Business Ideas 101

[vieome]

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/article-1640358/Dragons-Den-The-rejects-that-got-rich.html

Interesting

[adrianh]

Agreed.

In Season 1 Episode 1 they turned down a guy who added a laser to a level saying that it will never work.....bad move...

[Blurock]

Opportunity:

In South Africa and the rest of Africa there are still millions of people without sanitation. No toilets or running water. Because lack of sanitation is a health risk, this is a priority project. The problem with water borne sewerage is the lack of water in most parts of Africa. Finding a cost effective and sustainable solution will get you funding from the AU, EU, USA, UNESCO and many other bodies.

[Justloadit]

Hi Blurock,

There has been a SA patented solution for this for some time now. follow :-

http://www.ecosan.co.za/introduction.html

[Blurock]

Hi Blurock,

There has been a SA patented solution for this for some time now. follow :-
http://www.ecosan.co.za/introduction.html

...still need to get it to the people though. There is no money to pay for it as cANCer has taken everything!

[vieome]

Quick Buck T- Shirt print

[ians]

I have 3 products which I believe would sell.

1 I have been building for a 6 years and selling on a small scale, someone has taken the idea and within a couple of months has already sold 100 items...with a clear profit of over R100 000.

I can see by marketing the product correctly and creating collection points he has taken the market to another level, I have been doing it as a hobby, but the market has grown in recent months and I am being left behind.

I have a fully equipped workshop with all the machinery paid up and team to manufacture the products, just no marketing team or distributors. The worse part is that many people have suggested that they prefer my product yet my competition is selling his product at a rate of about 10 - 1 at the moment.

I also have a fully equipped electrical construction, power quality and thermal imaging setup, just no marketing strategy or business plan, which has been running for over 22 years, but just never gone anywhere because I made the mistake many companies make, never taken the time to become a businessman.

I am in the process of making some changes, but since I started at the beginning of the month, all I have come to realise is I have a long way to go. My next step is to read Dave's posts of how to move from being a one man operation to where is now. I also believe it is time to start getting out there and socialising more.

[ians]

There is big money in water treatment plants, trust me I did it for many years, just not prepared to pay the fees which come with keeping everyone happy, this could be something I need to look at in the future, paying more bribes to survive. If you cant beat them join them. Look at all the big companies construction companies, paying massive fines for all their skulduggery.

I was chatting to someone the other day and he was telling how much money they loose in paying benefits, finders fees what ever you want to call it.

[vieome]

There is big money in water treatment plants, trust me I did it for many years, just not prepared to pay the fees which come with keeping everyone happy, this could be something I need to look at in the future, paying more bribes to survive. If you cant beat them join them. Look at all the big companies construction companies, paying massive fines for all their skulduggery.

I was chatting to someone the other day and he was telling how much money they loose in paying benefits, finders fees what ever you want to call it.

I agree there is money in water treatment , and the amount to be made will only increase in the future as water quality drops due to bad service delivery. The ideal systems would be for domestic water purification i.e reverse osmosis. Most domestic machines at present are retailing at R4500.00 which is a huge rip off and a mis-understanding of the water purification business model. The wholesale price is about $60.00 or R600. The idea is to install the machines for clients cheaper and make money on replacement cartridges.

[ians]

That's the problem in this country, put eco friendly or energy saving and you bend over and collect.

R60.00 for an LED light or R200 - R1200 for an LED flood light, lets rape the customers while they are stupid enough to pay the price. Then just to add insult the government puts a tax levy on normal lamps.

[vieome]

Problems are good. It is by solving everyday problems that one makes money.

[adrianh]

I'll say this much, the most important thing about coming up with business ideas is the ability to think laterally. I fell butt first into the butter recently by being able to apply a common technology to a very lateral market. The market is totally untapped. There are one or two companies doing the same in the US and that is about it. Applying the technology to the market speeds up the creation of the product x1000. The products are simply to make and can be sold into hundreds of shops and of course on the internet.

What is the bottom line: Read and learn as much as you can about as many topics as you can. Look for connections between the topics and if you are really lucky you will find a connection that will turn into a great business. I connected a predominantly male left brain technology with a predominantly female right brain market.

What I have done is nothing spectacular, it should be obvious to anybody who uses the technology. I can only think that the reason nobody else has climbed into it is that they have not been able to make the lateral connection.

We should allow the right brain to play with thoughts, ideas and concepts, to mix and match and dicover connections. I do not think that one would be able to to connect the dots by using the left brain. Linear thinking is simply not suitable to the creative process.

What is very sad is that education spends all its time on the left brain and neglects the right brain. We are taught that we are clever if we can think linearly and we can spit out answers like computers. This might be useful to an accountant but is not useful to a creative person. How can one ever teach entrepenuership to somebody who is unable to think creatively.

People who talk about thinking outside of the box have a very serious problem, they fins themselves trapped in a box of linear thinking coupled with specialization. I have no box, I think far and wide because my knowledge stretches far and wide.

[Dave A]

My next step is to read Dave's posts of how to move from being a one man operation to where is now.

Which reminds me - most of the original series disappeared when I stopped using vBadvanced as the site's CMS. I probably should do something about that.

What I have done is nothing spectacular, it should be obvious to anybody who uses the technology.

I've found the most effective and important ideas are often like that... near blindingly obvious once you've joined the dots and can actually see them properly for the first time. I don't know how many times I've kicked myself and gone "of course, you idiot - how could you not see that before?"

[adrianh]

The problem with joining the dots is that most people think linearly and see the dots within seperate thought process streams that are insulated from one another. Right brain all access thinking does not have those linear boundries. Kids do this automatically, education trains it out of them. Our education system forces kids into pure linear thought that disables right brain thinking.

Anyhow, thinking outside of the box is total rubbish unless people have a wide knowledge base which reaches far beyond their formal education.

[vieome]

IDEA!

I am not going to think, laterally or linearly on this one. This idea is been floating around in my head for a few seconds and so I will just say it as it comes without really thinking (cause I know sometimes an apple hits you on the head and before you get a chance to think, the word gravity pops in your head).

Start a website called something like the complete internet, or give me your link. Put a simple form on it that people over the world can submit a link to their site on it, and a brief idea of the site, and a catagory. The idea is to create a single site with links to the whole of the internet, I know a huge grand task, but every link that the site collects will add value in that one can have advertising on the site and even perhaps charge a business $1 to add a link. Part of this is to in a sense rid the user of the need for search, can in a sense have their own stumbleapon, where they go a your site with links to many sites. The problem with search is that it is abused by SEO and etc. So that is the basis, this might be a spark for someone in web-design or the other to think on Laterally and linearly in the box that is outside the box.