When deciding to start a business, you might feel lost on how exactly you should start it. Experienced entrepreneurs are skillfully juggling the names of various strategies, methods, and startup frameworks everywhere—during business meetings, on their YouTube channels or social media, at startup events, etc.
Maybe you’re already thinking of good ideas for businesses, but given all this informational noise, you’re not sure how to start a startup company.
In this article, we’ll help you figure out how to do it right. We’ll speak about various startup frameworks that can help you come up with the best startup business ideas, start your company, and grow and scale it.
How to come up with a business idea
Let’s start with startup frameworks for idea generation (before actually building a company, you first need to have an idea).
Although there are many paths founders can take, here, we’ll discuss four methods that entrepreneurs often use to identify new opportunities:
1. Design thinking
One of the ways to find startup ideas is to think like a customer. You try to deeply understand the pain points and experiences of users so you can create products and services that solve these specific problems.
For example:
You’re thinking about creating a mobile health app for elderly people, but you’re not sure how to shape this startup idea the right way. Instead of doing everything from your perspective and basing it on guesswork, you try to walk into customers’ shows. Think of challenges elderly users may experience while using your app—maybe it’s hard for them to navigate complex interfaces, or they need medication reminders. By using a design thinking startup framework, you can develop a simple and intuitive app that is really helpful for this customer segment.
2. SCAMPER
SCAMPER is an acronym for Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, and Reserve. With this startup framework, you can create new business ideas by modifying existing products and services. You start asking questions about the existing products or services to think outside the box and see which innovative solutions you can get by making some small adjustments.
Here are some questions that can help you come up with business ideas that solve problems:
What can I substitute or replace?
Which elements can I combine to get something new?
Can I use this product or idea in a different way or for a different purpose?
Can I remove or simplify something, so the product will start working better?
How can I rearrange the elements to create something unique?
3. Trend analysis
Fair to note that analysis of market trends should become an important part of your startup entrepreneurship routine. It’s good not only for finding startup ideas but also for building, growing, and scaling your business. When you know what happens in the market, you can run your company more successfully and effectively.
But coming back to trend analysis as a startup framework for idea generation, you need to analyze consumer behavior, tech innovations, and societal shifts to be able to spot new trends early and capitalize on them. In this way, you’ll see untapped opportunities and bring your solution to the market when it’s the right time.
4. Blue ocean strategy
This startup framework is not about coming up with a business idea that can fit the existing market but about creating a new market—a “blue ocean”—where competition is minimal, and you don’t need to fight for your survival. This strategy focuses on innovation and value creation.
For example:
Cirque du Soleil leveraged the blue ocean strategy to give the audience a completely different experience—they combined theater, dance, and acrobatics. As a result, they were an immense success.
Once you find the best business idea, you need to know which startup frameworks to use further—to develop a product, build a business model, acquire customers, etc.—to actually create a startup company.
Complex startup frameworks
There are many various startup frameworks that can help you develop a product, build a business model, acquire customers, and grow and scale your business.
In this section, we’ll speak about four common models that can help you turn your startup idea into a good business.
1. Lean startup framework
Introduced in 2011 by Eric Ries, the lean startup framework is probably the most common and widely used strategy to test business ideas quickly and improve them because it relies on real customer feedback. The main goal here is to create a product or service that truly meets customer needs without spending too much time and resources.
If you want to apply the lean startup framework, first, you need to spot user pain points and problems. Then, you build a simple version of the product (an MVP—minimum viable product) and measure how it performs in the market. You gather customer feedback, analyze it, and iterate your product accordingly. And then you repeat the whole process again and again.
As long as you’re staying in the build-measure-learn loop, you avoid wasting time and effort and are always moving toward a product that customers actually want.
However, the lean startup framework has some cons:
a) When you introduce too many changes based on feedback, you may lose your focus, which leads to problems building a solid startup brand.
b) If you rely too much on customer needs (especially short-term), you may miss your chance to create something really big and disruptive.
c) If you want to start a tech business, the lean startup framework may work perfectly. But for many other industries, it may not be so effective, especially in those areas where rapid ideation is not practical or actually impossible (for example, pharmaceuticals, real estate, and luxury goods).
2. Product-market fit
The PMF framework runs around business ideas that solve problems. To be more precise, it helps entrepreneurs see whether their product or service meets the real needs of the targeted audience, whether there is a strong demand, and whether they’re generating consistent revenue. If you’ve reached the product-market fit, it means you’re on the right track to scalable growth.
According to Dan Olsen (the author of this startup framework), the PMF model has five layers:
Target customers
Specific customer needs
Value proposition
Feature set
User experience (UX)
To make this model work, you should take a bottom-up approach and research your target market to find their pain points and needs, create a value proposition to show how your product will stand out in the market, build the features, and then design the user experience.
Let’s take an example to understand this startup framework better:
You’re working on a* tech startup idea** for a mobile app that can help small businesses deal with their inventory in real time. So, here’s what we have:*
Target customers: Small business owners who have problems with tracking inventory.*
Specific customer needs: They need a simple, affordable way to track inventory.*
Value proposition: Your app offers a user-friendly, affordable, and real-time inventory tracking system.*
Feature set: It has barcode scanning, stock updates, automatic reorder alerts, and multi-store management. *
UX: The app has a clean, intuitive design with easy navigation. Business owners need just a few taps to check their inventory.*
However, getting to the desired PMF may take ages. While some startups may arrive at this destination after several months, others may need years. Besides, customers’ needs change all the time; that’s why PMF isn’t something that you’ve reached once and forget for the good—it’s an ongoing process.
One more thing to mention before you choose this startup framework is that it’s subjective and hard to measure. Of course, you may use metrics like retention rate or NPS (net promoter score), but they don’t always give a clear answer, especially if your customer base is small.
It’s best to combine the lean startup framework and the PMF model as, in fact, a product-market fit is the result of a successful implementation of the lean startup strategy.
Related read: How to prove to investors you have product-market fit?
3. Business model canvas (BMC)
If you plan to work on your business model, the BMC startup framework is the best choice. With its help, you can define, design, and analyze major components of your business model.
BMC has nine building blocks, and you need to map out each of them on one page:
Customer segments: Who are your targeted customers?
Value proposition: What value are you going to bring to your customers?
Channels: How do you plan to reach your customers?
Customer relationships: How do you interact with them?
Revenue streams: How does the money come to you?
Resources: Which resources do you need to deliver your value proposition?
Activities: What do you need to do to make your business work?
Partnerships: Who are your partners and suppliers?
Cost structure: What are your costs and expenses?
Once you finish, you can clearly see all the possible gaps and opportunities in your business. This startup framework is very useful for early-stage companies because it helps them clearly align all the aspects of their business.
However, as BMC is a high-level tool, you may miss out on some important details (of course, you can’t treat it as a comprehensive business plan), and you need to constantly update it (if it’s not up-to-date, it’s no longer relevant).
4. SWOT analysis
When you’re thinking of good ideas for businesses, try not only to hope that they are good but test them with SWOT analysis. By leveraging this startup framework, you can check your idea or business from various angles—Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.
SWOT analysis is simple and easy to understand, and it gives you a comprehensive overview of your startup idea or business. However, the results may be subjective, as they are based on your personal opinion, and it doesn’t actually give you any clear steps or solutions on how to deal with the problems you may spot.
Wrap-up on startup frameworks
Most entrepreneurs typically use a mix of startup frameworks, not just a single one. In such a way, they can build and execute their entrepreneurial strategy successfully. All these tools, if used together, can help business owners test their assumptions, validate products, build business models, and spot risks and opportunities.
At Waveup, we know how to leverage each of the startup frameworks to its maximum benefit, as we’ve worked with over 1,000 clients. Our team has years of experience in venture capital, business, finance, and pitch deck design. If you need help validating your startup idea, creating a presentation, or fundraising, contact our Waveup team, and we’ll gladly assist you.
FAQs
What is a good tactic for entrepreneurs to implement in order to keep a new company growing?
A good tactic is to look at customer feedback more often. If you regularly gather and analyze feedback, you can improve your product or service faster and more efficiently so it meets customer needs. Also, when customers see that you listen to their words, they are more likely to be loyal, which is very important for your long-term success.
What is something that can allow scalable startups to grow faster than other new businesses?
This something is a product-market fit. When your product solves a problem for your target audience, it creates demand, which, in turn, drives your business growth. And if you combine PMF with cool technology and automation to scale operations better, you can grow much faster.
What is the first step in creating a business strategy?
The first step is to know and clearly define your business goals. Understand what you want to achieve—whether it’s growth, customer acquisition, or maybe profitability—and then try to achieve these goals with your strategy.