5 Places to Find Better Freelance Business Ideas

So you think you have the skills, motivation, and desire to become an entrepreneur and start your own business. You want to leave behind the days of working for someone else and be your own boss. The only thing missing from this grand plan is an idea for your business.

Not to worry—there are ways in which you can come up with ideas on your own, improve upon older ideas, and even invest in ideas from others. Read these tips and discover for yourself that finding ideas doesn't have to be so difficult.

1. Ideas Are All Around You

Some of the best ideas are created by re engineering older ideas. For example, the light bulb was a great invention that revolutionized the way we light the world. But the light bulb is also constantly being reworked by those who have ideas on how to make them more efficient, less harmful to the environment, or more soothing to the eye. From incandescent bulbs to fluorescent bulbs to LEDs, the light bulb is constantly evolving.

Look around—do you see anything in your home that you think could be improved upon?

2. Fill a Need

How many times have you or someone you've known said, "I wish there was something you could buy that does that?" That is where new ideas are born. Someone recognizes a need for a product or service, and develops an idea to fill that need.

Most products are designed to offer some type of benefit to the consumer. If you want to come up with your own idea, the simply recognize a need that is still waiting for a product to be created in order to fill it.

3. Develop an Idea Based on Your Talents and Interests

An idea doesn't necessarily have to be wholly original. For example, people start their own restaurant business every day, or a new marketing agency enters the market every month. If you have a passion of something, you might want to develop an idea around it. Good ideas can be created simply for money, but great ideas are born of passion.

If you love music, perhaps you want to start a recording studio, or a nightclub, or a DJ company. If you have a talent for fixing cars, you might start your own mechanic business. If you love throwing dinner parties for friends and family, perhaps a catering business might be suited to you.

4. Be Inspired

Sometimes ideas seem to spring directly out of thin air. You can help foster your imagination and improve your chances of coming up with a unique idea by looking to sources of inspiration. Who or what inspires you? Is it a mentor, a family member or celebrity?

Or does a peaceful setting in nature instill you with a good frame of mind for thought? Read magazines, books about other great entrepreneurs and watch documentaries. You might discover quite a bit about the business world that you didn't know before, and you newfound information just might enable you to come up with the next great idea.

5. Invest

Sometimes the idea doesn't have to be your own. If you have the capital, you can invest in another person's idea for a business. Perhaps you know to someone who has the skills and knowledge to run a great restaurant, but doesn't possess the funds to make their idea reality.

There are also individuals who simply patent an idea but are only seeking monetary compensation from an interested party, with no desire to develop the idea into a business. You can purchase the patent and claim the business idea for your own.

Gwen Stewart

About the Guest Author:

Gwen Stewart is a business development professional and writer for Outbounding.com on behalf of ShareFile.com. Her line of work requires she have a reliable way to email large files as well as a solid strategy for meeting tight deadlines.