People have often asked me, how an idea works? The answer is very simple. Idea comes from everywhere. You just need to look at the big pain point which is the origin of an idea. If one can identify a gap,i.e, the unmet need, the need which is not satisfied , that is the genesis point of an idea.

In my own ventures, I have always focussed on basic things like roti, kapra, makaan, healthcare, education and entertainment. These are the core sectors which has tremendous business opportunity.

Firstly, for an idea to be viable, it needs to be scalabale (whether a large market). It is difficult to build businesses within small markets. For example, one of my companies, ‘Bluestone’, is an online gold and diamond jewellery brand. In India people are greatly fond of jewellery; therefore this in itself is a big market. However, if one thinks of selling online jewellery for pets in India, the question which arises is how many people have pets; out of that how many people will even think of buying jewellery for pets; if even they think so, how many out of them will go online; if at all they go online, how many of them actually could be converted to sell. Hence, this will be a small market. Therefore scalability of an idea is very important.

Secondly, it is important to discover, whether the need is strong enough because people will always pay only for real need.

Thirdly, one needs to think, if his/her business can be monetised. For example, people love cricket and Bollywood in India, however the question that arises- can a large site be started on cricket and Bollywood? It may have millions of visitors, but can it be monetised? It will be difficult as online advertisement rates are small and an individual’s willingness to pay for bollywood news/cricket score is very small.

To sum up, therefore, scalability, whether the idea is a need/want and whether people will pay for the idea; these are the 3 basic ways to look at ideas and start a business.