Ideas rule the world, yet not all ideas are worthy of investing your hard-earned capital. Ideas can make you an entrepreneur, but the best idea stands you out of the crowd. It commands respect, honor, fame, and wealth. It draws attention to itself in such an outrageous manner and enriches its possessor. It is the gold every prospective business looks out to mine; for wherever it resides, all attention is drawn to it. Interestingly, wherever attention is drawn, success isn’t far away. 

Discovery of such business ideas as described above can prove to be a herculean task. As the business gold is, you must dig deep to find it. Often, treasures are hidden away from the common person - away from the public. Right now, think of crude oil, of gold, of diamond, of coal fossils, they all demand serious work on the path of the explorer to find them. While their value does not diminish due to their scarcity - the more reason they are treasured - they eagerly await their discovery. This accounts for the failure of several notable businesses today. While there is a sincere desire to build a business and invest, one must be reminded businesses are liable to future setbacks and the eventual crash should the business idea on which it runs fail to meet the test of reliability, relevance, and acceptance.

Several startup businesses embark on a fruitless search for capital to kick start their business operations without taking into consideration the viability of the business idea upon which they intend to build their business empires. Venture capitalists, friends and families, commercial banks, non-governmental organizations, and professional bodies are swift to spot weaknesses in a business plan by considering the business idea on which it hopes to run. As a result, they often declined any form of monetary assistance or investment in the business; whether grants or loans. 

As a startup business owner, it is highly pivotal for you to learn the techniques, ways, and processes essential to discover the best business idea to invest your funds. While this will save you a lot of wasted efforts, it will also insulate you from the mental horrors of business failures. 

To save you from the impending pain associated with wrong business ideas, our experts at Epirus Ventures have researched and prepared these 5 Proven Ways to Discover the Best Business Idea to Invest. 

1. Build up Your Thought Process 

Like the old computer slogan, garbage in, garbage out, so it is with the discovery of the best business idea to invest your funds. It is what you store in the machine known as the mind that it processes and refines to output. The mind is not an abstract entity as some aspiring business owners assume. It requires it to be filled with the needed materials for it to carry out its natural duty. 

The human mind possesses some great potential on its own. However, it often does not wait to be intentionally fed with input before it delivers an output. The danger here is that it steals unconsciously from it’s own surrounding environment. Hence, you must consciously fill up your mind with useful and relevant information for every particular task you assign to it. You need to pay close attention to each of your sensory organs - sight, taste, auditory, and so on. 

2. Conduct a Proper Market Research 

Someone is probably thinking what exactly is the use of proper market research in discovering the best business idea to invest in. Hendrith Valon Smith Jnr in his book, The Wealth Reference Guide: An American Classic, answers this question: “In business, it's very important to do consistent market research. It's very important to understand your customers and potential customers. The more you understand them, the better you'll be able to add value to their lives, and the more they'll pay for that value.” 

As Smith puts it, the startup business owner must make it a daily task to seek to become, in fact, an imaginary friend to his potential customers. You must take into consideration, through a proper survey, his interest, fears, pride, and aspirations. 

You must think like Apple. Apple is one of the ruling businesses of the 21st century. But how did they achieve this grand status? Simply, Apple launches itself deep into the soul of its customers to learn about their interests, fears, pride, and aspirations. You too must do this if you are keen on discovering the best business idea to invest in. 

3. Speak to Experts in the Field 

Every idea at inception is a worthy one until subjected to the refining fire of constructive criticism. However, several startup businesses shy away from this obvious truth. Often, the fear emanates from the quest to avoid any form of discouragement. Nevertheless, you must have it at the back of your mind that you are not in business for yourself but for people, and these people will subject your business idea to countless criticism before the first purchase is made.

Venture Studios, such as Epirus Ventures are the refiners of your gold; business idea. They help to sieve off the insubstantial ideas and polish the best ones. No business aiming to achieve greatness can insulate itself from this obvious truth. Experts help you as an aspiring business owner to organize your thoughts and remove the beams obstructing your business sight. 

4.Consider the Emerging Economic Trend 

One of the proven ways to discover the best business idea to invest in is to consider the emerging economic trend of society. As long as planet earth continues its diuturnal pursuit around the aging sun, the human way of life and practices will continue to experience persistent change. For a moment, think of the several ages and ask yourself if human practices have not experienced drastic changes. From the Hunter and Gatherer economic age to the Agricultural Age, to the Industrial Age, and now the Information Age, there were indicators and pointers which several people in their times ignored. Should that not convince you enough, then think of the quiet transformation from black and white television to color HD television and from theatre to cinema. 

Obviously, many people failed to see the opportunities embedded in this transition. Therefore, you must train yourself to look out for the emerging economic trend because in it lies the best business idea. Remember, accepting change is often not a palatable affair. Imagine you lived in the Agricultural Age and then someone says: “A new dawn is approaching and in such lies a viable business idea.” You most likely will turn down this thought unless you have trained your mind to probe into the future. 

5.Evaluate Ideas with Problem Solving 

Often, ideas come as flashes of light upon the human mind, hence you may find that you have a cluster of ideas from which you must sieve out the best. When this happens, another proven way to discover the best business idea to invest in out of the pack is to evaluate those ideas through the lens of problem-solving. 

What existing or future problem does this idea solve? Is it just another idea no one will ever find efficient in solving any problems? Will it just make you a proud business owner or result in great income? It is best to find answers to this before you even set out to write a business plan. Albert Einstein stresses the importance of identifying problems before seeking out solutions in this way: “If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.” 

To discover the best business idea, you must see your business as the solution to a societal problem you have spent enough time to identify.

Final Notes on Discovering the Best Business Idea 

Ideas are everywhere but to find the best ones to build a business around, you need to follow a proven method of validation and iteration. This will help you shift through your ideas and get to the ones that are more likely to succeed. Also, we believe by discovering the best business idea, startup business owners are more likely to secure capital for their businesses and fill the vacuum created by insufficient capital. Here, at Epirus Ventures we support aspiring founders by providing the strategy and resources they need to grow. Please reach out to us if you feel like we can help you in any way.