Your boss just asked you to work overtime. Again.

You’re tired. Frustrated. Fed up.

There must be a better way to earn a living where you don’t have to deal with the daily

commute, listen to your co-workers and their problems or put in long hours that could be spent with your family and friends.

You’ve always dreamed of being your own boss. Setting your own hours, having the financial freedom to buy your dream car or house and taking control of your life.

How do those entrepreneurs come up with such great ideas? You know you have the makings of an entrepreneur, but perhaps you’re not sure how to put it into action. What ways can you come up with the perfect startup idea that will make you the next Mark Zuckerberg, or Elon Musk?

Like these highly successful entrepreneurs, it won’t happen overnight, but if you take the 7-day challenge, processing just one method per day, you’ll come up with a startup idea that will make you wonder why you haven’t thought of it sooner!

Day One – Tweak It

Put your Sherlock Holmes hat on and start to look at the world through the eyes of a detective. What inefficiencies, frustrations, and problems do you notice with current products, systems or services. You don’t necessarily need to reinvent the wheel, here. Perhaps there’s something you’ve seen in your daily life upon which you think you could improve. What wastes your time? What costs you more money than it should?

Day Two – What’s Missing?

Have you noticed a gap in a particular industry or niche? A product you can’t buy or a service you would like to see but doesn’t exist? In Sydney, Australia, boating sun-lovers spending time on the water have the luxury of being served coffee, snacks, sandwiches, and alcohol from the comfort of their boat. How? Some bright spark came up with the idea to provide and deliver directly to other crafts from his own. Genius!

Day Three – Think Like a Cheapskate

People love a bargain. We hate to spend more money than we need to, right? If you can work out a way to save people money – whether it’s an entirely new idea or a cheaper version on an existing one – there’s a good chance you’ll have a successful business idea right there.

Day Four – Get out and Mingle

Try networking events, conferences, exhibitions. Go out and meet people who think differently than you, and pick their brains. What about your customers? Co-workers? How could their life be improved or made more time efficient? The best way to find out what people need is by asking them.

Day Five – Do What You Love

About what are you passionate.? If money was no object, how would you love to spend your days? Okay, stop thinking about spending it on a beach in the Maldives. How do you spend your free time? Is it spending time on Social Media? Gardening? Building model cars?

Brainstorm how you could turn your hobby into a business. How could you improve on it? What could you do better than anyone else?

Day Six – Get with the Trends

Do a little research into trending products or arenas. Branding and social media are one of the hottest trends in 2019. Find a hot trend and piggyback off it, find a way to tweak it enough, so you stand out in the crowd.

Day Seven – Channel Your Inner Know-It-All

Is there an area of your life that your friends and family continuously come to you asking for advice? Giving advice is how many influencers on Social Media have cracked success. They’ve brainstormed what they’re good at and created blogs, how-to videos, and online courses.

Your skill or knowledge might seem obvious or irrelevant to you, but to someone else, it’s gold. Take some time to think about what people ask you for advice on and ways you could monetize it.

Are you still worried you can’t come up with a business idea?

Stop stressing. Don’t worry about how to come up with a business idea.

Look for problems in your or others’ everyday life. Keep a journal and write your ideas down before you brainstorm them with others and work out the gaps in the world, that you can potentially fill.

Once you find the perfect business idea for you, you can begin researching how to implement your business plan and be on your way to being your own boss.

Just keep those thoughts of the vacation home in Hawaii, telling the boss what he can do with his job, or just waking up whenever you darn well feel like it.

Take control of your future. You got this.