How to come up with a B2B idea?
How can a I come up with a good and doable B2B idea when I don't know where to start looking? It's not like I'm a business that know what businesses need.
I know this is out of context, but TBH, I have no idea how to approach this.
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I know you don't want to hear this, but you shouldn't be doing this.
Successful entrepreneurs, with limited exceptions, succeed by putting together extensive domain knowledge and a novel idea. It sounds like you have neither of those things.
If you are really intent on building a B2B product, you need to understand the domain much better. As others have said, find business owners that you can interview; go to conferences and networking events; or better yet: start a business yourself and learn the problems first hand.
When you have more domain expertise, then it might be productive to revisit this.
Identifying a problem becomes easier if you start working in a B2B company. More so, If it' s a fast-growing startup.
I learned a ton working there.
Hey @friendlyguy, can you share what I should be looking out for to identify opportunities when working in a B2B company?
Don't join a B2B startup thinking, I am here to Identify problems. In this case, you might start feeling the pressure and your performance will go down.
Immerse yourself in your work. Try to solve all the problems that's thrown at you. There are high chances you might fall in love with one of the problems.
Here is an example. My friend started working in a fast-growing fintech startup. As more transactions happened, the seniors threw the not-so-interesting excel vlookup reconciliation work at their juniors. These juniors( 2 people) figured out instead of doing it manually, they can build a better solution - A reconciliation product. It's a VC backed product now.
The other way to identify problems is to look at your peer's problem. Your non-technical friend in the company would be shouting about a problem. " Man, Can somebody fix it? It's killing me". It might not happen exactly like this ... but I hope you're getting the context.
Hope this helps.
1. First find your target group
Which direction do you want to go? B2B is not small. You have to find business owners first. But this also includes the direction / category.
Sports, food, e-commerce, online, offline (1000 more categories) ... you should definitely find something you know yourself.
2. Find the Pain Points of your target group
As with B2C, the procedure is the same. With B2B, the processes are only often more complicated and/or larger.
Whether B2B or B2C is completely irrelevant.
Give your target group super power, make them better, make their life easier. That's what people want and that's what they spend money on.
3. Show your target group how they become better
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If you have no idea, really read ryanvanderpol's comment:
https://www.indiehackers.com/post/how-to-come-up-with-a-b2b-idea-4bd488f8e7?commentId=-M7EdsRM9Es3UcsY0mnA
Something i've read somewhere goes along the lines of start freelancing.
For example, take on clients if you are a web developer and build websites. If you are a writer, look for writing gigs.
When carrying out the processes, you may spot something... i.e. a quicker way to do something, a common pain point
These are the things that go into your POT for potential B2B ideas to validate.
Thanks Mits that actually makes total sense
Hey buddy,
take a look at these three blogposts, they helped me a lot:
Good luck 🐲
Start talking to as many business owners as you can about problems they have. Ideally pick a niche that you have some personal interest in.
I don't know any business owners that I can ask
Well, go figure out a way to meet some. Go to a meetup. Go to a conference. Cold email someone you think might be down to have a quick chat. Maybe identify a particular type of business that seems intersting to you (book sellers, digital artists, whatever), find out where these people congregate online and share post asking them about the most annoying part of running their business. Just start trying things. One good connection or conversation can end up sparking an idea.
I sell on Amazon, using https://learnretailarbitrage.com/selleramp-review/. It is very similar to B2B. The extension helps me detect items worth buying and then selling later on. It is very much similar to trading. Only you deal in anything that's for sale on Amazon. This could be an excellent starting point for you to understand how B2B works and be familiar with its basic principles. You should know that it's a rather risky business, though.
Its that simple: Make a B2B business if you see a good problem in the industry that businesses are willing pay for you to solve It.
If you don’t see a problem, either you haven’t found one yet (keep looking) or you don’t know enough to actually see a problem (better gain more experience by working in a business).
Everything else is just lock picking. With that I mean that in your desperation and one sided focus, you start building a key without knowing what lock you actually want it to open. Be honest with yourself and think about it. From what i see is that you might be having a wrong approach.
Good old fashioned networking will definitely be something that will help you in understanding an entrepreneurial landscape, within the same community.
However, I have a small hack that I keep telling to people who have asked similar question to me. Start with something small and elementary, a Youtube channel, trading (small amount) maybe a blog. Something potential enough to get you in the groove. This will let you know for sure if you are into this 100% and trust me that does matter. Because when time comes and trust me it will you need to be 100% committed.
If you are past this then the first thing you can consider is domains that you have interest in or you have experience in, you might worked in that industry or it can be a common day to day problem.
Once you are hooked onto something make sure you see that as a turnaround solution that may actually have some value. You can also follow few easy steps, these steps with lead you ahead from idea and help you validate. I have a blog that I wrote few weeks ago to help people see business value in these tough times. The context however is generally applicable in most cases.
I am sharing a link to the blog that I have written for quick idea validation which help you understand if your idea is viable for business.
https://medium.com/@danishwanish/business-plan-scramble-strategy-8a3cd66d2678
Perhaps try to see what business process problems you are currently having, and find out if there is a way to simplify or automate it, then turn that into a solution that you could offer to others. Start with a small problem, small solution, small price, but for a big market. Then scale from there.
I'd say partner up with domain experts, talk to them and give them a percentage of what you build as incentive.
I've run into the same issue. For me, going to networking events and having one-on-one meetings with as many business owners as possible has helped me to understand more of what their daily routine looks like.