The main disadvantages that she saw were that she didn’t know how to make balloon shapes or giant bubbles. However, she also knew that she could fi nd this out by researching it on the Internet or in the local library. The other big disadvantage was simply her confi dence. Although she is a friendly person and likes working with children, she has never done anything like this before. She wondered if she was really brave enough to set up a business.
After carefully considering the advantages and
disadvantages, she decided that it was a good idea that really appealed to her. She decided to do some market research to see what local parents of young children thought of the idea.
1. How can entrepreneurs research a new business? Like Lucy’s experience, every new business starts with an idea. The process of
developing an idea into a realistic entrepreneurial idea can be broken down into four basic steps:
1. Idea Generation
2. Concept Development
3. Market Research
4. Decision
1. Idea generation: Every enterprise has to start with an idea. 2. Concept development: This is where an initial idea is examined in detail to see if it makes sense.
3. Market research: This involves doing more detailed investigation, including asking possible customers what they think of the idea.
4. Decision: This is the stage where the entrepreneur makes a decision to launch the enterprise or not.
2. How can ideas be generated? Ideas for a new enterprise can occur at any time. They can be triggered by a bad
experience as a customer or by frustration at trying to do something with a poor product. Ideas can also be triggered by seeing someone else’s idea that could be adapted or improved. Two useful techniques for deliberately generating ideas are:
