RATIONALE:
Being personally and professionally confident that you can run your own business is very important but it is only part of the overall equation for small business success. Having an appropriate product/service that is at the core of your small business is the next STEP on your journey to small business success. You don't have to necessarily build the "better mouse trap" so that people will beat a path to your door. But the business product/service that you are going to pursue had better be distinguishable from the crowd, as well as something that will generate a strong demand. This second Step, BUSINESS IDEA SELECTION, helps to identify such a product/service, if one has not already been determined. If a product/service has already been identified, this Step may help to validate your choice or even strengthen it.

SPECIFIC PRODUCTS: (24 Pages, 4 Exercises and Readings)

1. CREATIVE THINKING IN SMALL BUSINESS: (Reading, Exercises)
   “An idea is nothing more or less than the new combination of old elements”, according to James Webb Young, a noted 20th Century advertiser. Since most of us are somewhat limited by our thinking processes, opening up our thinking to a wider vision, to new ideas, is an important first step to ultimately selecting our business idea. A general discussion of creativity (the lateral thinking process) is followed by specific techniques that will enable you do to that.
2. SMALL BUSINESS IDEA GENERATION TECHNIQUE: (Exercise)
   Building upon the creative thinking information and the previously completed Personal/Professional Assessment, this Part in the Selecting Your Small Business process will help you to generate potential business ideas that are consistent with your unique personal/professional profile. It does this by asking a series of questions based on your background, interests and abilities, to help generate potential business ideas that might be a particularly good fit.
3. MARKETING RESEARCH FOR THE SMALL BUSINESS: (Reading)
   This Section assists you in gathering information for the businesses that you have identified in Section 2. Included in this Section is a discussion of common processes in conducting market research, ending in the presentation of a general Market Research Data Collection Model. Also included are a sampling of Small Business Secondary Research Resources and some tips on developing a questionnaire, a primary form of Small Business primary data collection.
4. SMALL BUSINESS SELECTION TECHNIQUE: (Exercise)
   Finally, a series of "market perspectives" such as the condition of the economy, the amount of potential competition etc., is applied to the business ideas previously identified. A quantitative/qualitative ranking of all of your business ideas emerges.

EXPECTED BENEFITS:

Completion of this Step 2 should result in at least one highly ranked business idea that not only fits your personal profile but also appears to have a good economic/marketing basis. Coupled with this information, you should also have additional insight into the creative thinking process as well as a deeper sense of how marketing research can be used to strengthen your business. Whether your business idea is already well established, still in the embryonic stage, or basically nonexistent, a careful, objective look at the results of this Step should produce some very helpful guidance about your business ideas.

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