7 Brainstorming Techniques for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

Most of us, when we hear the phrase "brainstorming", immediately imagine a spacious room in which 10-15 people, interrupting each other, gush with brilliant ideas. However, you can come up with something extraordinary on your own. Moreover, competent brainstorming will allow you to understand where the company is heading and what needs to be done for further development.

Brainstorming Tools

Sometimes a piece of paper and a simple pencil is enough to successfully generate ideas. However, there are other tools that will help you to approach the process in a more organized way.

• Notepad for ideas. This way you will keep all your ideas in one place and can go back to the results of previous brainstorming sessions. And you can also carry a notebook with you in case an interesting thought suddenly comes to mind.
• Colored pens or pencils. They will help you highlight the main points and organize ideas.
• Applications for creating a mind map. It's easy to find several free versions on Google Play and the App Store.
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• Stickers. They can be used along with a notepad and colored pens to organize ideas.
• Dictaphone. This is a tool for those who do not like to write by hand. And sometimes speaking ideas out loud helps refine the idea.

Brainstorming Rules

Its main goal is to come up with as many ideas as possible, and then choose from them the most promising in terms of achieving goals. Unfortunately, our brain has a natural ability to filter and evaluate the ideas that come to our mind. That is why you will probably not write down all the ideas, as you will consider some stupid and impracticable. To prevent this from happening, follow two simple rules.

1. No condemnation

Write down all ideas, no matter how crazy or impossible they may seem. Do you need to appear on the country's most famous TV show to take off in your career? Write it down on paper. Such ideas very often lead to others - unexpected, but very interesting. You might not get on the show you dream of, but you'll be on a little podcast, which is a good place to start.

2. No ratings

Brainstorming is your brain's "dump" of ideas. You don’t have to decide right away how good the idea is or how to implement it. You will deal with this later.

brainstorming techniques

They can be used both separately and simultaneously.

1. Start with a question

For example, you want to come up with an idea for a company that you can take care of from home. The question then becomes: “Which business is most compatible with these goals?” And if you want to, say, lead an active lifestyle and travel, the question should be rephrased: “What type of home business is flexible enough for me to be able to fly freely to other country?"

Or imagine that you already have a profitable business, but you can not expand the clientele. In this case, you need to ask yourself other questions: “What service do my clients lack?” or “If not me, who do my clients turn to for help and why?”

2. Use a mind map

This method became popular in the 20th century thanks to the British psychologistAbout the Tony Buzan Company / Tony Buzan Tony Buzan. The method is ideal for those who perceive visual information better.

There are many applications and web services for creating mind maps. However, if you prefer to write everything down on paper, then all you need is a notepad, pen, and colored pencils. And you can use them like this:

• Write a word or question, or draw an image in the middle of the page.
• Draw a line from the center to the edge and add another word, question, or image related to the central idea. You can make as many such branches as you like - these are second-level concepts.
• Draw lines from these concepts to other words, questions, or pictures related to the second level topics.
• Keep drawing lines and expanding on the original idea as new ideas come to mind.

Let's say you want to come up with breakthrough marketing ideas. Start with the word "marketing" in the center. Then draw lines to the thoughts of the second level - "Building a community", "Media and PR" or "Advertising". From "Building a community" you can draw other lines, such as "Create a Facebook group" and then "Live on Facebook every week." Continue to develop each branch in this way and you will have several working ideas at once.

3. Make a word map

This method is ideal to come up with an advertising slogan, name for a company or its products.

To create such a map, write down all the words associated with your business or corporate values. If you are planning to grow organic, write down "organic" and "products". For each of them, select others that are similar in meaning, say, “safe”, “clean”, or “vegetables”. Such a word map will help you present your products more accurately.

4. Apply SWOT Analysis

It is usually used in the preparation business plan and developing a business strategy, but such analysis is also useful for brainstorming purposes. To do this, divide the page into four columns:

• S - Strengths, or strengths;
• W - Weaknesses, or weaknesses;
• O - Opportunities, or opportunities;
• T - Threats, or threats.

Then, in each column, write down any words, thoughts, or concepts that come to mind related to your idea.

Let's say you're thinking about starting a blog. Then in the “Strengths” column you will write down all the advantages of such a business idea, for example: “I am an expert in my field” or “It does not require a lot of money.” In the “Weaknesses” column, you will add your doubts or skills that you lack: “I’m not very good at technology” or “It will take time to reach a stable income.” In the "Opportunities" column, you can indicate "Many options for earning", and in the "Threats" - "High competition".

5. Put yourself in the place of the client

Analyzing and making decisions solely from the point of view of the business owner is a common mistake. The best ideas usually resonate with the needs of the customers and engage them. To find such an idea, you need to imagine that you are the client.

This is helped by surveys of buyers or customers, as well as a look at marketing, sales and service from the customer's point of view. If you were to use your own products or services, what would you be missing? Is there anything that can be improved? The answers will help you improve your service and optimize your customer experience.

6. Ask yourself standard questions

During brainstorming, we usually try to find answers. But sometimes it's not very clear what questions to ask. In this case, it helps to return to the six basic interrogative formulations - who, what, why, when, where and how. They can be written down on paper or even taken as the basis for a mind map.

For example, you want to make money from affiliate marketing. Then write the phrase “affiliate marketing” in the middle of the sheet, and then draw six lines from it in different directions. For the “how” construction, the question “How to promote affiliate products?” is suitable, for “who” - “Who is the ideal client for an affiliate product?”. Think of as many similar questions as you can. The answers will lead you to new ideas and ideas.

7. Imagine that finances are unlimited

You have probably been asked at least once in your life what you would do if you won a large amount in the lottery. This question will also help during brainstorming.

Oftentimes, our brain dismisses some options because it realizes that we don’t have enough resources. Try to drown out these thoughts and think about how you would develop the company if you had billions in your account.