Opportunity Awaits podcast Episode Transcript
JDI024 RAW - JDI024 - where do startup ideas come from
Aaron Henriques: [00:00:00] Where do people get their online startup ideas for their own online businesses? And how did these people become entrepreneurs? And that's something that I get asked a lot, and I know lots of people are asking for because there's tons of people searching for it. Now, when people are thinking about starting up their own online business, sometimes it's a bit, it's a bit sort of unnerving to think that.
[00:00:26] There are types of people who are typing in things and just looking for what is the most profitable business idea. And I guess where the startup ideas come from it probably, it's probably a better question. Okay. Cause some people must think that, you know, entrepreneurs are just born with this innate talent where they just have all these ideas that were given to them at birth.
[00:00:49] And that for some people. You know, perhaps they weren't born with those ideas that they don't have them. Now, the chances are you probably do already have ideas and you probably have had loads throughout your, throughout your life, but you've just never done anything with them. Now I'll give you an example of that.
[00:01:07] And it's something that I actually. So we'll move forward quite, quite to an advanced stage. This is what I was much, much younger. You know, we're going back to the early two thousands here. And I thought of an idea of a company that I was going to and it's actually a business plan that I keep to this day.
[00:01:28] It's it's it travels everywhere with me. It's one of the things I don't throw away to remind me of one of the biggest regrets, one of the biggest mistakes I ever made. As an entrepreneur or as one who didn't become an entrepreneur. Now that executive car business was effectively Uber, but three years earlier.
[00:01:51] Now that came about from. Getting ideas from there is a new emerging technologies, which are not new now, but back then they were new of moving map technology that was being introduced to mobile devices, not mobile phones back that at that time, but mobile devices. And they were predicting, I was in a media studies class and they are predicting that actually mobile phones would be having these moving map devices with GPS in there.
[00:02:19] Now I coupled that with. A common problem that I had. In fact, I don't know who I thought. I was at that age, I used to get taxis every. Now, I don't know why, but I used to get taxis everywhere. But the most annoying thing about these taxes is number one, that you actually had to call them up. You have to pick up the phone.
[00:02:39] Yes. There are things called mobile phones. People that, well, actually they weren't mobile phones back then. It was like landlines, you have to call the bloody landline and you have to call the taxi and the taxi would turn up and then there'd be beep outside. Cause they couldn't just call you or whatever.
[00:02:52] But the most annoying thing wasn't that the most annoying thing was that. I never knew where they were going. That was more annoying. And so Tom Toms and things like that had been about, but not many people had them and it didn't sort of feed directly into the thing. So I did a bit of research over some time, and then I found some technologies that come on board and effectively long.
[00:03:15] The short of it is, is that my idea was Uber just three years before Uber even started up there. Okay. I went, I sat down with my business pad. I went to Barclays bank. I sat down in front of the business managers there and I presented my case, what my idea was. And I said, I needed, I think it was like ÂŁ20,000 pounds.
[00:03:33] And she probably looking at, in the plan there's about ÂŁ20,000 pounds, which is more than double what Uber actually started. And I wanted to use that to be able to create, create the application and then see about rolling that out across some of the local cap firms. Now that was a problem. Well, that wasn't the problem.
[00:03:56] What the problem was is that I then told my family and friends about this and long story short, we're trying to get onto a bit later. The doubt that they put in my mind over one, the idea, well, no one's ever done it before, so no one wants it. Right. It doesn't make sense. Like why would anyone want to do that?
[00:04:23] And that was, that was, you know, typical mindset back then. I mean, for lots of people, my mum, for example, when she had, she could have a mobile phone, the first one she could have had, she was like, why do I want people to call me? Right. How stupid does that sound today, but that was what it was like back then.
[00:04:39] And I don't live in the stone age guys. This is, this is not that long ago. Yeah. So that it was family and friends who were sort of putting me off. So they were taking, you know, saying, oh, it's not, not that great an idea. Like, no, one's going to want to be able to order at that time, it was going to be online for a website to have to audit a taxi.
[00:04:55] And then it. You know, and have to moving maps and stuff in the car for the drivers that one's going to want to be able to do that. And another thing I was being told about is how risky it is. And 20,000 pounds, you know, it's so much money and you could lose it, or you're going to have to owe and all notice to the bank and all this stuff.
[00:05:12] And I was very young and, but long story short is I listened to them and I regret it to this day, because three years later, We will not. We became alone and everyone across the world. Uber. Now that doesn't mean to say the executive car, exact car would have had the same success. But the fact is that today I will never know because I never actually took those steps to deal with it.
[00:05:38] Now, this is where it comes on to you because you've probably had ideas where there's a frequent problem that you face, and there's no apparent solution. And you may have even thought of a way round of actually dealing with that problem and then still done nothing about it. So that's one place where ideas come from where you're facing problems.
[00:06:02] Like I did. My problem was the taxis, you know, they never knew where they would go needs to get out the paper charts, the eights Zed, like the actual book, you know, the flippy things, you know, actual maps that are drawn out and they would never know where they'd go. A lot of the English was a second language as well.
[00:06:19] So that was also a challenge and yeah, it was just very different. And so I saw, well, there's this new technology coming out mobile devices are like becoming more sort of prevalent everywhere. And that's a problem that really gets on my nerves. So how about you find a way. Combine those things together to solve that problem.
[00:06:40] That's what I did. Well, that's what I thought of doing, but I never actually did. So you probably got similar things where you've done that. Now, there may be other things where you've got a better solution to existing problems. Now, one of the things I was thinking of recently is like, I wish someone would come up with a better blow up bed that actually stays in place.
[00:07:06] That would be awesome. You know, if that is you, if you've got an idea of how to actually solve that problem of blow up beds, that just do not stay inflated. I do not know why I was at my friends recently. It's good to stay there and they bought a blow up bed for me. They inflated it. Literally. We was, we were sat in the living room and less than five minutes, it just went, Ooh.
[00:07:30] So that went in the bin and I ended up keeping on their kid's bed and yeah, the kids stayed in the room with them. But that's another thing that you need to think about where ideas come from is having a better solution to an existing problem where there is a solution, but perhaps you've got a more refined solution, a better solution, a more convenient solution for other people.
[00:07:54] That's another place where ideas will come from now, you might think of like totally brand new ideas. Now I don't think that my idea was a completely brand new idea. It was brand new in a sense that hadn't been done before, but it wasn't brand new in terms of it's like a complete new. Thing like apps existed, moving maps, technologies was being introduced and it existed, but something that's completely new.
[00:08:22] If you think of something like the light bulb that was new, it didn't exist. At all, there was no, you know, you had to invent the electricity the way to actually process electricity has to be invented the way to create these light bulbs completely had to be invented. That was completely new. The horseless carriage, Henry Ford, when he created the horseless carriage, which we will call cars and vans and stuff like that today, you know, that was completely new.
[00:08:49] I think totally new ideas are really. But those totally new ideas become ginormous and massive and sort of like reach globally. But I wouldn't sit there trying to think, oh, I need a brand new idea for everything. Cause you really do not need a brand new idea to start up successfully. And I talk about that in a second.
[00:09:13] Why you don't need that? Okay. You might have family or friends or people, you know, who are. Sort of doing really well in a particular niche or a particular industry. And perhaps you want to get involved in that as well. So that's another way that you can do well in business by actually just asking them, you know, what is it you've done to be a success.
[00:09:36] Look at what they've done. And replicated just don't steal their customers cause he won't like it, but you can do that and you might find other ways to actually make it better or sort of package it in a different way. So, or combine it with like other products and services, which, you know, compliment your audience, people that are particularly attracted to you.
[00:09:57] Now there's other options like partnerships and franchises. So some of you know, that. My business. I've still got actually today cleaning franchise, where I became a franchisee of the year in 2017/18. And that's a national franchise has over 140 franchise. Covers like about 85% of the country. There's some blowby territories as well in franchises.
[00:10:22] You know, that's something where you've got a whole business model combined. Yes. You've got to pay for it. Right. You pay, it could be 10 grand for franchise. It could be a hundred grand for franchise McDonald's I think is like a minute. Plus, but franchises all over the place, things that you haven't even thought off that franchises, like I said, McDonald's, you've got KFC.
[00:10:41] You've got Papa. John's you've got Domino's, you've got a cost of coffee. There's other things like Snap-on, I don't know if you've ever seen snap on it's like a tool company. There are hotel franchises. There's literally every industry you can think of. There's a franchise in it, probably. And if there isn't great one, because you'll probably get franchisees.
[00:11:03] Now you do pay a premium, but you get shown the exact process that you need to take to be able to run a successful business under that franchise. Okay. So that's the benefit of a franchise and you can, you know, you as I I'll go back to where I said, you do not need to have a brand new, completely new idea.
[00:11:28] You know, to be able to be successful online or in any business, in fact, offline as well. And that is because franchises proved that day in day out. So when I started my franchise, you know, I was in, I, you know, I started in an area where they'd been companies that had been running for 20, 30 years before I even started.
[00:11:47] And then when I started and took on within, you know, three, four years, I was really bigger than that. So it doesn't necessarily mean that you need to have a completely brand new. I did. I just did things slightly differently because I, I try to narrow a lot of stuff, but I cost me a lot of money still, even though I was in a franchise because I tried lots of different things and I actually won the franchisee of the year award because of all of the strategic stuff that I did with that, and all of the testing and tweaking and all the ideas that I implemented bought into the franchise.
[00:12:22] Automated payments on my bookings for example, which they did, which they didn't have. And now it's pretty normal across the industry. And then there's affiliate programs. So if you don't actually want to run the business, you don't want to be providing them product or service, but you just want to do the sales part, get paid for that sales part and then do nothing else.
[00:12:46] I feel it programs a gate, a great, right. So. My business aaronhenriques.com for coaching and for our search engine optimization. So online courses, online startup training guides and search engine optimization services. We have an affiliate program and that can pay you up to 50% commission on the solves for our search engine optimization.
[00:13:11] At the moment we pay 15% every month. Now most clients will stay for more than a year. So that could mean that you're, you could be earning sort of like 300 quid, 350 quid or more per month, every month for a ferry, one customer. Now you build up 10 of them. You've now got a decent wage. What if it's 50? You see what you see here, I'm going there.
[00:13:35] So if you've got an audience in an affiliate program, I mean, you can join my one. If you want, you know, you can apply to join. Our one is aaronhenriques.com/affiliates. I'll put the link below in the show notes as well, but yet, you know, there's affiliate programs all over the place. There are plenty of people who've become highly, highly successful just through running affiliate programs.
[00:13:58] And it's not even their idea, right. They haven't got the idea for the product or service. I don't even need the idea. They're just leveraging on other people's ideas, selling it and making a cut for themselves. Okay. So that's another thing that you can do now, what I would recommend though, I would always recommend that if you're starting a business, particularly if it's not in a, if you haven't got a defined business model, like a franchise, or if it's not an affiliate program, if you're starting a complete brand new business, That you do it in something that you'll enjoy.
[00:14:35] Okay. And that is because it's not as easy as many people make out. It's just a fact, you know, you see all these people where they're like zero to six figures in six weeks. Amazing. No, no. For most of them it's a lie. They, they, they, they don't tell you. They don't tell you where the hard stuff that they had to go for.
[00:14:58] It. The sheer amount of money they've had to go through. They haven't had like online coaching, online coaching, just coaching in general, if they haven't been mentored by someone who already knows what they're doing to give them that sort of headstart, where they've paid a lot of money for that, the chances of them just framing up a website.
[00:15:16] And here's my here's my business for the fresh entrepreneur is very slim for them to have that success in that way. But people don't advertise there. You know, the hardships as well, and there are hardships and that's why it's always recommended. If you are starting out that you actually go and get a coach or a mentor to sort of help steer you and help guide, you know what, my first business, after the franchise, we'll see.
[00:15:44] When I bought a franchise, I paid a lot of money to get into that franchise. And then you get that mentorship within the franchise. But my first business outside of the franchise, it was in a different industry. Okay. It was a different industry that I didn't fully know, but I enjoyed it. I really enjoyed that the industry.
[00:16:01] And so I went and paid and got a mentor as a coach. Sorry, who worked with me for a few months on starting up. Okay. That's what I did. Okay. To help me navigate those issues, that the things that you don't know that you don't know. So if you have got an idea, Or if you're thinking about what type of ideas think about the things that really interest you, because you're going to have to be sticking at this day in day out for awhile, until you start making enough sales, that you can then start getting staff on board, to be able to help you to run and manage the day-to-day operation stuff.
[00:16:41] There's stuff that you don't enjoy doing so much or where you, your time could be better spent. But you're going to need those first sales coming in. First of all right. So one of the ways that obviously you're, you know, you're going to be looking at doing that is through, you know, whatever idea you've got.
[00:17:00] You need to, you know, you need to be looking at business planning. So if you're business planning, there are lots of, I'm not just talking about, you know, the structured, a business plan that you need for. And just doing the finances I'm on about things that you need to think about when you're starting your business, that you don't know, you don't know until you've learned the lessons the hard way.
[00:17:25] Okay. Like I've done. I've spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on stuff and marketing and trialing and error and all sorts of stuff. I've lost money in places. I've made money in places and you know what, it's all lots of lessons. And I've been doing online business. Since what 2000 year, 2000, something like that.
[00:17:43] So quite a long time, right guys, you know, I started, I started in school when, when this online stuff first started up, I was straight on it, you know, building websites and I'm selling stuff online. I think what a first, like really profitable business that I did online was like bizarrely importing, Japanese martial arts, but where, and then selling it to the UK and us market.
[00:18:06] Cause they didn't have any genuine stuff on the market at that. Well, they had with this mass mate Chinese crap that were really clunky and horrible. And I saw someone at a it was good. I went to an event in France and I saw someone wearing these like awesome Japanese footwear. I found out, well, where'd you get them from?
[00:18:26] And they actually went to Japan and got. When they were at another seminar in Japan. And so I did a bit of research and it's a bit harder back then because I I'm pretty sure Google translate didn't exist, or if it did, it was probably crap or I didn't know about it, but there was a lot of back and forth.
[00:18:41] We have a guy who didn't speak any English. I didn't speak any Japanese, but eventually worked out. And I just would input loads of his beats. The thing that put me out of business, there was the, the yen versus the. The pound versus the yen rather dropped too much. And people weren't willing to pay the sort of high level of price that I was charging, but I made a nice, decent amount of money.
[00:19:05] Then don't tell the tax man, because I didn't know about those stuff. So you don't know what you don't know. That's the point. So with business. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna introduce if I'm going to invite you to come on to one of my webinars where you can actually learn a bit more about starting your own online business, your own online five high five figure online business, or even six figure online business whilst you're working full time.
[00:19:29] Okay. Cause I'd recommend that if you're brand spanking new to business, There is no real reason why. In most cases, particularly if you're doing an online business that you need to be quitting your job and jumping in at a deep end. Okay. There's no reason why you need to be doing that. You can start your business whilst you're working full time.
[00:19:50] I was working full-time into place whilst I started my business, my first proper business, the cleaning company. Okay. And I still managed it and I grew that to weigh one in six figures whilst I was working in there. Right. So it can be done, but you need to think about your business planning. And so I invite you to come on to my webinar.
[00:20:11] If you go onto my Instagram, it's @AaronHenray that is AaronHenray. So open up your Instagram and go to AaronHenray. And what you need to do is two things. One is you need to follow them. Okay. And if you, don't the reason why I say follow me, because if you don't follow me the next bit will not work.
[00:20:35] Your messages will get filtered out of my Instagram because the amount of spam I get, right. So the next bit won't work. So you need to follow me on Instagram. It's @AaronHenray. Then DM me HIGH5. And what we'll do is we'll send you a link to a webinar it's a 90 minute webinar.
[00:21:00] Okay. But it's going to talk about how I got to, and you'll hear about executive car as well again, in that webinar, but it talks about how I got, you know, how I started at high five and six figure online business whilst working full time and show you examples of other people as well. Who've managed to do this.
[00:21:18] Okay. It is possible. Guys. We need is the idea. First of all, can't I need to get an idea, first of all, and I go through ideas in that. And at the end of that webinar, you'll be your is a prerecorded webinar. It's not a live one. Okay. But at the end of that webinar, you're going to be given an offer. For my business planning masterclass.
[00:21:40] And that covers a lot more in depth about particularly the things that you don't know that you don't know. Okay. Because there are things that are going to save you tens of thousands of pounds over your time of being an entrepreneur wash. You're starting up that stuff there had I known what I knew now, but back then, My journey would have been a lot shorter.
[00:22:06] I'd be much forever ahead now. Cause it's like a compounding effect when you're, when you're doing your businesses, you know, you compound on each other over, over time. So if I would have got to that stage earlier and spent a lot less money and not wasted so much money and save so much in my time, you know, that would have massively helped me today.
[00:22:28] And who knows where I'd be now. So two takeaways from today is. Is if you've got an idea, really explore this idea, really explore its viability, new, explore its viability by having a solid business plan. So that's why I've invited you to the webinar. If you don't want to hear the webinar, you can go direct to my website, aaronhenriques.com. In fact, I would just put the link in the show notes. You can go direct to the websites and it's AaronHenriques.com/plan. And you'll be able to get access to it. The business planning masterclass immediately, or if you want to go into the webinar, it's 90 minutes long. Okay. However, you're going to get a lot of value just from that webinar.
[00:23:12] Okay. You'll get a ton of value just from that webinar. So you need to take away the fact that if you've got an idea, run with it, you know, at least explore it. Okay. At least explore on pen, put pen to paper. Yeah. Get your business planning sorted out and actually think about this is this actually a viable idea is a viable business because it can be two things for you.
[00:23:36] One is it can show you. Yes, it is, but it can also show you, no, it's not in the way that you are going to run off with an and launch without a plan. And it allows you to tweak it or completely go back to the drawing board and start with something. Okay. So that's, that's the first thing. And the second thing is, ignore your friends and family advice.
[00:23:56] They, they mean well, but unless they've actually done online businesses themselves to create their own online businesses there, then they're probably not that great. Probably not, you know, the type of people that you want to be listening to because although there is put doubt into your mind, stop you from doing the thing that could really be a success.
[00:24:14] And it's not just a success for you. The things that you. Help other people. That's what it is. If you've got products and services that you're selling, it's because other people want them and it adds value to other people's lives. And by you not giving your products and services to the public, to the people, to your audience, you know, you're doing them a disservice as well as yourself.
[00:24:38] Okay. So no one wins there. Right? So Instagram. @AaronHenray that's AaronHenray. Follow me, first of all, otherwise your messages will get filtered out. I will not see them DME high five, and I will send you an invitation to my 90 minute webinar. Okay. So that you can learn a bit more about how I went from startup to a high five and, and six.
[00:25:07] Whilst I was still working full-time in the police and examples of how other people do it and how you can do it as well. Okay. So thank you very much for listening today. I don't know what the next one's going to be about, but I will let you know, go follow me on Instagram and I'll be in contact with you soon on your socials and wherever else that you hang out.
[00:25:29] All right. Take care.
