Where to find awesome new small business ideas

It’s nearly impossible to sit down at your desk and come up with something completely new and innovative. More often, ideas come to those people who are out there doing stuff — like meeting new people and experiencing new things.

It’s a common misconception that great ideas occur in a blinding flash of inspiration. In fact, most great ideas are built up over time, like a jigsaw puzzle. So, if coming up with a new business idea feels like an ordeal more than an adventure, it could be because you are after a flash of inspiration instead of finding all the pieces you need to put the puzzle together.

One of the best ways to have an idea is to see other ideas. As more and more of these ideas filter into your brain, you have a chance of rearranging them into something new, or something different that might just be the one to change the world. Exploring new ideas is therefore something every aspiring entrepreneur should do on a regular basis.

With that in mind I’ve put together a list of the three best places to find new business ideas to help get your entrepreneurial adventure started.

Cool Things

Cool Things isn’t necessarily a site dedicated to helping you find new business ideas. But what they do really well is cover innovative, quirky, and different existing products that are absolutely bound to stimulate your imagination and get the creative juices flowing.

It’s the perfect site to let your mind wander over the myriad possibilities on offer. What if these magnetic sneakers could be made cheaply? What if we could make food glow when it spoils?

Here’s a fun example of the type of thing you might come across:

Might be a great little business to get distribution rights in your region and market and sell to bars and pubs who might be interested in serving their shots in something out of the ordinary.

With rich pickings on the creativity front, you’re bound to come up with some pretty out of the box ideas. And while there isn't much in the way of after idea support, you can always follow it up with a visit to the next resource in the list…

SME Pals (Small Business Ideas)

SME Pals’ small business ideas page takes an interactive approach to building a list of highly creative and unusual business ideas that are available in a categorized list for you to browse through.

Instead of offering a static list, SME Pals encourages you to share your ideas, and if they add it to the list your idea will get shared around the world. And, best of all, sharing your own startup ideas here might just get you noticed by a potential partner or investor as they credit you (via your twitter handle) on social media.

What’s nice about this list is that it’s full of rich media. Pictures help you visualize the ideas that are being shared. Video clips show how other people are taking similar ideas and turning them into reality.

There are also some great examples of innovative thought — Sheep herding with drones for farmers, twisted eCommerce stores (stocking items like zombie garden gnomes) targeting millennials, and even an online drone servicing company to meet the growing demand for repairs from over 400 000 accidents waiting to happen.

Here’s the latest one, which is based on an idea from Japan:

Magnetic Levitation house plants and bonsai

If you can work out the tricky part of ensuring that the balance and weights of your pots, soil and plants are perfect for the magnets then you can jump in today and get ahead of what’s sure to be a massive trend in the coming years.

Finally, there are plenty of practical resources to help take your idea to the next step right on the site. Everything from free business plan templates, to practical step-by-step guides to creating responsive, cutting edge websites, to marketing strategies, SEO, and more.

Springwise

Springwise has a vast community of people around the world, who find and post the innovative startups they find in their area. However, a lot of their focus is on high tech ideas that may be beyond the resources and skills of an individual entrepreneur or small startup team.

But, there is plenty of value in keeping tabs on their latest content because there is plenty of opportunity lurking. Starting a business doesn't always mean you have to come up with the idea. Sometimes it means partnering with a fantastic startup to help them with distribution or marketing in your region, or country.

3D printed microscope turn smartphones into disease detectors

How much money could developing nations save by using shared, online crowd based analysis tools — especially ones that can take field samples very cheaply and have analysis performed online anywhere in the world?

You might have the local contacts that one of these innovative companies need to get their foot in the door. Watching what comes out on Springwise might mean you aren’t the one who has the flash of inspiration (or puts together the jigsaw puzzle), but it might mean you start a profitable and lasting business relationship in an exciting business — and that’s not bad.

So those are my top 3 resources for entrepreneurs wanting to find business ideas that range from creative, unique and original, to proven. Have you ever found an online idea that you tried? Did it work?

Share your tips and experiences of starting a new business in the comments.