Start with the problem, not the business idea

"Come up with a business idea" sounds exciting until the page stays blank.

A better starting point is often less grand. Ask a young builder what keeps going wrong around them: the lunch queue, club payments, lost homework, group chats that miss important details, a game night that nobody organises well.

Workarounds are evidence

People reveal problems through the awkward things they do to cope. A teacher copies the same information into three places. A club tracks payments in a chat thread. A grandparent keeps written instructions beside an app.

The workaround is evidence. It shows that someone cares enough to spend time or effort on the problem already.

Make the customer specific

"Students" is too broad. "The student who misses the bus after an after-school club" is something you can investigate.

Choose one real person who experiences the problem. Ask what happens now, what they have tried and which part causes the most frustration. Listen for facts before offering a fix.

The first response can be tiny

The first version does not need to be an app or a company. It could be a checklist, a paper sketch, a new message template or a manual service performed once.

Small tests expose weak assumptions cheaply. If nobody wants the paper version, more code will not rescue the idea.

Ask what the problem costs

A frustration is not automatically an opportunity. Ask what it costs in time, money, missed chances or stress. Then ask what the person does when the problem occurs.

If the answer is "nothing", the need may not be strong enough yet. If they repeatedly build their own solution, there may be something to explore.

Keep the evidence close

Write down the problem, the person, the current workaround and the first thing you could test. After each conversation, record what surprised you and what changed.

Entrepreneurship starts before a logo, pitch or price. It starts when someone notices carefully enough to describe a real problem without rushing past it.