I want to start a business but don't know what: stop looking for ideas

If you landed here searching for this, there's nothing wrong with you.

It happens to almost everyone who wants to start something. They have the drive. They're missing the idea.

So they do the logical thing: they look for lists. "Profitable business ideas." "Untapped niche markets." "Businesses you can start from home."

Let me save you some time: the idea isn't on a list.

If it were, a thousand people who read the same list would already be doing it.

Don't look for ideas. Look for problems that repeat

I've spent more than ten years turning problems into products. Not one of them came from looking for an idea.

They came from seeing the same thing over and over. Rural guesthouses asking us for the same thing. Sports clubs struggling with the same thing. Restaurants needing the same thing.

There's a rule I've used for years:

If I solve something twice, it's probably a product.

So the question isn't "what business should I start?". It's this: what problem do I see repeating around me?

Where to look

• In your current job. What gets done by hand, in a spreadsheet, in a rush, every month? What does everyone complain about?
• In your clients, if you already have some. What do they ask for that you don't sell?
• In the industries you know from the inside. Your family runs a shop, you coach a team, you worked in a hotel. That's knowledge you won't find on Google.
• In what people pay for grudgingly. Where there's a complaint and a payment, there's an opportunity.

Niche markets: the value of boring

When you search for "untapped niche markets", you get things that sound like the future.

But the niches that work often don't sound like anything.

Sports clubs. Rural guesthouses. Restaurants. That's where we work. They aren't sexy. They don't impress anyone at a dinner party.

And that's exactly why they have three great things going for them:

1. Little serious competition.
2. Very concrete problems.
3. Customers who are grateful when something simply works.

A club treasurer doesn't want a revolutionary platform. They want to collect membership fees without losing their weekends.

Solve that for them and they'll stick with you for good.

The best niches aren't found by reading an article. They're found by working for someone.

How to tell if a problem is worth it

Three questions. That's all.

1. Does it happen to lots of similar people? Not to one person. To many who look alike and who you know where to find.
2. Are they already spending money or time on it? If they solve it with a spreadsheet and an exhausted treasurer, that's your competitor. And it's one you can beat.
3. Would they pay you today for a half-finished solution? If the answer is yes, start tomorrow.

If you don't have a problem to hand

Then the idea isn't the first step. The first step is getting close to an industry.

Work in it. Offer a service. Take on projects. Talk to the people who live it every day.

It looks like a detour. It's the shortcut.

Because once you're inside, you won't be short of ideas. You'll have too many. And the hard part will be choosing.

What you don't need

You don't need a brilliant idea. You don't need to be first. You don't need to invent a new category.

You need to be close to a problem that repeats.

And to have the patience to solve it well, once, and again, and again.

P.S. I wrote more about why I like these industries in why I keep building in sectors nobody finds sexy.