This summer while attending a concert, my husband and I ran into an old friend. After a quick five minute catch up, we went our separate ways. In the relatively short time since we’d seen this friend last, the guy had managed to co-start a successful bottled water company. While discussing how lucky this kid was to be in the bottled water business and making bank in his twenties, I had an epiphany!
You don’t need a new idea to “make it” in the world.
I have been brainstorming for the last 20 years trying to find my “million dollar idea.” In fact, at age 19, I actually held a meeting with my girlfriends where we brainstormed all of the ways we could make a million dollars so we could just take road trips forever. Doesn’t everyone just hope one day they’ll have that brilliant idea and they can live a lavish lifestyle?
First things first, most ideas aren’t new. You don’t need a brand new idea to start a new business. Most new companies take something that people want (or even already have), make it better, and then put the right marketing strategies behind it.
One of my favorite examples is AirBnB.com. This is not the first website to give people a place to rent out rooms in their home. In fact, the concept has been around for quite some time and sites like couchsurfing.com were doing great. However, AirBNB took an old idea and improved it.They dissolved the concern that many people had about renting out a room in their home by providing a 2-way rating system. By reading reviews of the houseguest or the housekeeper, people on the site could now pick and choose where you’d want to stay, as well as who you’d approve to stay with you. After five years of business, they booked five million nights. Six months later, their all time sales had doubled reaching ten million. They literally doubled what they’d done in five years within six months. And the crazy thing is that this multi-million dollar business did not start with an entirely original idea.
Just as Apple didn’t make the first computer, Facebook was not the first social media service, and Google was not the first search engine. These people were inspired by something, had a passion for it and wanted to make it better–this is inspiring.
So what if you already have a business? Then you better keep massaging your company and growing it with any possible new trends. Or else, someone just may see your business as an opportunity to make something better.
So while there may be “no original ideas,” there are many opportunities just waiting for the right person to come and improve what is already there.
About the author
From my experience the companies that start the new idea may last for a while because they were the first on the scene. But then they usually fade out because of what you mentioned, someone comes a long and improves on what has already been laid out.
I think that the companies that initially start something fade because they have so much capital and resources tied up in the model they have created that they don’t want to start from scratch. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is probably the motto they follow.
I think that many times the first ones to give something a go (ie myspace) may fade away, but I don’t think it has to happen that way. I agree, that the old rules “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” rules will kill any business in this day and age!
Wow. I had never heard about AirBNB. Thanks for the recommendation, I might have to check it out so I can start working on my travel bucket list.
Totally agree that there are no new ideas. The other day, I was talking with an attorney my mom works for, and he said he came up with the concept for the iPhone, just didnt have the capital for it. He laughed and said “Well, I didn’t come up with the idea for the iPhone. I just remember telling a colleague I need to invent something that has a calendar, phone and MP3 player all in one. Steve Jobs made it much better than I ever could have.”
Definitely reaffirms what you said. There are no new ideas, people just improve on old ones based on what people want, and then take it a step further.
Great post Courtney.
So, so true! I had not heard of airBNB, either. In fact, although I have traveled a fair amount, I rarely even think about looking for these cheaper alternatives, nor have seen their ads when booking hotels & motels. I even did a search for “book a room” and three other related terms and nothing about them showed up on the first page of Google.
Imagine what their bookings would be like with Google AdWords or a little more marketing. However, word of mouth recommendations are still one of the most powerful means of marketing – which they capitalize on in their website.
They have been active in using social media, especially twitter to reach out and get their name out. I believe if you search for terms like “rent out a room in your house” they’ll pop right up! “book a room” might be too broad and bigger hotel chains probably would come up
Everyone give there own opinion and all things depend upon there way of thinking. nice post.