Creating a Spark for That New Welsh Based Company
I Have no Idea Where to Find My Idea!
I am privileged to work with young entrepreneurs for most of my day (and night). Teams that cover solutions from call centres and cyber security to employee retention and software delivery.
Every day is different and these teams encounter new obstacles to overcome each hour. It does not discourage them, it seems to drive them on and they are all constantly innovating and creating new avenues, paving the way for their future progress to grow and evolve.
Bill Aulet author of Disciplined Entrepreneurship and Managing Director for MIT Entrepreneurship at MIT says “Bodies in motion, remain in motion until stopped, bodies at rest will remain at rest”. I see this in effect with the teams each day, constantly evolving, researching, learning and absorbing all feedback and mentorship they receive be it through the #bethespark initiative or through connections they have built internationally.
I am often asked, “Where did the original idea come from?”
This question isn’t really a fair one as there are plenty of questions that should be asked prior to this. The first thing should be “What problem are you passionate about solving?”
Even before this question is asked you have to identify the problem in the first place.
Then you have to be passionate about solving that problem.
It is very difficult building a business from an idea if you’re not passionate about the problem you’re solving. Passion is the key to unlock the daily motivation needed to find the answer to your frustrating problem.
That said, there are plenty of people who have started their own companies who are just solving a problem that they’ve identified, and they’re doing a fantastic job at solving it. Companies have graduated through entrepreneurship incubators like the Alacrity Foundation in Newport, who have been given real-world problems to solve and are doing an immense service to solving that problem and creating a great company from it.
However, this doesn’t help with the original question “Where did the original idea come from?”
There are a couple of ways an idea can just hit you.
Being an Insider – You may have worked for a company for many years or are going through education and you notice a gap in the product or process involved. Now, you could go to your manager or lecturer and identify these new possibilities to them, but due to their own workload and priorities they may not pursue them so write them off. (Here in the Innovation Centre we are building a product to help eliminate this, so soon there will be no excuse not to innovate within companies and universities. More on this exciting venture soon).
Maybe a new idea has been generated within the company already, but due to political or business reasons it was scrapped. If you feel this solution is too big to miss or if your broad-mind set allows you to see additional possibilities outside of its pigeon hole existence within the company, then maybe it’s time to grow it yourself.
The benefit you have here is you’re already within a company that could purchase this solution and/or give you some helpful research material and feedback. Your network and personal experience is well positioned to enable you to craft this idea. Talk to trusted employees and contacts and see if there actually is a greater possibility for your idea.
Being Instinctive – All of a sudden, an idea will hit you. A spontaneous idea that can come from nothing or be directly related to something you were reading, passing by or experiencing. You see something and realise that there is an easier way to achieve that outcome, or you see something and are able to build on that idea and create something new from it. I enjoy achieving this state, it’s exciting and surprised that no one has thought of it before.
Before you do anything else, do a search online for your idea and see if it has been done before, as there is a chance that it has been tried and failed. This again could be for a number of factors, timing, market, finance, passion, so don’t dismiss your idea straight away if someone has already tried and failed. You can do it better so evolve the idea manipulating it around constraints you encounter. Again, share the idea with a few trusted friends, get their feedback on points. For example, would people pay for it? Would they use it? What other options do they have? Does this solution make it cheaper, quicker, simpler, more environmentally friendly than anyone else?
If it turns out to be a great idea, the entrepreneur in you will say “Let’s run with it!”
I, like most people have these ideas all the time, and more often than not I talk myself out of them. I take my ideas from zero to hero in 30 seconds, but then see way too many problems taking them back to zero again. That being said, several ideas that I have written down I revisit, and sometimes I progress to drawing up business plans and propositions for them. Some I like and increase my passion in them and some I don’t but I craft them merely from a hobbyist point of view.
So where does that original Spark come from? Anywhere. That light-bulb moment may shine brighter with certain ideas. It may ignite into a flame or burn out quickly but you had that idea.
The real trick is taking that spark of innovation and use it to do some good.
Make the world a better place.
Use your idea & passion and join in with BeTheSpark and use the connected groups to give you all the support you need to grow your idea.
About the Author
Paul Bailey is Marketing and Design Director for Wesley Clover. He has worked under the entrepreneurship umbrella of Terry Matthews funded businesses after graduating from Newport University in 2000. He is responsible for the global branding and direction of the Alacrity programme, he mentors and directly assists the graduate companies from the Alacrity Foundation from within The Innovation Centre in Newport as well as assisting the Wesley Clover portfolio of over 70 companies all over the world.