1. Identify a problem and find a solution

• Ask your friends and family about problems that they come across in daily life for which there is no solution. Can you make a product that solves that problem?
• Look at products / services that you use in your own daily life.  Can you come up with a better alternative?

2. Look at your hobbies

• Do you have a hobby or skill that can be turned into a business. Make a list of your hobbies and brainstorm with friends, family and your team on how these can be developed into a business.

3. Be realistic!

• Remember, your ideas must be workable and they should be profitable? Ask yourselves: “can we realistically make this product”, “are there enough customers out there who will buy it” and “will it make money for us”?

4. Try improving an existing product / service

• Try coming up with a different spin on an existing product / service.
• A good example of this is how a US company called Aqua Cell Media came up with a new slant on water coolers called ‘Coolertising’. They transformed the simple watercooler into a powerful form of promotion.
  
  

5. Don’t forget your research & development

• Remember that you can also score marks in this section for the research and development you carry out on your product / service.

• This means developing your product / service to make it more appealing to your customer.