Please, help me with idea

[arulya]

I decided to start my own business and I have time and money to do it. But I can't choose an idea for business. I live in Russia in a city ​​with a population of 1,5 million people. I woudlike to see some ideas. I'm sure a lot of them will be fundamentally new for me. Thanks in advance.
P.S. Sorry for my poor language, haven't got english lessons for 5 years.

[Spider]

Welcome aboard, Arulya. Your English sounds just fine, and conversing here will be good practice for you.

Regarding your question - ideas for a business. There really isn't any help we can give without knowing your situation and your city. A good initial analysis that you can do is called a SWOT analysis--

Strengths - your strenghts - what you are good at, your skills, your talents, what you like to do, what you want to achieve personally.

Weaknesses - your weaknesses - what you are not good at, what you don't like to do.

Opportunities - what opportuities are there in your market, what do your friends and associates need, what do they want, what are they prepared to spend money on. What is available that is not being done well that you could do better.

Threats - what are the threats in your market, what will stop you or make it difficult for you to do what you want, what are people spending money on now that they will not give up to spend that money on your products or service.

Spend some time writing out your answers - not for us, but for yourself. The more you write, and the more you read what you have written, the more you will understand your situation and come up with a perfect answer. Of course, you can share your thoughts with us and I'm sure you will receive many comments and ideas.

[BeTheBest]

Hi arulya! Welcome!
I am new here too, but I have contributed a lot on other forums (and hope I can provide help here too!) I agree with Spider. I would only add the issue of 'passion'. What is your passion? What do you really like to do.

I say that because without having a passion, you will always find it a lot of work. Myself, I do a lot of website development, SEO and Internet Marketing. I enjoy being able to answer questions and help people.

If you're having a hard time, the one thing that may help is to write things down. By that, I mean create a PROS and CONS list for the business ideas you come up with. I know it sounds a little strange, but I assure you that once you read the list that's in front of you, the answers become pretty clear. If you try to juggle it all in your head, you will never see clearly.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

[arulya]

Thank you for your advices! I have reflected about what you said fnd I found that I don' really understand what my passion is. The only thing I want to do is making money.
Talking about SWOT analysis, I tried to do something similar a few month ago. But it shows me that everything I call favorite is just useless for Russia and especially for my city. Maybe I should try one more time.

S: I like communicate, like making good things, like helping people, specially old people and children, I like making something beautiful, like stylish clothing, bags, shoes. I'm really interested in policy. And what about business I thing retail is perfect for me.

W: I wouldn't like to work with a lot of papers or figures. I thing it's boring. My profession is lawyer (I don't like it too).

O+T: Now isn't really good time for russian people. In my opinion day by day people become more and more poor, at least most of them. So in my maket it is really difficult to offer customers something expensive. And the market of service is undevelopped too. In my view it's just because people don't have money at all. Most of the income go to food. But the market of food in Novosibirsk is saturated. A lot of big supermakets have so law prices that most of small shops close.
One of the important characteristics of my city is winter) It starts in Noovember and ends in April. And you should know that during December, January and February the temperature can be 30-40 degrees below zero. Very cold.
There is the biiggest russian scientific centre called Akademgorodok. So a lot of students and poor scientists live there.
Another thing I should tell: my city situated in the center of Russia, it is geografical center of country. In Russia this fact is awful for those who want to import something or bring something from other parts of country.
And of course it's wrong to forget about one more thing of geography - China is not far from us. So most of clothing, home tecsitil, plastic are only from there. Their products are very cheap and defective in the majority.

This is the most important information about me and my country I think. I will be happy to answer your questions or first of all see them because it helps me thinking.

[BeTheBest]

Hmmm... you say you're a lawyer.

I hope this doesn't sound crazy, but are a lot of individuals using the internet in Russia? I ask because in North America, the search engines have basically replaced the Yellow Page directories. That's where most businesses would advertise. Now, small business is more successful with a website then a Yellow Page ad.

Having said that, have you considered something that is directed and targeted to your market like standard 'legal papers'?? There are websites that cater to the N.American market where you can buy standard Wills, Buy/Sell Agreements and a lot of other standard documents that lawyers charge a lot to produce.

If you know the law (as you're a lawyer) why can't you create these documents for your market? The best thing is that you OWN them. You create it once and sell it over and over again.

You have to have a system for digital downloads and to accept payments on line. But that's not difficult. Of course, this can only happen if your audience (the average consumer) has access to credit card payments.

Does that make any sense?? You may find a renewed passion when you develop a strategy to create the documents. You will also become the 'expert' where people will start asking you questions. You can answer them and then direct them to the page for documents they may need.

Once again, when you sell information, the beauty is that you only need to create it once; then you continue to sell it over and over.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

[arulya]

Very interesting idea. But unfortunately there is no chance it will work in Russia. I try to explain why. All standart documents almost for all juridical situations are in net and you can take it for free without money.
And we must remember about russian people. A lot of them can't use Internet or even computer and those who can often don't trust on-line services because internet fraud developes in Russia as good as Internet. So it's really very difficult here to make some online shop or service working successfully.

[Patrysha]

Is there something uniquely Russian that you have access to that could be sold abroad?

[arulya]

I can have some benefits in purchasing wild plants (mushrooms, berries) from those who pick up these plants in taiga in the north. Do you think it will work?

[huggytree]

i dont see how ANYONE can give you advise on what type of business to start

you cant just pick something and start tomorrow...it takes years of planning (unless you have an AMAZING IDEA)

i recommend picking something your interested in....getting a job in that field...learn about the business(maybe by becoming a manager there).....then figure out how to do that business better or different...hopefully both...then save $$ and start your business

just picking something someone else suggests is beyond simplistic....your chances of success are 1 percent with that method....

you need to spend years planning and thinking....good luck to you though!!!

[Business Heads]

Well I feel the best way to know what you wish to start is to first close your eyes and think what would you really enjoy doing?
Is it something related to manufacturing?
Is it something related to designing?
Or is it something related to planning?
It is customer based idea? or personal pick idea?

Keep asking yourself questions till you find the right answer. Do not jump to conclusion by picking up something that has a lot of profit. Remember your interest in your business will get you profit that nothing else will give you.