One Idea About Sharing Ideas: a Video Series Shot Whilst Discovering the World, Providing You with the Concept and Research to Start Your Next Venture!
Overview & Introduction
Having started this blog back in March, then going offline for the last 6 months, I am back. Back to launch a new video series of data-driven ideas.
It all started 5 years ago, following an interesting talk as part of a University start-up challenge – City Starters. Since then, I have been taking note of all ‘ideas’ that come to mind. These ideas have originated from problems that I have noticed or been confronted with myself. Becoming part of the City Starters programme resulted in a fixation with imagining solutions to presented problems. This resulted in a list of 100+ ideas. The list included the essence of both ride-sharing and serviced accommodation (Uber and Airbnb).
First lesson; an idea is worth nothing without execution.
In search of interesting topics to talk about, it seemed worthwhile to look at some of my own content. At the beginning of May 2017, I re-commenced my travels after a short spot of work. That’s when I started to turn the list of ideas into individual videos. So far I have recorded 40+ ideas, ready to be uploaded. But, I’m going to add a twist. A data-driven twist.
Each idea will also have data proving or disproving the relevance of the underlying problem. This has two purposes; to continue the theme of data-driven on this blog, but a much more important point. To highlight the need of fully understanding a problem before trying to make an idea, reality.
Ideas shape the course of history – John Maynard Keynes
The Problem Uncovered
If you’re still reading this article, it is likely that you fall in one of the following categories. You dream of starting your own business, but haven’t done anything about it. You have come up with many ideas of your own, but have not found the idea to drive you to success. Or, you may be sat there wondering how people even come up with ideas.
While the possibilities are endless, the first step is usually the hardest. How does one get a business idea? Once you have an idea, how can you assess whether it is worthwhile?
As per Google AdWords, the term ‘Business Ideas’ has an average monthly search volume of 100k-1m. Other popular platforms also throw up interesting data points;
YouTube has a video on this topic with 1,300,000+ views
Quora has 542,000+ followers for the topic ‘Business Ideas‘
Reddit has 7,600+ subscribers on it’s Small business ideas forum
Clearly a lot of people want to gain inspiration of possible business ideas. Are you one of these people?
Such data points, coupled with an evident lack of high quality content on the subject, has inspired the upcoming video series. (Interestingly, the UK Market Research industry generated over 4.8 Billion Pounds in 2016. This has grown 62% from 2012.)
The video series is intended to be a basis of stimuli. Encouraging you to take action to further explore the concept, and see if you could make the idea profitable, whilst solving someone’s problem. There are many questions the video series will not answer, such as; Is there already a market leader? Will there be demand for the idea? Could it be profitable? Will it solve the underlying problem? Is it a concept that is easy to understand, and thus adopt?
These are all helpful questions to ask, and although they will not be included within the video series, I’m hoping to still assist!
Visualising the Data
Below is a visualisation of the current list of ideas; as you can see – people. People is the most common word used throughout all 100+ ideas. This was a pleasant surprise for me. I like to think that people are at the centre of my ideas. I’m not forming ideas for businesses to make more money, I’m not forming ideas to gain personal wealth, I’m creating ideas to solve problems for people. Here, data has been able to support my personal beliefs.
You will notice that ‘app’ was also a relatively common word. Fear not, it is not a list of app ideas! Largely, when I say app, I mean web application – it’s the future!
The Idea
**The idea series has much better sound quality – promise!**
Over the coming months, each of the currently recorded 40+ videos will be uploaded to YouTube. This will allow you to gain an understanding of a problem that I have highlighted. The video will also explain a potential fix.
It is likely you will want to understand the problem in a bit more depth. Therefore, with each video will be a blog post that brings together several data-points to support or go against the problem. The post will outline brief research into the idea. This will include current market size, potential demand, other competitors and maybe even a SWOT analysis for good measure.
Leveraging data has it’s benefits, it leads to more informed decisions. You can use data to confirm your idea or negate your idea. Sometimes the data itself throws up new ideas. Whatever it may be, I hope this video series will provide some insight into:
– How data can assist in understanding a problem
– What data can be used to shape and refine an idea
– Why data can help assess whether an idea is worthwhile
All of this will be provided free of charge! No pay wall, no creepy ads, no nothing. Should the problem resonate with you, the idea catch your imagination, or inspire you to act, there will be the option to invest in further research.
Summary
It is likely you are wondering why I am sharing these ideas. If I saw the potential in ride-sharing and serviced accommodation before it ‘became a thing’, then why did I not take action? Why am I not concentrating on turning one of the ideas from concept to reality?
In simple terms, none of the ideas currently fulfil my personal Why. Have a read of my previous article on my Why to understand this concept a little further. But, I sincerely see the opportunity in each of the ideas that I will be posting about. If any of them are of interest, please take it, run with it like it is your own, and make it a success. I would love to hear your story, and if you would consider it, I would love to be involved with your progress!
Finally, the videos are one-shoot-only, so I apologise in advance for any bumps in the recording. The playlist of ideas can be found here, if you’re only interested in the videos, then make sure you subscribe!
The first idea is now live, sign-up on the mailing list below to keep up-to-date!
