Nothing is more lonely than one great idea. And no venture is more challenging than one in which you have a solution in search of a problem. It's critical that you generate as many ideas as possible to address the opportunity you've identified, then use the evaluation techniques provided below to narrow your ideas down to the very best one.

Brainstorming Ideas

Whereas an opportunity points to a waiting market, an entrepreneurial idea is the specific answer to the needs of that market. For example, there may be a widespread need for lawn care, for which the production and sales of lawnmowers is one idea to address it. Others could be lawn care services, weed-control, and so on. Brainstorming new ideas with others is a creative activity, so you may want to review the tips below first.

Tips for Maximizing Creative Activities

• Choose an unusual setting or rearrange the setting you're in. Humans tend to get into ruts, which restrict creative thinking. Try these activities outside, perhaps on your deck or in your backyard. Wear unusual clothing and arrange yourselves randomly, rather than sitting in ordered rows or circles.
• In creative exercises, there are no wrong responses or answers. Anything goes. Go for volume and don't worry about quality at this point. Make sure everyone gets involved.
• Leapfrog off each other's ideas. If someone says "frog," another might say "pond," for example.
• Record your ideas as you go. Have a volunteer write down ideas, perhaps linking them in the order in which they're generated.
• Have fun. We tend to be more creative when we're having a good time.

Brainstorming Activity

Materials: Flip-chart paper, different coloured felt pens. The object is to come up with as many ideas as possible that could address a specific, identified, opportunity.

1. Form a group of three or more people. They can be friends, classmates, or business associates. It doesn't matter.
   
   
2. Recall the opportunity that you came up with through the creative activity related to opportunity identification. Let's say you've decided that there is a need to provide home care for the elderly because they represent a growing demographic, health care systems are strained, and families either don't want or are unable to care for their own elderly members.
   
   
3. Write "home care for the elderly" in a circle in the centre of a sheet of flip-chart paper.
   
   
4. In a three-minute, timed exercise, have everyone blurt out whatever comes into their heads when they see the opportunity in the circle. Before starting, encourage people to leapfrog off each other's ideas and, remember, there are no wrong ideas. Get as many as possible.
   
   
5. Record all these ideas on the sheet as you go.
   
   
6. If you have enough people to form two groups (of even three each, for example), exchange sheets and run another three-minute session where each group adds to the other group's ideas. Record these in a different colour to see which group contributed which ideas.
   
   
7. When you're finished, tape the sheets up on a wall or chalkboard and discuss the ideas that you've come up with. Underline the ones that seem the most interesting or promising and then choose one, for example, "companionship and errands." This might mean that someone had the idea that you could start and operate a business that offered the elderly companionship in their homes and would include running errands for them such as buying groceries.
   
   
8. Next, brainstorm all the possible ways you could run such a business, including who would do it, where, how, how much you might charge, and so on.

Evaluating Ideas

Once you're satisfied that you have a good potential idea that will address your opportunity, you need to evaluate it thoroughly to ensure that it is realistic, doable, and the right idea for you. If you answer all the questions below that apply to your idea, you'll be better able to make a decision about basing a new venture on it.

1. What do others think of your idea? If it's a product, have you shown the idea to a product designer for evaluation? What did he or she tell you about the product's chances for success? If it's a service, do people tell you it sounds feasible or not?
   
   
2. Is the idea directly related to the opportunity? Explain how the idea will specifically address the opportunity.
   
   
3. Has the idea been tried before? If not, do you know why it hasn't? If it has, do you know if it succeeded or failed and the reasons? If it has been tried before and failed, how will you improve it to ensure it doesn't fail this time?
   
   
4. Did you base this idea on accurate, reliable, information? For example, did you read just one article or book and then decide on the idea, or did you do a thorough review of the literature?
   
   
5. What risks are associated with this idea? Do you know how to reduce and manage these risks? Are you prepared to assume the necessary risks?
   
   
6. Will there be resistance to this idea? (There almost always is.) Where will this resistance come from, and why? Will you be able to overcome this resistance?
   
   
7. Do you know how much it will cost to turn your idea into an actual business? Can you access the resources—money and people—that you will need to make this idea work?
   
   
8. How do you feel about the idea? Are you excited? Worried? Skeptical? You'll need to be really excited and confident if you're going to make a success of it.