Coming up with ideas

The ideas that work are often the most simple and straightforward. They need not even be new. Many of the most successful entrepreneurs have simply taken existing ideas and applied them in a new way or in a new field, whether that’s to give the market what it’s lacking or tackle a particular social problem.

At their heart, all ideas address a problem. What’s critical is the audience or market for the solution. You don’t have to hit that market straight away but the potential for wider impact must exist.

If you think you’ve identified the beginnings of a solution - the first step is to talk to people. Find out if they share your concerns, and what their own needs might be. More and more ideas spring from collaboration - different groups of people working together on a problem. Think about what you need to develop the idea and make it happen - is it finance, advice, specific skills, or all three?

You should also think about the people around you in terms of the skills they might feed in to the development of your idea - this is as true of a group initiative like the Big Green Challenge, where all different types of people in a community have a role to play, as it is with individual entrepreneurs, who will need to call on the support of others for issues outside of their skill-set.

Progressing an idea - whether it’s for profit or otherwise - is in many ways about finding a balance. You need to have confidence in your own vision but be willing to use others as sounding boards. You have to be willing to drive things forward and be able to draw on the expertise of others. This is especially true for the Big Green Challenge.

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