Every day we hear of amazing new business ideas that some enterprising entrepreneur stumbled on and we find ourselves saying, “I wish I would have thought of that!” That comment is typically followed by a few moments of deep thought as we look in the deep recesses of our minds to see if that next great idea is lurking somewhere in there, only to come up with zip, nada, nothing.
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So the question then becomes, “Where do amazing ideas come from, and how can I be the one to come up with one?”
One day in my early 20s I was working in a physician’s office at the front desk copying what seemed to be the millionth health insurance card from a patient. I had to make the copy so I could then pull their medical file, hole-punch the paper, and use the metal prongs to attach the copy to their chart, only to then go and file the chart back in its proper place. I thought to myself, “Why the heck can’t I just scan the insurance card and have it attach to their patient registration information in the physician billing software we use in the office?” It seemed like such an easy to solution to a very time-intensive (and frankly incredibly mundane) task that we were forced to do with every patient that walked through our doors. If I could just scan their card then I could save a huge amount of time in my day to use for other, more important and far more exciting things. It seemed like a no-brainer to me.
So why didn’t anyone offer that feature with their medical billing software systems? I spent months looking for a solution that could do this simple act of attaching a scanned image to a patient billing record and came up empty. I thought to myself, “Someone should just write a new medical billing software program that has that feature. After all”, I thought, “how hard could that be?”
The truth is that it is a dang good thing I didn’t know just how hard it would be, or I can pretty much guarantee I would have never started down the path of starting my own business at the age of 23 in order to make it happen. As the story goes, I started out completely unaware of just how difficult the path would be, and by the time I realized it, I was too far down the road to turn back. It was do-or-die, and frankly I thought the “do” option sounded much nicer, so I went with that :).
Each experience on that journey led me to the next one, and then the next one, and so on, until 18 years later I now thank my lucky stars that I was naïve enough to start down that path of entrepreneurship with my little idea. That journey has taught me more than I could have learned by any other method, and it brought countless amazing people into my life, each of whom have helped me to become the person that I am today.
I share my story because the idea that set me on the path to success was not an earth shattering idea by any means. My initial concept came from the fact that I was sick and tired of doing a task that was both necessary and ongoing, and I wanted to find an easier way to get it done. New technologies are coming out at a fast and furious pace these days, and the most successful business ideas often stem from simply applying a newer technology to an everyday annoyance in order to simplify a task.
If you want to come up with the next great business idea then start thinking about how you might simplify an annoying task that is both necessary and ongoing in your life. Focus on those tasks that a lot of other people out there are also dealing with each day, because the more people that need an easier solution the better. Each one of those people will become a potential customer for your awesome new solution! I personally believe that the lowest hanging fruit are the tasks that can be simplified by utilizing the latest technologies available that the competitors haven’t yet taken advantage of. For these big companies, incorporating new technology into their legacy systems is not quick or easy. As the little guy just starting out, you can be both quick and nimble which gives you a major advantage against the competition.
As you start down the path of making your idea into a reality, don’t get discouraged if you have to change your idea along the way. Most great ideas will change several times before they turn into a successful business. Never feel like modifying your idea means it’s a failure, because that just isn’t true. Your original idea is what started you down the path of entrepreneurship, so it was a necessary part of your process. Go into your journey with the expectation that your idea is going to change over time through a process of ups and downs and lessons learned along your way, and decide in advance to be OK with that. Recognize that each step you take is leading you to the next, and together they are taking you down that path that will teach you more than you could have learned by any other method, and that will bring countless amazing people into your life that will help shape you into the person you want to become.
Above all, always thank your lucky stars for helping you have the courage to take that first step toward finding an amazing idea, and giving you even more courage to take that second step to actually do something with it!
~Amy Rees Anderson (twitter: @amyreesanderson)
