware store, and look at the difference,

92
00:03:31,804 --> 00:03:35,402
look in an aisle, and say "is there an opportunity

93
00:03:35,401 --> 00:03:38,651
"to take this product and mix it with something else?"

94
00:03:38,651 --> 00:03:40,633
And you're going, "really Dan, that's the idea?"

95
00:03:40,633 --> 00:03:44,220
I still remember the first time I saw a nightlight

96
00:03:44,221 --> 00:03:46,932
that also had a USB charger built into it.

97
00:03:46,932 --> 00:03:50,320
You go look on KickStarter, a site for crowd funding

98
00:03:50,320 --> 00:03:53,810
different business ideas, and there are so many examples

99
00:03:53,810 --> 00:03:56,985
of taking two or three different use cases, and putting

100
00:03:56,985 --> 00:03:59,333
them together into one physical product.

101
00:03:59,332 --> 00:04:01,395
I call that a mix and match, and really, these

102
00:04:01,395 --> 00:04:02,959
strategies I'm sharing with you is just to get

103
00:04:02,959 --> 00:04:05,366
the juices flowing, to be more creative,

104
00:04:05,366 --> 00:04:08,799
to be the idea person so it's not about, you know,

105
00:04:08,800 --> 00:04:10,865
I only have one idea or I have no ideas,

106
00:04:10,865 --> 00:04:13,599
it's "I've got dozens, 20, 30 different things

107
00:04:13,598 --> 00:04:15,322
"that I think could be an opportunity,"

108
00:04:15,322 --> 00:04:17,463
then it's to filter them down into the right one.

109
00:04:17,463 --> 00:04:20,817
Right now we're just talking about volume not quality.

110
00:04:20,817 --> 00:04:22,843
The next one is interview big companies.

111
00:04:22,843 --> 00:04:25,351
Here's the reasoning behind that, is big companies

112
00:04:25,351 --> 00:04:28,267
usually plan their year or their strategies

113
00:04:28,267 --> 00:04:30,758
their work, for the next 16 months, two years,

114
00:04:30,759 --> 00:04:33,266
so they have that kind of vision of what their

115
00:04:33,266 --> 00:04:35,153
challenges are today, what they're gonna build

116
00:04:35,153 --> 00:04:37,889
in the future, and if you talk to five, six, seven,

117
00:04:37,889 --> 00:04:40,146
eight, nine, 10 different big companies,

118
00:04:40,146 --> 00:04:42,235
you might start to see patterns, and first thing

119
00:04:42,235 --> 00:04:44,334
that people do when I share that strategy,

120
00:04:44,334 --> 00:04:46,998
they go "Well Dan, why would a big company talk to me?"

121
00:04:46,999 --> 00:04:49,213
Pretend you're a journalist, maybe make it real,

122
00:04:49,213 --> 00:04:51,347
you could reach out to them and say "Hey, I'm working on

123
00:04:51,346 --> 00:04:54,757
"this blogpost for this media outlet, and I'd love to ask

124
00:04:54,757 --> 00:04:56,492
"you about your marketing strategies, the way you

125
00:04:56,492 --> 00:04:58,302
"execute your sale strategy. Maybe it's the way

126
00:04:58,302 --> 00:05:00,245
"you manage your infrastructure, maybe it's the way

127
00:05:00,245 --> 00:05:02,776
"you buy a certain type of product, and at the end

128
00:05:02,776 --> 00:05:04,502
"of it I'm gonna put together the research

129
00:05:04,502 --> 00:05:06,519
"and publish it, but I'm also gonna give you

130
00:05:06,519 --> 00:05:09,317
"first access to it," that's a great way to actually

131
00:05:09,317 --> 00:05:11,759
learn from a big company, so before you dismiss it,

132
00:05:11,759 --> 00:05:13,971
that's the approach, and yes some of them are gonna

133
00:05:13,971 --> 00:05:16,235
say no, they're not gonna respond, but the ones that do

134
00:05:16,235 --> 00:05:18,454
are gonna give you a goldmine of information to come up

135
00:05:18,454 --> 00:05:21,454
with really neat ideas for a business idea that you

136
00:05:21,454 --> 00:05:22,287
could pursue.

137
00:05:22,286 --> 00:05:24,625
The next one is searching online.

138
00:05:24,625 --> 00:05:28,548
When I think of great ideas,

139
00:05:28,548 --> 00:05:30,208
usually people have

140
00:05:30,208 --> 00:05:32,225
the pain and they're asking their friends online

141
00:05:32,225 --> 00:05:33,294
about a solution.

142
00:05:33,293 --> 00:05:36,389
So you could check this out, on Twitter, just search

143
00:05:36,389 --> 00:05:40,304
the term "is there an app for," in double quotes

144
00:05:40,303 --> 00:05:42,853
on the search, and you will see a bunch of tweets

145
00:05:42,853 --> 00:05:45,656
of people asking for different apps for different

146
00:05:45,656 --> 00:05:47,673
pains that they're having in their life.

147
00:05:47,673 --> 00:05:51,483
You could use an advanced search operator on Google

148
00:05:51,483 --> 00:05:53,973
for forums, so forums is a place where people go and talk

149
00:05:53,973 --> 00:05:57,175
about different topics from cars to do it yourself

150
00:05:57,175 --> 00:06:00,588
home stuff, to food, and you can actually search

151
00:06:00,588 --> 00:06:04,076
just the forums to see if anybody's talking about the pain

152
00:06:04,076 --> 00:06:06,918
or idea that you might be having to see if there's anything

153
00:06:06,918 --> 00:06:08,151
else that night come up.

154
00:06:08,151 --> 00:06:11,353
Searching online, blog posts, comments using Disqus,

155
00:06:11,353 --> 00:06:14,426
there's an endless, go in on Quora, which is a

156
00:06:14,427 --> 00:06:17,676
Q and A, question and answer site, endless,

157
00:06:17,675 --> 00:06:19,995
endless opportunity for you to look at people talking

158
00:06:19,995 --> 00:06:22,546
about real pains in their life, and also see how people

159
00:06:22,547 --> 00:06:24,635
solved them to see if there's an opportunity for you

160
00:06:24,634 --> 00:06:26,223
to build a business around it.

161
00:06:26,223 --> 00:06:29,637
The next one is, to me, asking what's next.

162
00:06:29,637 --> 00:06:32,247
I come from the technology world and innovation,

163
00:06:32,247 --> 00:06:34,305
but this is true for any industry, right?

164
00:06:34,305 --> 00:06:36,718
Wherever you're at you can look and say "What's next?

165
00:06:36,718 --> 00:06:37,829
"What's coming next?"

166
00:06:37,829 --> 00:06:37,830
You can do the research on that, in the software world
"What's coming next?"

167
00:06:37,830 --> 00:06:40,629
You can do the research on that, in the software world

168
00:06:40,629 --> 00:06:43,052
there's a presentation given every year by a woman

169
00:06:43,052 --> 00:06:45,609
named Mary Meeker, that talks about the internet trends

170
00:06:45,608 --> 00:06:49,510
and in that presentation, she shows the research,

171
00:06:49,511 --> 00:06:52,846
the data, the trend lines, on exactly what's coming

172
00:06:52,846 --> 00:06:54,545
over the next 15, 50 years.

173
00:06:54,545 --> 00:06:57,416
And you can easily plot and say, "Oh yeah, I can see

174
00:06:57,416 --> 00:06:58,686
"how that could be a big thing."

175
00:06:58,687 --> 00:07:01,442
And again, we're just looking for quantity of ideas,

176
00:07:01,442 --> 00:07:04,569
it could just give you a bunch of different areas

177
00:07:04,569 --> 00:07:06,092
to then investigate deeper.

178
00:07:06,091 --> 00:07:09,188
So asking yourself "what next," I think is really big.

179
00:07:09,189 --> 00:07:11,739
The next one is your frustrations.

180
00:07:11,738 --> 00:07:15,620
Okay, now if you are a happy zen person that never gets

181
00:07:15,620 --> 00:07:17,971
frustrated with anybody and you're happy all the time,

182
00:07:17,971 --> 00:07:19,541
this one's gonna be tough.

183
00:07:19,541 --> 00:07:21,772
Because I'm gonna ask you to turn on your frustration

184
00:07:21,773 --> 00:07:25,062
radar, where you start thinking about when you're out

185
00:07:25,062 --> 00:07:28,828
and you're maybe getting a car wash or paying for a bill

186
00:07:28,827 --> 00:07:32,207
with some friends, or you know...

187
00:07:32,208 --> 00:07:34,687
Picking up a new product to solve a problem at

188
00:07:34,687 --> 00:07:38,860
your house, whatever it is, just write these ideas down.

189
00:07:38,860 --> 00:07:42,671
James Altucher is famous for sharing his strategy

190
00:07:42,672 --> 00:07:45,362
of every day writing down 10 different ideas for himself

191
00:07:45,362 --> 00:07:47,348
and for other people that he cares about, advisors,

192
00:07:47,348 --> 00:07:48,463
mentors, et cetera.

193
00:07:48,463 --> 00:07:50,582
And just sharing those ideas with them so he starts

194
00:07:50,581 --> 00:07:53,425
working that idea muscle.

195
00:07:53,425 --> 00:07:54,980
And I think that the best place to start

196
00:07:54,980 --> 00:07:56,129
is your frustration.

197
00:07:56,129 --> 00:07:57,449
So that's a big strategy.

198
00:07:57,449 --> 00:08:01,355
The next one is new field, same skills.

199
00:08:01,355 --> 00:08:04,807
Here's how that works, you probably have a skill,

200
00:08:04,807 --> 00:08:08,267
maybe you're a designer, maybe you're a manager,

201
00:08:08,267 --> 00:08:10,995
maybe you're a marketer, there's probably other

202
00:08:10,995 --> 00:08:13,733
industries or fields of study that you could apply

203
00:08:13,733 --> 00:08:16,815
your skills to that don't really have a lot of new

204
00:08:16,815 --> 00:08:18,987
ideas around that, and you could just start talking

205
00:08:18,987 --> 00:08:21,240
to those industries with your existing skill set

206
00:08:21,240 --> 00:08:24,004
and domain expertise, to see if there's ideas

207
00:08:24,004 --> 00:08:25,750
for business in there.

208
00:08:25,750 --> 00:08:27,596
So I like that one a lot, and then the other one

209
00:08:27,596 --> 00:08:29,699
is industries with no innovation.

210
00:08:29,699 --> 00:08:32,588
My brother comes from the construction industry

211
00:08:32,589 --> 00:08:36,308
so he started and there was literally, it was building a

212
00:08:36,307 --> 00:08:38,612
house was still done the way it had been done 50

213
00:08:38,613 --> 00:08:41,379
years prior, and what he did is brought a lot of

214
00:08:41,379 --> 00:08:43,981
innovation, both in how he operated and he managed

215
00:08:43,981 --> 00:08:48,015
the list of contractors and subcontractors,

216
00:08:48,015 --> 00:08:49,206
and his team,

217
00:08:49,206 --> 00:08:52,543
but also the way he communicated and sold to customers.

218
00:08:52,543 --> 00:08:54,913
So I think there's a great opportunity of just looking

219
00:08:54,913 --> 00:08:58,365
and asking yourself, what are the slowest growing

220
00:08:58,365 --> 00:09:01,803
innovative industries, and how can we bring a bit of

221
00:09:01,803 --> 00:09:04,284
new innovation to those sectors.

222
00:09:04,284 --> 00:09:05,512
I think that's a great opportunity.

223
00:09:05,513 --> 00:09:08,673
The next one, I think that's just a big idea

224
00:09:08,673 --> 00:09:11,443
is cheaper versions of something that's existing.

225
00:09:11,443 --> 00:09:14,105
If you look at Uber which is now a 90 billion

226
00:09:14,105 --> 00:09:16,652
dollar company, if you don't know what that is

227
00:09:16,652 --> 00:09:19,396
it's probably because it's been kicked out of your city.

228
00:09:19,395 --> 00:09:23,019
But it's ordering a car on demand, it's kind of like

229
00:09:23,019 --> 00:09:24,298
a taxi app.

230
00:09:24,298 --> 00:09:26,850
But their vision was always to make it cheaper

231
00:09:26,850 --> 00:09:28,952
than taking public transportation.

232
00:09:28,952 --> 00:09:30,721
Yes it started with black cars, then it went

233
00:09:30,721 --> 00:09:32,904
to Uber X, but now they're doing Uber Pool which

234
00:09:32,904 --> 00:09:35,495
is showing, teaching people a new behavior where

235
00:09:35,495 --> 00:09:39,630
you're sharing the taxi or the car with other people

236
00:09:39,630 --> 00:09:42,212
that are going in the same destination, but cheaper

237
00:09:42,212 --> 00:09:45,741
versions of more expensive options today, there's a lot

238
00:09:45,741 --> 00:09:46,846
of companies that do that.

239
00:09:46,846 --> 00:09:49,787
I mean, a lot of innovation, I would argue starts there.

240
00:09:49,787 --> 00:09:52,252
Where it's cheaper than the existing incumbent,

241
00:09:52,251 --> 00:09:54,510
and a lot of people dismiss it because it's almost like

242
00:09:54,510 --> 00:09:58,173
not real and it doesn't have the real big features

243
00:09:58,173 --> 00:10:00,721
that this thing has, it's not robust, but over time

244
00:10:00,721 --> 00:10:02,477
it keeps iterating, iterating and getting better,

245
00:10:02,477 --> 00:10:04,218
better and better, and eventually disrupts it.

246
00:10:04,219 --> 00:10:06,326
So cheaper versions of something existing, and the

247
00:10:06,326 --> 00:10:09,351
last one that I have for you

248
00:10:09,351 --> 00:10:12,781
is finding a new growth niche.

249
00:10:12,782 --> 00:10:16,110
One of my favorite examples, I mean look at yoga

250
00:10:16,110 --> 00:10:17,831
back in the day with Lululemon.

251
00:10:17,831 --> 00:10:21,599
Lululemon was like "Okay, we wanna make clothing

252
00:10:21,599 --> 00:10:24,313
"that is for active and day wear, so it's not just

253
00:10:24,312 --> 00:10:27,400
"like I wear it to go to the gym" and they kinda looked

254
00:10:27,400 --> 00:10:30,719
at yoga's new kind of ascension in the market,

255
00:10:30,720 --> 00:10:32,786
and said "We wanna be the clothing for the yoga

256
00:10:32,785 --> 00:10:34,604
"studios," and sure people bought it that never,

257
00:10:34,605 --> 00:10:36,802
ever did yoga.

258
00:10:36,802 --> 00:10:38,388
Same thing with Cross Fit, right?

259
00:10:38,388 --> 00:10:41,721
Cross Fit is this crazy movement in the fitness

260
00:10:41,721 --> 00:10:44,256
and health space that's grown like almost double

261
00:10:44,256 --> 00:10:46,904
every year, and if you have let's say a booking

262
00:10:46,904 --> 00:10:51,278
software or a supplement, or even a t-shirt

263
00:10:51,278 --> 00:10:55,172
or kettle bells or whatever it is, and you kind of

264
00:10:55,172 --> 00:10:58,499
tag onto the Cross Fit, that's a huge opportunity

265
00:10:58,499 --> 00:11:00,147
for great new ideas.

266
00:11:00,147 --> 00:11:02,700
Those nine ones that I shared with you today is really

267
00:11:02,700 --> 00:11:05,501
for quantity not quality, in another video I'm gonna

268
00:11:05,500 --> 00:11:07,831
share with you guys, how to go through the ideas

269
00:11:07,831 --> 00:11:09,729
that you might have and figure out the best ones

270
00:11:09,729 --> 00:11:12,446
to pursue, I wanna invite you guys to subscribe to my

271
00:11:12,446 --> 00:11:14,912
newsletter, and as per usual I'm gonna challenge

272
00:11:14,912 --> 00:11:17,556
you to live a bigger life, and a bigger business,

273
00:11:17,556 --> 00:11:18,884
and I'll see you in the next video.

274
00:11:18,884 --> 00:11:20,615
If you liked this video, be sure to subscribe

275
00:11:20,615 --> 00:11:22,389
to my channel to get other tips on how to start

276
00:11:22,389 --> 00:11:23,908
and scale your business.

277
00:11:23,908 --> 00:11:26,362
I also have a free newsletter where I share training

278
00:11:26,363 --> 00:11:29,165
videos, exclusive invites to events, and also community

279
00:11:29,164 --> 00:11:31,551
contest, and if you want more information right now

280
00:11:31,552 --> 00:11:33,567
and content, check out these couple videos.

281
00:11:33,567 --> 00:11:35,278
I'll see you next week.