How Entrepreneurs Come Up With Great Ideas

How Entrepreneurs Come Up With Great Ideas

Where do eurekas come from?

At the heart of any successful business is a great idea. Some seem so simple we wonder why nobody thought of them before. Others are so revolutionary we wonder how anybody could've thought of them at all.

But those great ideas don't come on command. And that leaves lots of would-be entrepreneurs asking the same question: How did everybody else get inspiration to strike—and how can we work the same magic?

To find out, we turned to the experts—the startup mentors who discuss launching businesses at our Accelerators blog, as well as other investors, advisers and professors who have seen and heard countless success stories, and entrepreneurs who have written success stories of their own. They saw inspiration coming from all sorts of sources—everyday puzzles, driving passions and the subconscious mind.

Here's what they had to say.

Look at What's Bugging You

Ideas for startups often begin with a problem that needs to be solved. And they don't usually come while you're sitting around sipping coffee and contemplating life. They tend to reveal themselves while you're hard at work on something else.

For instance, one company of mine, earFeeder, came about because I wanted news on music I loved and found it hard to get. So I created a service that checks your computer for the music you have stored there, then feeds you news from the Internet about those bands, along with ticket deals and other things.

David Cohen 
Founder and CEO, TechStars

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You're Never Too Old

Mark Zuckerberg with Facebook, Paul Allen and Bill Gates with Microsoft, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs with Apple -- those success stories lead some people to think that coming up with big ideas is a young person's game. But the tech entrepreneurs who rose to early fame and fortune are just the outliers. The typical entrepreneur is a middle-aged professional who learns about a market need and starts a company with his own savings.

Research that my team completed in 2009 determined that the average age of a successful entrepreneur in high-growth industries such as computers, health care and aerospace is 40. Twice as many successful entrepreneurs are aged over 50 as under 25, and twice as many over 60 as under 20.

Vivek Wadhwa 
Vice president of academics and innovation, Singularity University

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Be Present in Life

Start your brainstorming with problems that you are personally invested in. Building a business is hard as hell and takes the kind of relentless dedication that comes from personal passion.

The next big question is "How?" Great ideas and innovations come from executing on your idea in a different way than everybody else is attacking it, if they're attacking it at all. A great way to do this is to look outside of your industry to see how others are solving problems. Approaches that they think are routine might be out of the ordinary for you—and inspire great ideas.

Also, most businesspeople tend to ignore our creative side until we really need it. Making sure that your life has a balance of the arts is a great way to stay engaged creatively.

This last tip will seem insanely obvious. However, in the world we live in, it's easier said than done: Simply be present in life.

I'm sure you can relate to how overconnected we all are. Something as simple as having a cup of coffee becomes a juggling act of replying to emails and managing schedules. It's easy to miss a potential piece to your innovation puzzle when it's right under your nose if you aren't there.

Angela Benton 
Founder and CEO, NewME Accelerator

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Ideas Are Abundant; Drive Isn't

Perhaps the greatest factor that determines whether or not an entrepreneur will be successful isn't the business idea itself, but rather the entrepreneur's willingness to try (and keep trying) to turn the idea into reality. Great ideas are abundant, but it's what we decide to do with them that counts.

Samer Kurdi 
Chairman of the global board, Entrepreneurs' Organization

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Let Your Subconscious Do the Work

When the mind is occupied with a monotonous task, it can stimulate the subconscious into a eureka moment. That's what happened to me. The business model for my company, ClearFit, which provides an easy way for companies to find employees and predict job fit, hatched in the back of my mind while I was driving 80 miles an hour, not thinking about work at all.

The subconscious mind runs in the background, silently affecting the outcome of many thoughts. So, take a break and smell the flowers, because while you're out doing that, your mind may very well solve the problem that you are trying to solve or spark a solution to a problem you hadn't considered before.

Ben Baldwin 
Co-founder and CEO, ClearFit

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Attack Practical Problems

Make a note whenever you encounter a service or a customer experience that frustrates you, or wish you had a product that met your needs that you can't find anywhere. Then ask yourself, is this a problem I could solve? And how much time and money would it take to test my idea?

That last point is crucial. As my sage Stanford professor Andy Rachleff encouraged me, "Make sure you can fail fast and cheaply." In business school, I had a couple of big ideas. One was improving domestic airline service—which would have cost millions and taken years. I decided to pursue another opportunity that was a lot cheaper and would show results faster—a clothing line called Bonobos.

In the end, it took me just nine months and $15,000 of startup funds to get a little traction and market feedback.

Brian Spaly 
Founder and CEO, Trunk Club

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Head Into the Weird Places

For entrepreneurs to stretch their brains, they should seek out the unusual.

Watch and listen to weird stuff. I enjoy watching obscure documentaries and listening to unusual podcasts. It's thrilling to find cool ideas lurking just a few clicks away.

Walk in weird places. I take walks in hidden suburban neighborhoods, department stores, community colleges. When you're walking with no purpose but walking, you see things in fresh ways, because you have the luxury of being in the present.

Talk to weird people. Striking up conversations with people who are different from you can be powerful. I still remember random conversations with strangers from decades ago, and how they shaped me.

Victor W. Hwang 
Co-founder, CEO and managing director, T2 Venture Capital

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Search for a Better Way

As one goes about their daily life, it is useful if they routinely ask themselves, "Isn't there a better way?" You would be surprised at how frequently the answer is, "Yes." Other sources of inspiration for me are existing products. One should never feel that just because there is a product out there similar to yours that you can't execute it and market it better.

Liz Lange 
Fashion designer

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Think Big

There are several factors an entrepreneur should consider when choosing a business idea or opportunity.

Go big or go home: There are opportunities to make money by building businesses that marginally improve on existing products or services, but the real thrill sets in when the decision is made to go after an enormous idea that seems slightly crazy.

Make the world a better place: The best kind of entrepreneur pursues a business that simplifies or improves the lives of many people. He or she repeatedly asks "what if" when thinking about how the world works and how the status quo could be dramatically improved.

Fail fast: As overall startup costs decline and markets move much more quickly, it has become easier to test ideas without devastating consequences of failure.

Pivot quickly: Many of the most successful companies exist in a form that is entirely different from how they were first envisioned. A successful entrepreneur will realize when a company is moving in the wrong direction or is missing a much larger opportunity.

Kevin Colleran 
Venture partner, General Catalyst Partners

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Taking It to Market

It is important to look at an idea in two ways: first, to consider the initial inspiration for the business, and second, the often very different concept that ends up being executed to create the new company. We typically think of these ideas as the thing that sets these great entrepreneurs on the path of success. However, an idea is only that until you do something with it. Great entrepreneurs also discover the strategies to deliver the new innovative solution to the market.

Ellen Rudnick 
Clinical professor of entrepreneurship and executive director of the Michael P. Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business

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Listen to People Who Know

Entrepreneurs come up with great ideas in a number of ways. Here are some of the best.

Get customer feedback: Listen to customers and create products and services that give them more of what they like and/or remove what they dislike.

Listen to front-line employees: The workers who manufacture the widgets, interact with customers and so on see what takes too long to accomplish, what is too expensive, what causes problems. Talk to those workers, or even do those jobs yourself.

Reverse assumptions: Many great entrepreneurs come up with ideas by reversing assumptions. For example, the old assumption was that a bank needed to have tellers and branch locations. The ATM concept asked: How can we offer banking services without having a branch location and tellers?

Dave Lavinsky 
Co-founder and president, Growthink Inc.

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Get Inspired by History

You often hear about the pursuit of the new new thing. But I believe entrepreneurs have a lot to gain by looking into history for inspiration.

In the mid-'90s, some beer enthusiasts and experts called us heretics for brewing beers with ingredients outside of the "traditional" water, yeast, hops and barley. So, I started researching ancient brewing cultures and learned that long ago, brewers in every corner of the world made beer with whatever was beautiful and natural and grew beneath the ground they lived on.

We now make a whole series of Ancient Ales inspired by historic and molecular evidence found in tombs and dig sites.

Sam Calagione 
Founder and president, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery Inc.

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Be Prepared to Shift Gears

Entrepreneurs need to understand two things. For one thing, their first (or second or third) idea is often not the real opportunity. In fact, it might stink. They have to be on the lookout for why it stinks and be willing to shift course.

But they also need to understand that even if their idea has problems, there's often a good opportunity buried within it. They need to talk to people and continue tweaking and transforming it. In the process, they encounter setbacks, rethink their approach, try again and redefine what they're doing.

For all that, the idea may fail—it's happened to many successful entrepreneurs. But they weren't deterred by failure. They kept at it and were better positioned to recognize and shape the next idea into something truly great.

Donna Kelley 
Associate professor of entrepreneurship and Frederic C. Hamilton chair of free enterprise, Babson College

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You Can't Rush the Brain

I don't know where great ideas come from. I am not sure anyone does. I am not even sure how I come up with my ideas. The brain does its thing, and out pops an idea.

While you are waiting for the brain to get its act together, do what you can do. Do the doable. Meet with people, schmooze, have a laugh or two. Build mock-ups and prototypes. At the very least, collect other people's problems. That's always a guaranteed doable.

The deep idea here is that action has a creative aspect distinct from thinking. And thinking need not come first. Mostly it doesn't.

Saras D. Sarasvathy
Isidore Horween research associate professor of business administration, University of Virginia's Darden School of Business

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What Not to Do

One thing that isn't a rich vein of entrepreneurship gold: reading a market forecast from a big-name consulting firm and deciding to create a product to serve that need.

Guy Kawasaki 
Author and former chief evangelist of Apple

By: The Wall Street Journal 

Source: Huffington Post

4 Myths About Success to Ignore

4 Myths About Success to Ignore 

When you're running a business, it's tempting to fall for get-successful-quick schemes. Here are four so-called "success" strategies that can easily backfire.

Most of us are looking for the key to success. As I've mentioned in previous columns, I believe that the core foundation for a successful career is figuring out where your innate talents and purpose connect and creating a job strategy around that area of overlap. After that, there are countless other variables to consider. The biggest key to success is being able to weed through those variables, figure out what works for you, and ignore what doesn't.

It's trickier than it sounds. We all have doubts about our ability to succeed. This is especially true when you are beginning to build a business. When you're stressed and vulnerable, you're susceptible to any information that comes your way. Savvy marketing ploys also play into our fears, making us believe that the key to six-figure success lies in reading a book or taking a seminar. To that end, here are some common "success strategies" that may sound like the right thing to do, but could actually lead you astray.

Myth: Get advice

We all want advice. We crave understanding and clarity, and if someone can give us something that will help unleash in us what is needed to get the job done, then we love it. The problem is that we often fail to see the difference between advice and support. Advice is what someone else would do in your shoes; support is when someone steps into your shoes and helps you make a decision based on what is best for you. Advice is what’s more commonly shared, so be wary of it. For example, your parents may warn you not to start your own business. They may not have the entrepreneurial spirit, and if they started a business it would probably fail. You, however, may be different. The bottom line: When you hear advice, listen to it. Does it make you excited? If not, then discard it. It’s not right for you.

Myth: Get an MBA

Getting an MBA is viewed in society as a ticket to a high-paid job or a lesson in how to run a business. However, most entrepreneurs will say they learned all that they know by building their business on their own. Getting an MBA may be right for some of you, but it’s not a magical solution for being successful. Some of the most successful entrepreneurs, such as Sara Blakely, Richard Branson, and Oprah Winfrey, are famous for not having business degrees. If getting an MBA excites you, then do it. Otherwise don’t.

Myth: Make six figures in the first year of business

We are impatient. That is one of the problems with listening to typical marketing slogans that are prominent in the "success" industry. Marketing can lead you to believe that it’s realistic to make lots of money fast if you hire the right person or follow the right formula. The fact is that 93 percent of small businesses have less than $250,000 in annual revenue and 57 percent have less than $25,000 in annual revenue, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. So making six figures is not common and certainly not an achievement that should be expected to happen overnight. You need to gauge your success based on other metrics: Are you consistently growing in a positive direction? Do you love what you do? Are you continually evolving? Are you able to pay the bills? These are the types of questions you should be asking, rather than setting up unrealistic expectations that may not be sustainable for an early-stage business.

Myth: Everyone is a customer

There's a misperception that if your business serves everyone, it will be huge. Once you’re at the size of, say, Amazon, these types of goals are more realistic, but if you are a small business trying to grow, nothing is more detrimental than not having an ideal client. Being able to offer a clear solution for a certain type of audience not only increases your likelihood that someone will remember you, but also bolsters your brand. You want to be unique and offer the best solution for a certain type of person, not be everything to everybody.

By: Laura Garnett

Source: Inc.

A Really Busy Person's Guide to Work-Life Balance

A Really Busy Person's Guide to Work-Life Balance

Women working the highly pressured field of neuroscience share what their studies -- and their lives -- have taught them about work-life balance.

When it comes to who has the toughest work-life balance challenges small business owners might plausibly make a case for a top slot, but academic scientists are right there with them. A highly competitive work environment, long hours, and frequently moves between cities and institutions are all part of the game, so how do the women who take up these sorts of careers manage to balance them with a happy home life?

And better yet, how do women who study the human brain manage their lives so that they work for their professional ambitions as well as the peculiarities of the wiring in our heads?

That’s the premise of a long round up advice from female neuroscientists on the blog of the University of Washington’s Fairhall Lab.

Some Cliches Are Correct…

… it does in fact take a village, the women agree, but our modern views of childrearing sometimes keep us from embracing help. "Throughout most of history, there were many people who played a role in the raising of each child. Mothers, fathers, grandmothers, sisters, brothers and whoever happened to be standing around. It’s the natural way of doing things, except that we live at a funny cultural moment wherein that normally collective job largely falls on the shoulders of one person: the mum," explains Anne Churchland of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories.

“When my children were first born, I drafted complicated schedules wherein my husband and I could offset our work hours to minimize the time our son would be in the care of others. This was fine, but we also minimized time with each other, and my life got much easier when I accepted the fact that, realistically, I needed a lot of help. A LOT,” she concludes and the other commentators largely agree: fighting the cultural pressure that causes mothers to feel guilty for leaving their kids in the care of others leads to happier parents and better socialized kids.

Having Money Matters

This may seem obvious, but all the talk of optimal schedules and choosing caregivers can mask the brutal truth we all know but sometimes fail to mention -- the more money you make, the easier it is to manage the juggle. "Spend money on services," recommends Ila Fiete, a professor of neurobiology at University of Texas, Austin. "Hire babysitters, house cleaners, gardeners, lawn mowing services, any logistical help you can manage to outsource... I cannot recommend this more highly."

For academics the takeaway from coming to terms with this reality is simple: advocate for yourself. "Ask for raises because childcare is expensive," says Catherine Carr, a biology professor at the University of Maryland. Leslie Vosshall of The Rockefeller University is equally blunt: "Earn enough money to make all this work. Children are expensive." For small business owners who have no one but themselves to appeal to, it may be worth taking a hard look at how you price your products and whether you can squeeze any more profit out your business -- even if that means a bit more time away from your family.

Your Kids Can Be a Help Not a Hurdle

This is a big one and comes up again and again in the women’s responses. Yes, of course, kids are demanding, but depending on how you raise them, they can also be a big asset in your struggle to fit it all in. "When time is tight, it’s so easy to just do everything for kids rather than teach them or wait for them to do it slowly. But if you don’t give them the time they need to become independent, they will stay dependent and that is much more frustrating in the long run," says Gwenn Garden, a professor of neurology at University of Washington, Seattle. "I heard the suggestion about storing plates and cups in low cabinets and drawers from an older woman scientist several years ago and immediately implemented it for my step-daughters. At age 5, my daughter already helps empty the dishwasher, gets her own cups of water and helps get everything ready for breakfast." This approach doesn’t just make parents’ lives easier, the women note, it also boosts kids’ confidence.  

"Children today are all geniuses. It’s amazing! Their parents tell you how they can count to 100 at age 4 or play symphonies at age 3 or read Shakespeare at age 5. A miracle! However, these geniuses are almost uniformly clueless about how to load the dishwasher, put away laundry or make a sandwich," observes Churchland, who notes that "parents are usually aware of this fact and frustrated by it- who wouldn’t like a little help around the house? But the parents of the geniuses devote all their parental resources to cultivating the genius and far fewer resources towards skills that would actually be of use. Cultivating useful skills does take time and thought, but the payoff is huge!"

Ignore Others’ Judgements

"Try not to waste time worrying about what your senior colleagues think," advises Garden, who came to this realization after she noticed sensible people don’t obsess over their colleagues’ arrangements: "I couldn’t remember much about my colleagues actions like whether or not the were regularly present and departmental functions or faculty meetings or did their ‘fair share’ of administrative or teaching responsibilities. The only things I remembered was the last time they presented their research or the buzz around a high impact publication. Once I realized this, it became easier to avoid, say no to and/or leave in the middle of a lot of things when what I would rather be with my husband and daughter."  

It’s also important not to judge yourself. "No matter what, be gentle with yourself.  As women, we are often our own harshest critics," says UC Berkeley’s Marla Feller.

And a Final Bit of Advice…

If your husband or partner isn’t as helpful with logistics as you want him to be, the University of Washington’s Adrienne Fairhall says you should try to be understanding. His brain is most likely to blame: "My husband’s inability to do family logistics is, I have learned, not universally but statistically significantly gender-characteristic and is not to be attributed to personal failings."

By: Jessica Stillman

Source: Inc.

10 Things Employees Want More Than a Raise

10 Things Employees Want More Than a Raise 

Contrary to popular belief, employees value many things more than the amount of money they're being paid.  If they're treated right, employees will not only work for less, they'll be happier and more productive as they do so.

Based upon hundreds of conversations I've had about bosses and jobs, here's what employees really want:

1. To feel proud.

When asked what they do for a living, employees want to boast rather than apologize. They want the people they meet to be at least a little impressed, even if it's only because the employee has taken on a job that's generally thankless.

2. To be treated fairly.

While almost everyone realizes that life isn't fair, employees don't want the boss to make life more unfair than it already is.  Employees hate favoritism.  They expect the perks and promotions to go to the people who work hard, not the people who kiss butt.

3. To respect the boss.

Employees want respect from the boss, of course, but just as strong is the need to feel respectfor the boss!  Employees want to believe in that their boss is a leader who is worthy of their loyalty.

4. To be heard out.

Employees hate it when the boss doesn't have the time or the interest to listen to what they have to say. Employees don't expect the boss to always take their advice, but if the boss won't hear them out they (rightly) assume the boss doesn't care about them.

5. To have a personal life.

For many bosses (especially entrepreneurs) work is a way of life.  Employees, however, usually think of friends and family as their "real" life.  Even when they're committed to their job, they get twitchy when work keeps them away too much.

6. To be coached not micromanaged.

Employees want the boss's help when 1) they ask for it, or 2) they're floundering so badly they're afraid to ask for it.  What employees don't want is to have the boss looking over their shoulder all the time.

7. To see the assh*les get fired.

In almost every workplace there are one or two jerks who make life miserable for everybody.  Almost more than anything else, employees want the boss to fire those jerks. If the boss doesn't, employees know he's either a weakling, a fool, or a jerk himself.

8. To feel less stress.

People hate the sense that they've got too much to do and not enough time to do it. Bosses must plan carefully, anticipate problems and set realistic goals, so that they don't accidentally and unnecessarily add stress to employees' lives.

9. To have a little security.

No sane employee expects lifetime employment.  Even so, it's hard to concentrate when you feel as if a sword is hanging over your head. Employees want to know that they're not wasting their time when they're giving your their best.

10. To beat the competition.

Finally, never underestimate the power of teamwork, especially when teamwork means grinding the other team into the dust.  Employees don't want to be team players; they want to play on the winning team.

Why isn't money on the list of desires? Well, as it happens, I've seldom heard anybody complain about their salary per se, except in the context of the above desires (i.e. "they don't pay me enough to put up with this.")

Satisfy the ten desires above and your employees will remain loyal and hardworking, even if you're paying them less (and maybe even far less) than they might earn elsewhere.

By: Geoffrey James

Source: Inc.

Starting a Business: The New 'Safe' Career?

Starting a Business: The New 'Safe' Career? 

Is it really that big a gamble to start your own business? Compared with other options, maybe not.

You know the stereotypical image: An entrepreneur risks it all in a gamble to get a business started. It's tremendously hard work--but is it really all that risky? Sometimes what seems safe is, in reality, far riskier.

The "Safer" Options

José María Cobián, an experienced entrepreneur in Spain, recently wondered about the number of university graduates in his country thinking of trying for a public sector job. About 60% are considering whether to take the qualifying exam. Only 1.6% entertain an entrepreneur's path.

And yet, according to research that Cobián quotes, five years out, only a fifth of the people who actually pass the exams get jobs in the public sector, and the annual success rate in the examinations is only 2%. Those numbers came before the current austerity measures that will mean fewer positions and less certainty. Public service is hardly more reliable and welcoming in the U.S., where government keeps trying to downsize and there is tremendous contention between management and labor. Just look at the turmoil in the Chicago public schools.

Are big corporations safer than starting your own company? For years, when asked about the dangers of working on my own and not as a corporate employee, I've always answered that given the economic climate and potential for layoffs, it seemed to me that full-time employees were the ones at risk. All their eggs are in one basket.

Where the Jobs Really Are

Look at the hiring trends. New jobs aren't increasing at a breakneck pace, and the number of people who are disappearing from the unemployment rolls because they've given up on finding something has been on the increase. Furthermore, how many companies scale back on benefits and pay over time? What good is it if a large company can retroactively limit your retirement benefits, health care coverage, or other important aspect of living?

As Cobián also points out, if you want a new opportunity, small companies are largely the way to go. According to the Kauffman Foundation, young firms less than five years old are the real job creators in the U.S. In fact, at least in 2009, if you factored out young companies, the net number of jobs decreased. Small businesses can do this because they're growing and need the help.

Job security is long gone in the world. Big companies are shrinking their workforces where and how they can. So which is really riskier: trusting your fate to a corporate entity, or taking matters into your own hands so no single employer/customer can undermine your financial welfare? If you're like me, the answer is clear.

By: Eric Sherman

Source: Inc.