2019 Seeking Business Idea
Evolution from Engineer to Entrepreneur
Intro
Let me introduce myself. My name is Oleh. I’m from Ukraine, 29 years old and an experienced mobile developer. I studied electronics at the university. In this article, I briefly consider possible directions in the business sphere from an engineering point of view.
Part 0. List of Business Directions
I divided all business sphere into the next segments:
- classic business
- service provision
- outsourcing
- startup
- investments
- content generation
Part 1. Classic Business
Under this notion, I mean well-known non-tech traditional businesses like eating places, clothing market, furniture production, etc. Scaling of classic business requires additional resources (money) proportional to customer number. Another its feature is binding to physical location and dependency on local trends, tastes and rules. Also often you must have an initial capital for starting. Digital marketing significantly transformed a classic business model towards online marketplaces, social media, e-commerce.
Part 2. Service Provision
Everything-As-A-Service is a popular nowadays business model. Electricity, water, internet, petrol, gas are well-established vital services. Other examples can be call/repair/data center, document processing, bookkeeping, cloud storage, cloud computation, etc. The pricing model can be a one-time purchase or a subscription fee. Often it requires initial investments for equipment installation and certification confirmation. Such businesses can be easily scalable, fully automated and described in detail manual.
Part 3. Outsourcing
Under outsourcing, I mean companies, web/app/design studios, R&D centers, labs and freelancers that develop full construction, not their own products. Sales are dependant on company portfolio and reputation. It’s possible to start this business without extra money and find first customers on freelancing platforms or previous work. Scalability can be reached only by increasing the number of employees. An advantage here is the possibility to control the processes remotely.
Part 4. Startup
A startup is an innovation that solves some problem. Usually, it’s something that never done before or invention. It also can replace an existing solution with a much more efficient way. Startups are often created by two or three founders and initially live on their passion and enthusiasm. The classic approach suggests testing an idea as early as possible and raising investments for scaling if a startup has a minimum viable product with customers. Crowdfunding platforms can help startups get the first pre-orders. Possible exit strategies are initial public offering on the stock market, initial coin offering (cryptocurrency) or company acquisition. Unfortunately, only a few of them become stable profitable businesses.
Part 5. Investments
Stock market shares, real estate, bank deposits, cryptocurrencies are not a full list of possible investments. Often investors diversify their portfolio into different types of investments. Today there are a lot of hubs, incubators, accelerators that invest money into startups and help them at the beginning. Companies acquire other companies. Investments in charity organizations are popular among wealthy people. I think a smart choice is an investment in personal education, emotions, health, traveling and other people.
Part 6. Content generation
It’s a fast-paced up-to-date global method for promotion and education. This includes online courses, article writing, blogging, podcasting, social media, channels, user groups, etc. It doesn’t require a big money to start. The number of subscribers and community growth is a major factor of success. Sales can be gained from paid content or advertisement and depend on views count. It is the easiest way to get constant feedback from users.
Conclusion
This is far from a complete list of possible business ideas. Moreover, there are hybrid business models that can combine several traditional models. Perfect business is a product or service performed as soon as possible with the best quality and the cheapest price. Sales are key indicators of business success regardless of the sphere. My next challenge is setting of the main goal and description in detail of every component of a complete system. Thank you for the reading and good luck :)
P.S. Please visit my personal website https://olehkapustianov.com
