Use Aspiration For Your Next Big Small Business Idea

Today we live in a culture where celebrities are almost treated as gods. Their every move is documented by the mass media.

The public seems to be almost mesmerized by these celebrities. The clothes they wear, the cars they drive, the places they go all become famous overnight. In a nutshell, any member of their adoring fans aspires to be just like them.

Our entire Western consumer culture is built on aspiration. People
aspire to live in certain neighborhoods. They aspire to travel to
certain places for their vacations. There is a feeling of keeping up
with the Joneses. People take notice of the latest fashion, the latest
trends, the latest gadgets and aspire to have them and to be seen as
being “cool” by others.

How can a small business tap into this endless need that the public
has to be “cool”? There must be thousands of niches that can be derived
from this culture of aspiration that we live in. Some are really
obvious like the fashion and celebrity examples I have mentioned above.
Some aspirational goods have a very short life span of mere months and
are really fleeting. The latest electronic video games are one example.
Some are sustainable and will be around for a while. Lately the green
and environmental movements have made major inroads into popular
culture. This is one niche that could be sub-divided into hundreds of
mini niches which would be easy to capitalize on.

The beauty of goods that the public aspires to have, is that cost
is not as important as other purchasing factors. These products “must
be had” and cost can be higher. The perceived value is not linked to
the price, but to the feeling of owning the latest and greatest thing.

Just look around you. What do kids that you know want? What is
being written about in popular magazines? What are people doing with
their homes? What electronic goods are they buying? By answering these
kinds of questions and taking into account your area of business, you
can start to understand where new opportunities may lie. This is a
different kind of market research, but one that is no different to the
focus groups and surveys that the larger corporations do constantly to
get a feel for where the wind is blowing with regards to their
customer’s needs and desires.

Currently slimmer LCD and plasma sets are the “must haves” in any
household. So perhaps new styles in wall units and other complementary
furniture, new sound deadening materials, new types of cabling, new
types of sound equipment are areas that could provide opportunity.
People will need product reviews on all this new equipment. People will
need simplified “how to” manuals and the list goes on and on. All that
one had to do was look around for the latest “must have” stuff and see
where your business can fill a gap.

The whole idea is to follow what the public is following and eventually become the supplier of goods and services that the public has decided it “needs” and just “must have”.

For free reports, ebooks and articles on small business related subjects, visit http://www.startupmysmallbusiness.com/blog

Mark Bergman has 25 years in business experience, covering areas of
consulting in strategic planning and software and general business
consulting. He also has started up a number of small businesses which
he successfully ran and sold off. He has formal qualifications in both
business and computer science.

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