People from all walks of life ask me about most lucrative business ideas that one can invest in. Maybe you too have asked someone the same, or probably will, at some point in your life. You may have had or expect to have, a certain amount of money that you intend to invest wisely and hopefully build your dream from there. You want to retire early and live happily ever after before passing your wealth to generations after you.
Giving you a lucrative idea is like offering a homeless beggar a plate of savoury sauce for fish. However, delicious it is, he can only be full for a while. I would rather help you know how to fish. Then you can eat to your satisfaction for the resy of your life. Ideas are a SHIFT. But sometimes the ‘F’ is silent.
Instead of looking for lucrative business ideas, try finding the most needed value. There is nothing more valuable than an unmet need that is just becoming fixable. If you find something broken that you can fix for a lot of people, you’ve found a gold mine.
Every successful business creates something of value. The world is full of opportunities to make other people’s lives better in some way, and your job as a businessperson is to identify things that people don’t have enough of, then find a way to provide them.
The value you create can be a product or a service, but the purpose is always the same: to make someone else’s life a little bit better. Without value creation, a business cannot exist- you cannot transact with others unless you have something valuable to trade.
The best businesses in the world are the ones that create the most value for other people. Some businesses thrive by providing a little value to many, while others focus on providing a lot of value to a small number of people. Regardless, the more real value you create for other people, the better your business will be and the more prosperous you’ll become.
I think of a lucrative business as a repeatable process that:
- Creates and delivers something of value…
- That other people need or want…
- At a price they are willing to pay…
- In a way that satisfies the customer’s expectations…
- So that the business brings enough profit to make it worthwhile for the owners to continue operations.
It doesn’t matter if you’re running a solo venture or a billion-dollar brand. Take any one of these five factors away, and you don’t have a business, you have something else. A venture that doesn’t create value for others is a hobby. A venture that doesn’t attract attention is a flop. A venture that doesn’t sell the value it creates is a nonprofit. A venture that doesn’t deliver what it promises is a scam. A venture that doesn’t bring in enough money to keep operating will inevitably close.
Business niche is not like a belt. There is no one size fits all. It varies depending on the context, time and purpose. So don’t lift an idea or advice and replicate it hoping to experience similar success as your predecessors.
If these five things sound simple, it’s because they are. Business is not (and has never been) rocket science- it’s simply a process of identifying a problem and finding a way to solve it that benefits both parties. Anyone who tries to make business sound more complicated than this is either trying to impress you or trying to sell you something you don’t need.
There are some people who live in dream world. And there are some who face reality. And then there are those who turn one into the other. Choose your side wisely!
