How often have we heard that success in business depends on finding a need and meeting it? To the extent such thinking is true, meeting a need does not necessarily require coming up with a brand-new idea. Creative entrepreneurs can succeed with old ideas, too.
It is not so much whether an idea is old or new. It’s more about how an entrepreneur goes about meeting the need. As long as a need legitimately exists – which is to say there aren’t enough businesses already working to meet it – there is room for an entrepreneur to start a new business.
Old Idea: Recycling Plastic
One example of an old idea with plenty of room for development is recycling plastic. As you may know, only about 9% of all the plastic produced globally gets recycled. Most of it is put in landfills or burned in incinerators. The need for recycling is proven by the fact that it takes so long for plastic to decompose in a landfill. But finding a way to meet that need is another matter.
Municipal recycling has not produced the best results over the last 50 years. Industrial recycling is just the opposite. Industrial plastic recycling works so well that a Memphis company known as Seraphim Plastics offers its services in seven states.
A sound business model is that which separates Seraphim and its industrial plastic competitors from those who attempt to recycle municipal solid waste. Industrial recycling operators have figured out a reliable and repeatable process that allows them to recycle tons of plastic waste at a good profit.
New Idea: Identifying Dog Poop
Recycling industrial plastic scrap may not seem like the most exciting business idea. An entrepreneur looking to do something a little more revolutionary might try to figure out a way to identify dog poop by way of DNA. More specifically, the goal is to identify the dog that produced it.
According to Ohio NBC affiliate WCMH, a company known as PooPrints relies on DNA testing to track down dogs whose deposits are not cleaned up by their owners. They offer their service to landlords who face routine complaints about tenants who do not clean up after their pets.
Renters who wish to keep a dog in their units must submit a saliva sample along with the rental application. That saliva sample is sent to PooPrints where it is analyzed. The resulting DNA profile is kept on file.
When a landlord or maintenance team happens upon a mess left anywhere on the premises, they scoop up a sample and send it off to the lab. A DNA analysis reveals which animal the poop belongs to. Its owner is then fined for not cleaning up.
Ideas Waiting for Action
Both Seraphim Plastics and PooPrints are proof that there are great business ideas out there just waiting for action. Some of the ideas are decades old. They just need a sound business model to make them work. Other ideas are comparatively new and, in some cases, even revolutionary.
The most successful entrepreneurs find workable ideas and capitalize on them. They tend to think outside the box. They do not see problems as a barrier to success, they see them as a pathway to profitable ventures.
Do you consider yourself an entrepreneur? And if so, have you succeeded with both old and new ideas? It’s amazing just how many profitable ideas are out there. If you can find a way to take an idea and use it to meet a need, you have a leg up on the rest of us who wish we were entrepreneurs.
