Many people who deal with entrepreneurs will tell them to always carry a little black book. In the book, instead of collecting phone numbers, collect ideas, thoughts, needs for improved products Examples: Wouldn’t it be nice if I didn’t have to carry a cell phone and an iPod? Now we have cell phones that store 100 tunes. Uh-oh- locked myself out again. Now we have electronic keypads on homes and cars.
Answer: b
The PSED is a very unique study students should become familiar with. In this case 480 entrepreneurs were asked about their decision making process. Almost half decided they wanted to start a business before they had an idea for that business.
These are the most common factors which lead someone to come up with the idea to start a new business. Each will be discussed in turn.
Many times it is your knowledge, or your personal discussion with someone that lead to your idea.
SCAMPER is a way to come up with new ideas Is there a SUBSTITUTE for this product? Can we COMBINE a chair and a walker to make merrywalker.com? Can we ADAPT the electronic door lock to work on a car? Can a photo printer be MODIFIED to accept pictures without a computer? Can baking soda be PUT TO USE as a freezer freshener? Can we ELIMINATE the need to call a broker to make a stock trade?
Ideas can come from anywhere if you are alert to your environment.
In reality, the incremental strategy is going to be more successful than imitating unless you imitate in a different geographic area. If you are offering nothing different than what is currently available customers will have no reason to try your product or service.
Entrepreneurial organizations tend to keep an open mind. They tend to encourage people to “think outside the box’ and reward for successful ideas.