Small Business Ideas and Changing the World

Great small businesses are started by great small business ideas. Look into any business anywhere and you will find somewhere in the development there was an idea by someone, who did something about it, started a business, built the business, and benefitted others by it.

I am an "idea" guy. Why? Because ideas are the genesis of all things, and surely all things pertaining to business. If the idea is good enough, and the individual acting on the idea is good enough, the combination of idea and action will shake the world.

Perhaps one of the most rewarding things for me to do is to read stories about people who achieved business success. Every successful business came from a person, man or woman, with an idea that they would grow into a concept, and that concept was developed into a product or service, and that product or service created a business.

There are countless inspiring stories of how businesses were started and developed. Most of them are fascinating reads because they help to nurture in my mind the power of small business ideas, and how those ideas can effect the world.

One of my favorites is the story of Madam C J Walker. She was born in 1867 in the deep South, a time and place of extreme discrimination and disadvantage for African Americans and women. Both her parents were slaves, and of her five siblings, she was the first born free.

But her difficulties in life did not end there. Both of her parents died, and when she was only twenty years of age her husband also died, leaving her with a two year old daughter. She moved to another state to be with her brothers, and there began to develop an idea that had been spawned in her years before...

Madam C J Walker had married again, this time well into her thirties, when she began experimenting with a product to deal with hair loss and scalp issues common to women of the time. Eventually, fueled by her own passion and ideas, she developed several products of her own design and began travelling with her husband to sell them throughout the United States. Within a few years she had built a college to train hair culturists and even her own manufacturing facility to produce her products.

Madam C J Walker became the first self made woman millionaire, and this with multiple and substantial business packaging ideas . Her story is a testament not only to overcoming tremendous odds to achievement, but the power of an idea. Her small business ideas, bolstered by her own personal strength and ingenuity, blossomed into a massive benefit for millions of women of her time and beyond.

Most people have great ideas. Perhaps there is nothing more common than great ideas. The problem is not lack of ideas; it's excuses people offer not to act on them.

The entire soft drink empire came from a single idea, formed into a recipe, and scratched onto a piece of paper and tucked away in someone's pocket. And that idea would have remained a mere "idea" forever, had not someone took the chance and acted on it to see what would happen. They did, and the world is different for it.

To create a successful business, there must be an idea, but not just any idea. It has to be a unique, never thought-of or acted-on idea, one that fills a need or a desire of many people, and can be developed and produced and sold.

So how to approach small business ideas to bring them to fruition? Here are few questions that should be considered:

1. Is the idea new? If it already has been done, or is commonly known, it probably isn't a novel idea worth pursuing, unless the idea is a completely new twist on an existing one, that would dramatically improve it.

2. Is the idea reasonable? Here goes the logical standard: an idea is only as good as it is reasonable or possible. Yes, it would be great to have a product that, say, makes the front lawn never grow higher than the desired length, while remaining green and healthy. But is this possible, or even practical? There are zillions of ideas out there and plenty of them get developed to a point but never see the light of day because they are not reasonable: the cost or hassle to produce them is far greater than the benefit.

3. Is the idea in my field of interest or knowledge? Most people are good at something and have a specific area of interest. To develop small business ideas effectively it stands to reason the developer should understand the product or at least have serious interest in it. A small business stemming from a person's passion is the fastest and surest way to success.

To build the enterprise or business or organization that will change the world always starts with an idea. Then ideas are added to ideas with passion and determination and intelligence. And what results can be life changing, not only for the entrepreneur, but for people everywhere.