How to Generate New Business Ideas

I feel like I’ve had to come up with a lot of new ideas lately; for my vinyl business, for Vinyl Decal School, for other things I do, and for future goals too, so I thought I would just do a quick post about how I come up with these new ideas, in case you needed a little bit of inspiration too. 

For my decal business, a lot of the time I am just building on my already popular designs, so it is quite easy to come up with other things that compliment my existing products, or that are in the same style but with different wording etc.

But occasionally I’ll do a whole new section of products, and then I also have to come up with video ideas for this channel, ideas for a totally different blog I write for and also design ideas for new SVG files to sell. So I am constantly trying to think of new things, or at least my take on something that already exists. 

To find how I do that, either watch the video…

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Or take a look below…

Get Inspiration Elsewhere & Everywhere

Firstly, I try to not look at what other people in my niche are doing. It’s sometimes hard to avoid it, as their pictures get shared on social media and are recommended to me on Etsy when I’m looking at my own products, but I don’t want to subconsciously copy so I try to avoid them if I can.

So instead, I try to get my inspiration from lots of other places. The first thing I do is to really try to stay afloat with what is trending in other industries. I try to be aware of what is currently being used in weddings, fashion and home decor in particular, but there are also websites like Trend Hunter that give you some hints as to what may be popular with consumers in future if you want to get ahead of things.

It’s also useful to be aware of what is trending on social media, so I try to do that as well as a lot of looking at Pinterest to see what kind of pins are coming up the most in my feed. I also make sure I check out the latest Pinterest Predicts to see what they are predicting will be popular in the up-coming year.

When taking inspiration from social media it can sometimes be a bit difficult to stand out as there are a lot of similar styles (and again you don’t want to subconsciously copy), but I think it’s fine if you’re looking at other things in your niche and beyond that aren’t what you make or sell, and mashing them all together to create your own new products and ideas.

Always Keep A Notepad Around

Embrace your inner Monica Geller - keep a notepad around at all times! Because ideas don’t always come right away when I’m looking at various outlets for inspiration, and instead they tend to appear just before I’m about to go to sleep (anyone else?!), I have learnt to always keep a notebook nearby.

I also sometimes get ideas when I’m listening to music or podcasts, or just sitting having a coffee, or going for a walk, and in those moments I tend to make notes on my phone and then transfer both those, and the ones from my notebook, to my Trello board at a later date so I can organise them and figure out how to make them a reality.

Photo by Jess Bailey on Unsplash

And the more relevant information I take in and expose myself to, the more ideas pop into my head like this! 

Market Research

Another great way to find out what ideas may be popular with potential customers is to research what people are searching for online. You can use various keyword tools for this like Uber Suggest or there are sites like Answer Socrates which show you what questions people have been asking Google so you know what they’re looking for. These are probably better for creating content than products, but if you do lots of different searches related to what you sell it might bring up some relevant stuff for you to create ideas from. 

Or you can also use the Etsy search bar to see what customers are looking for…

…or use your search history to see what people have been searching for to find your shop in particular. You can find this under Stats -> Etsy Search.

One of my most popular ones is boyfriend gifts so I’m constantly trying to think of different things that people might want to give to their boyfriend to make sure customers have a choice when they reach my shop…

If you don’t have Etsy or a site that has it’s own search analytics (or even if you do actually) then it’s a great idea to set up a Google Analytics tracking code too, which will give you some insight into what people are searching for to find you, and if you need to be adding more designs that cater to these people. 

Ask Your Customers

And then my favorite, and probably the easiest method for idea generation, is to ask my customers if there is anything else they want to see me make. So on videos, social media posts, emails, and occasionally in product listings, I will ask my customers to let me know if there is any other type of product or content that they want to see. Not everyone answers it obviously, but occasionally they do and I’ve had some great ideas that have gone on to get a lot of good feedback or lots of sales, purely by asking people exactly what they want! 

I hope you found that helpful! Let me know in the comments how you come up with new ideas, plus if you have any ideas for Vinyl Decal School that you would like to see me do ;)