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Many people consider becoming entrepreneurs at some point in their lifetime. This desire can come from many different needs: arriving in a new country without networks, difficult economic times, looking for new challenges, wanting to be your own boss, or in the face of burnout to name just a few. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the interest in entrepreneurship has been increasing in many regions (1,2). Many people experienced sudden loss of work or saw those around them affected by layoffs. This means that more and more people want to look to entrepreneurship to make their next career move. Entrepreneurship can begin as a way to supplement your regular income, start a passion project, or find a feasible way to control more of your own time. But not everyone is a natural entrepreneur. When you are not a natural-born entrepreneur, finding an idea to pursue can be one of the biggest struggles you have to make entrepreneurship a reality. Below are 5 ways to begin the process of finding an idea to pursue. This will take some internal and external contemplation in order to come up with one or two ideas that you can begin to explore. 1. Letting Go of Originality It is rare to have a truly original idea. Someone somewhere will have thought of a similar, if not identical, idea somewhere in the world. That is not a problem. It is not as bad as it may first seem. With other people having similar ideas or having ‘competitors’ means that there is already a market for the idea you are considering. Many of the products and services that we use today were not the first in their categories - including Google (search engine), Spotify (music streaming), and Facebook (social platforms). Many times, not being the first is an advantage because you can determine where other products or services are failing to serve customers. 2. Using Your Skillset Each of us is made up of many skillsets. Some relate to your home life, some relate to your education, and some relate to any hobbies you may have. There are so many places to look and find your skills. By thoroughly analysing them, you can begin to identify how you might package them to sell in certain industries or to certain professions. You begin by asking yourself questions like: What do you know well that others do not? What can you do easily that others need help with? What are others asking you for help with? Reflecting on these questions will allow you to see where you excel and what you specific unique selling point (USP) might be. 3. Solve a Problem or Identify Underserved Needs What annoys you in everyday life? What problems do you deal with repeatedly that might be worthwhile finding a fix to? Each of us walks around being irritated by certain things that we feel do not work well or are not fit for purpose. You can ask yourself: can I fix these in a way that I could monetise? Use your frustration to create sellable solutions. The same concept can be applied to underserved needs. Each of us has seen things that we can’t believe isn’t being utilised in other places. When I moved to Finland, I was blown away but the Finnish astiankuivauskaappi (dish drying cabinet) which even has its own Wikipedia entry. Have you experienced certain products or services that are local to one place that you could sell in another? Different cultures solve problems differently and this new perspective could help to find gap in the market. 4. Build on Products or Services That Already Exist When was the last time you created an adhoc way to balance your phone so that you could either have a video conversation or watch something on YouTube? Now there are many solutions to this problem but there didn’t used to be. And most of these solutions are sold by independent companies that are not related to Apple, Samsung, etc. This means that someone saw that there was a need to extend or improve how they used a product and took independent action. Some people have created special straps for Amazon’s Kindle so that they can be more easily used with one hand, especially when laying down. When the first iPhone was released, independent retailers began to provide stylised covers for them. They could see that people wanted ways to personalise their phone (the same phone that millions of other people had) to reflect their personality. Where can you see a way to make an already existing product or service, more usable or useful? Have you created a hack for yourself that you think others would benefit from? This can take the form of something physical or even an e-book or a course. 5. Ask Family and Friends The people that are closest to us generally know us well. Sometimes they can predict our responses to things and see parts of us that we cannot see clearly. Sometimes we are too close! To harness their knowledge, you can ask your family and friends what they think you do well for a great place to start your self exploration. You can even think about what you are consistently being asked to help with. Is it home repairs, is it computer help, website construction, or to write something? It may be that you help them for free because they are your family and friends, but is it possible that there is a way to turn those skills into something you can sell. One Bonus Idea: Buy a Business Just like business ideas don’t need to be original, your step into entrepreneurship doesn’t need to be with a business you started. This may sound confusing but there are many businesses that are for sale. Business through acquisition happens for many reasons: retirement moving onto new ideas or new challenges re-location (if the company is location-specific) passing away businesses outgrow their owners owners outgrow their businesses market changes, etc. This is how new owners can bring real value to current companies. You may have skills that are perfect for taking a current business to the next level. In Finland, there are marketplaces where you can search for businesses that are for sale. Three of these are: Yrityspörssi Yrityskaupat Firmakauppa Knowledge at Your Fingertips The last piece of advice is to use the tools at your fingertips. The internet had given every person who connects with it access to an immense amount of knowledge and potential customers. This means that it is now possible to start a company in very easily. No longer are you waiting on paperwork to go through, you can begin building something after you have spent a little time thinking about it and researching it. It doesn’t need to be perfect when you start, as long as you are open to feedback and open to changing things that aren’t working. Customer Research to Move Forward Once you have explored and identified a certain industry, product or service, or even your own skillset, you can begin to put your idea to the test and begin with market and customer research. Customer research is the foundation of any business idea and is required to move from the idea stage to the testable concept stage. Your customer research will tell you if you have an idea worth pursing or not. Remember, even finding out that it is not worth pursuing is an outcome. It allows you to move on to another concept without investing too much time, money, or other resources. Author Pamela Spokes works as a Service Designer in Metropolia’s RDI team. Originally from Canada, Pamela has years of experience in university admin focusing on international recruitment, marketing, and the international student/staff experience. With a Bachelor’s from Canada, a Master’s degree from Sweden, an MBA in Service Innovation & Design from Laurea, and her AmO from Haaga-Helia, she is interested in purposefully designed experiences that are centred around the user. Don’t be surprised if she knocks on your door to talk about learning co-creation methods through intensive learning experiences. Sources Fikri, K. & Newman, D. How the Pandemic Rebooted Entrepreneurship in the U.S. (hbr.org) Harward Business Review. January 17, 2024. More Brits than ever want to start a business post-Covid (accaglobal.com) March, 2022.