Are you struggling to come up with a good business idea? Use complaints as inspiration! A good business idea should solve a need or a problem that others have as that means it will have a direct positive impact on people.

Creating a product that no one needs or asked for could still work, but it’s always a risk. Instead, focusing on problems that people face is a good way to establish your place in the market. The best way to do this is to look at what people are complaining about.

Here are some common types of complaints and some food for thought on how you could solve them.

“I don’t have enough time”

How many times have you heard the complaint “I don’t have the time”? We’ve all said it at some point. Unfortunately, time is the one thing none of us are particularly rich in. We only have so many hours in the day and so many responsibilities to fit in there while also getting enough sleep to function.

What can you do to save people time? Can you make a program that makes it easy for people to fit in exercise? Can you create software which speeds up everyday needs?

“It’s too expensive”

Another common complaint people have is how expensive products or services are. Is there any way you can create a business which solves this problem? What can you do to make your service either more valuable or cheaper?

Can you make a process more efficient and cost-effective and pass on that saving to your customers? For example, online retailers boomed because they’re often cheaper, more convenient and you don’t need to travel to the nearest town or city to buy things. That means online retailers managed to solve the problems of not having enough time or money in one move.

“It’s too difficult”

With only so much time in the day and a dozen things to do, simplicity is incredibly important to modern life. We want things that are quick and easy to do, especially when it comes to things which are good for us as they usually get sidelined in favour of other responsibilities such as sleep, work or childcare.

For example, cooking a healthy meal every night is difficult for a lot of people which is why takeaways and meal subscription services are so popular. What is a common difficulty you’ve heard people complain is too difficult? What business idea could you come up with to solve this problem?

“X isn’t available”

This is where a gap in the market comes in. If you have heard people complain that something isn’t available for them, that’s a possible business idea for you to explore.

For example, for a while, people struggled to find clothes that fit in regular stores. So, now there are online shops which make it easy for people to buy plus-size clothes.

Another example is that many people want to learn new languages but can’t access or afford private language classes where they live. Now there are the likes of Duolingo online which provide easy, bite-sized lessons to help people develop their language skills from the comfort of their home.

The overall take away from this post is that common complaints are a good thing to pay attention to if you’re looking for a lucrative business idea. Pay attention to complaints you have in your own life and ones you hear from others around you or online. Once you have a couple of ideas, it’s time to brainstorm solutions.

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About The Author

Christopher Jones

Forensics graduate-turned copywriter and blogger. I love turning complex topics into easy to understand, yet engaging pieces of content.

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