OK, so you figured out what your skills and talents are and decided on a select few that you are interested in pursuing for a profit. Now what? This is where many people get stuck. You finally realize what you are good at, but you just really aren’t sure what to do with it.

The ideas of what services or products you could create with your talents are infinite, but there are two major elements to think about when deciding on a product or service.

  1. Does my idea align with my dreams and passions?
    The majority of the really successful people in this world are people who are following their dreams and passions. If you are selling something that comes from your soul, people will know that and buy from you just because of the energy that you are emanating. They will feel that energy and want to experience that energy with you.
  2. Are people looking for something like this?
    It is always easier to sell something that others are already looking for. For more information on this subject, check out my previous entry: The Better Way to Sell

Now that you know what to think about when choosing your service or product, I’d like to give you a few resources to help you brainstorm.

  1. HowStuffWorks.com - This website is a great resource for reading about how things work on almost any topic. There’s a lot of information on this site from how computers work to how food cravings work to packing a backpack. Use the website to get ideas on what types of things your skills and talents can do.Let me give you an example: Let’s say you just trained your new puppy, and you really enjoyed the process. You go to HowStuffWorks.com and you conduct 2 searches. One on dogs, and one on dog training. You’ll see different types of dog training, as well as dog shows, dog types, etc. You read the different articles that come up. As you read, you may come up with a specific niche of dog training that you might be interested in, or maybe you’ll find something else related to dogs that is more interesting to you.
  2. Books by James Stephenson – This author has written several books with many different ideas of services you can sell, things you can make to sell, and things you can buy and re-sell. Not only does he list a bazillion ideas, he has several chapters on how to actually start a business that might be of interest to you. Here’s a list of some of his books:
    Ultimate Homebased Business Handbook – While this book has less ideas, it has more information regarding starting a business

     

  3. Google.com – Just searching around and seeing what other people are doing should give you plenty of ideas.

I hope that these resources help you with your brainstorming and gets the ideas rolling. Just remember that coming up with creative ideas is a skill in itself that takes practice. Everyone can do it, but it takes patience, research and thought to come up with the idea that will resonate well with you and your potential customers and align with your dreams.

Keep me posted on how you make out. I’d love to hear how others are doing!