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Business

Tips on choosing your business idea
By Nilooka Dissanayake
If you are looking for a business idea and asked me for one single piece of advice, I would recommend that you find something new. So many people copy others. It may be the lack of imagination, laziness or the belief that the idea has been tested and therefore, less risky. The latter does not always prove to be true. Why copy? Today we will look at how you can generate new ideas for your dream business.

Look around you. Are there problems for which you can offer a solution? Look at peoples needs and wants, their lifestyles and preferences. This will give you sufficient insights. You can't exactly ask people to tell you their problems. No one would have dreamt of asking for a gadget to keep sheets of paper together before the paper clip was invented. No one thought of asking for aeroplanes or coconut plucking robots. These were born out of an observation of a latent need. Mr. Honda was a motor mechanic dreaming of making his own motorcar. He saw a bicycle on the sidewalk and a motor lying nearby. The idea clicked. Motor-bicycle. They were already in use in the military, but why not make one for everyday use? Honda conquered the world by making motorcycles.

Let us take some examples. Paying utility bills, going to the bank and shopping take a lot of people's time. I read about a young man who undertakes such jobs for a small fee. His clients pay him for saving their time and effort. Recently I heard of a graduate who dropped out of university in Canada to start a business of collecting discards from city dwellers. Imagine a high-rise dweller with a worn out sofa or rusty refrigerator to get rid of and you can imagine his business idea. An Australian entrepreneur started a garbage removal firm to focus on collecting materials from office refurbishment projects. He salvages, sells, auctions or hands over to recyclers the different materials which would otherwise have clogged up landfills. He saves money, materials and the environment while making a profit.

You can also look at the goods and services already in the market and seek to improve, change, adapt, substitute or add value to them. Curd, which used to come in large pots, is now available in little single-portion clay pots. Our parents had to bring a large jak fruit from the market.

We now buy the cleaned fruit and the chopped version. Ready-to-eat salads are on the supermarket shelves. Think of the traditional coconut scraper and the convenience of the table-top model invented by a local entrepreneur. Keep thinking of how you can do something new. While you are doing this, you will observe that the needs differ depending on type of person, their age, sex, lifestyle or dwelling place. Individuals and organisations will have different needs. Needs would differ from organisation to organisation and on their size, type, industry or location. This introduces you to the concept of niche markets. A niche is a little pocket out of a large market. If you can try to identify needs of a selected group of customers and try to serve them, you can generally gain a competitive advantage out of that special understanding.

For example retired old people who find it difficult to go about may really appreciate it if you undertake paying bills or bringing prescription drugs. Sri Lanka has a rapidly ageing population. The needs of the elderly, both medical and day-to-day needs open up possibilities for entrepreneurs. This is a growing trend worldwide and has to do with how populations grow and age. Population trends and changing lifestyles is another area to watch if you are looking for business ideas.

Take a favourite area or subject and try to segment the market into little parts. Try to see where you can make a contribution. This intimate knowledge will help you focus on an idea. You must, however, bear in mind that the niche has to be big enough to sustain your business and help it grow.

We will talk more on this in the coming weeks. Are you looking for a business idea? Let us know the issues you face in trying to decide which is the best idea for you. You can send your questions and comments to btimes@wijeya.lk or call 074-304100.

The writer is a Chartered Management Accountant by profession with a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.

She is the Managing Editor of Athwela Vyaparika Sangarawa (Athwela Business Journal).

SLT in deal with INSAT
Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) has signed an agreement with Indian National Satellite System (INSAT) aimed at providing SLT's digital satellite TV services at a very low satellite cost for the TV broadcasters, SLT said.

INSAT is the satellite operated at the Department of Space of the Indian government.
Under the agreement, SLT has been given authority to access their satellites. INSAT is a multipurpose satellite system for telecommunications, television broadcasting, meteorology and search and rescue.

With the signing of this agreement SLT has established a close relationship with INSAT and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which in turn will enable SLT to obtain the INSAT satellite capacity for various satellites related services.

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