I often get asked the question “How did you get the idea to start your business?”. I think that’s an interesting question because every entrepreneur gets inspired to start their businesses in their own way. That’s something I also happen to often ask entrepreneurs whenever I see them. How did you end up starting this?
Here are the common answers I got:
1) I first invested in this business, but it wasn’t doing too well so I took it over in the end and turned it around.
A well known example of this is Tony Hsieh. He was first an investor in Zappos and was investing in a number of other ventures. Zappos was a promising startup but they had their fair share of issues and they needed capital.
One day Tony Hsieh saw an opportunity to acquire enough of the company and appointed himself CEO, moving from an investor to CEO. Zappos eventually got acquired by Amazon for over $800 mil.
I know of a well-known film company here in Malaysia that has a similar story. The owner was first an investor but it wasn’t doing so well so he eventually bought it over and turned the business around.
2) I was working for somebody when…
Sometimes sitting under a tree no matter how inspirational it looks doesn’t necessarily give you the best business ideas. You need to go out there and explore the world.
Working for another company sometimes gives you that opportunity because you get to see the inside of whatever industry you’re in. From there you can see problems or inefficiencies and with any problem lies a solution and hence an opportunity.
One of my Dad’s friend started out just like that. He was an engineer and he was out in the field one day when somebody he met told him about a problem that needed to be solved. Oil tankers all over the world were transporting oil but the problem is theft. Somewhere midway in the ocean someone in the crew could very well syphon out some of the oil and you’ll never really be able to know for sure because the tanker is so large. This was costing companies millions every year.
He came out with the idea to do a tamper proof seal on the oil tanker. So if somebody ever opened it before it reached its destination, the people on the other side will know for sure. The company did really well and listed on the Malaysian stock exchange.
3) I heard about this company from overseas that does the same thing I do….
Many entrepreneurs I know don’t bother reinventing the wheel. They just look at business models that work elsewhere overseas and bring it back to Malaysia. The benefit of that is that someone else has already done it somewhere else so you can learn from their mistakes and figure out how to improve from there.
For examples of companies like this you have to look no further than the group buying site craze that happened a few years ago. Groupon in the US started out with the first successful group buying site and it spawned a whole new bunch of clones everywhere else in the world.
4) I was at a trade show when I saw this…
Every industry generally has a trade show or conference that displays all the relevant products in its category. So if you’re looking for a franchise to bring into Malaysia, you can go for one of the many trade shows that exhibit all the different franchisors and connect them with potential franchisees.
A friend of mine went to a trade show for distributing oil and gas equipment. He learned about the industry there and managed to win the rights to distribute it in Malaysia.
5) I was at a conference and I saw this…
Conferences are excellent places to learn about an industry and explore opportunities. If you’re interested in hotels you can go for a hospitality conference or if you’re interested in technology you can go for one of the many tech conferences out there.
Sponsored conference:
One of the conferences you can check out is KL Converge where you’ll find The Internet of Things (IoT) related topics, apps, workshops and technology showcases to living a digital lifestyle and becoming a smart digital nation.
The focus is on ‘see’, ‘touch’, ‘feel’, ‘hear’, ‘show’, ‘speak’ and ‘cheer’, bringing together leading industry executives from multimedia, applications, Internet and creative content to discuss, showcase and celebrate the issues, opportunities and successes in digital space.
There’s going to be:Speakers
i) A list of great speakers there that you can view here.
ii) Exhibitions that aim to demonstrate inventions in robotics, programming, apps development and much more
iii) Malaysia Developer’s Day, which will see innovators and entrepreneurs building mobile apps over the course of 24 hours.
It’s taking place on the 27-29th of August 2015 at the KLCC Convention Center. For more information click here.
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space