I often find that when I speak to people intending to start their own business they are spending an amazing amount of time, money and effort trying to come up with a totally new idea for their business. In other words they’re trying to invent something new.

I believe that for most of us this is a terrible mistake. I understand that inventing something new sounds fun and exciting - certainly more so than the idea of starting yet another fast food outlet, coffee shop or office cleaning company. However trying to create a new market from scratch is a lot harder than selling a product that is already understood to people that know why they need, or want it.

“Yes but I want my business to make millions”, you say, “I need a radical new idea for that”, well sorry no, not really. Consider this: Richard Branson is a Billionaire, and while I’m not familiar with all his businesses it seems to me that not one of them is a new idea. He started producing a student magazine, then opening record shops and a record label then an airline. All had been done before, he just found a way to be different each time (you can read more in “Losing My Virginity”).

The computer company Dell is the same, they sell computers, lots of people were doing that when they started, but Michael Dell simply did it differently by selling direct to the customer (you can read more about Dell in the book “Direct From Dell”).

So before you try and think of a radical new business idea think carefully about what you’re good at, what interests you and how you can apply your knowledge and expertise to build a business in a proven market.

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