How to Generate Business Ideas: 3 Simple Techniques I Use to Brainstorm Projects

Art Lapinsch -

In 2022 I'm deploying the Spaghetti Technique 🍝

I ship micro-businesses and see what sticks.

To collect and manage my business ideas I built an idea bank, which I fill and review on a regular basis.

A screenshot of my idea bank (January 2022) → Some ideas are better than other 🙈

But how to generate ideas in the first place?

Techniques I Used So Far to Generate Business Ideas

Respond to a Request from a Friend

One day a friend reached out and had a question about a product and workflow that I was very familiar with.

Here's the original Slack conversation, which triggered this idea.

Starting with someone's specific problem in mind is great because you can solve for a very specific context.

This constraint helps to reduce the scope of the project and ship quickly.

Content Marketing Engine: Notion + Super Content Marketing Template
Most businesses want a successful content marketing funnel but struggle to follow through. That’s why I built an all-in-one Notion template to:📚 Collect Resources: Collect the best links you read.💡 Synthesize Ideas: Come up with building blocks for essays.✍️ Write Drafts: Structure and create essa…
GumroadArt Lapinsch
This is the resulting product.

TL;DR: Requests for help are among the best ways to think about business ideas because (1) the requesting person perceives you as an 'expert' in an area and (2) has a pain point, which is large enough to go out of their way and ask someone for help. This is the smell of opportunity.

Respond to a Problem or Product Request from Social Media

Another time I got lucky and saw this Tweet in my timeline:

Something about this "problem" immediately inspired my thinking.

This was one of those fortunate moments where a minimum-viable solution immediately sprung to mind: Replicate a chat interaction via a form.

My takeaway: Follow inspiration when it strikes.

What followed was a 2-day build sprint to create Draft Crony 🦹‍♂️

This is the finished result:

Draft Crony
With Draft Crony you beat Writer’s Block and bang out a draft in no time 👇
Draft Crony
A simple micro-product built with Carrd + Tally Forms + Zapier + Gmail

TL;DR: Your social media feeds (Facebook; Twitter; LinkedIn; Reddit; IndieHackers) are full of people who are sharing their challenges/problems. Tune in and see if it inspires you.

Solve Your Own Problem

This is probably the most common advice given in entrepreneurial circles: scratch your own itch!

Why? Because you are immediately solving for a concrete problem instead of an abstract one.

My specific problem was to structure my projects while I'm building and shipping micro-businesses. The solution was to create a linked/relational database in Notion to know when/what/how/why of all my projects. I call it an Idea Bank.

Get Idea Bank Template for Free

I'm using it in the wild and friends started using it for their own entrepreneurial journeys as well.

This makes me happy :)

TL;DR: If you have a problem, then chances are that other people have the same problem. Solve it for yourself and share it with others.

I hope this was helpful. Happy ideating!

🙌
If you have feedback/critique/comments/etc. please let me know via Twitter.

Let's be homies.

Further Reading