There is a specific kind of frustration that shows up when you know you want to own a business but you can’t think of what business to start. You look at people running successful ones and assume they had some clarity you’re missing. Some spark. Some idea that came to them fully formed.
Most of them didn’t.
What most business owners actually had was a habit of noticing the things they wished existed and couldn’t find. That habit is trainable, and it’s the thing most aspiring owners are missing.
The Rental We Couldn’t Find
When we moved my company’s base from Kirkland, Washington to Boise for a better cost of living, we ran into a specific problem. We needed to move quickly for the business, but designing, permitting, and building our dream home was going to take 18 to 24 months. So we came up with a strategy: find a furnished rental to live in during the wait, sell the furniture that wouldn’t work in the new home, and just move our clothes.
Then we ran into a problem.
We knew exactly where we wanted to live. A cute area close to the school we loved for the kids. And we found only two furnished rentals in the market, neither one we were excited about.
Our solution was to buy a house that we’d turn into a furnished rental. We’d move just enough furniture to work in this smaller house, then leave it when we moved to the new home. We’d get a place we were excited to live in and end up with a cash-flow-producing asset. All by creating the thing we couldn’t find that we wished existed.
That house has turned out to be one of our best investments.
The Pattern I Kept Seeing
It also fits a pattern I’ve seen repeatedly across thousands of Guidant clients. They create the thing they couldn’t find.
Kathryn Ernst was frustrated that there wasn’t a restaurant in her community where she could take her entire family and enjoy a meal, because Kathryn had both gluten and dairy sensitivities. When she decided to do something new, she opened the very thing she wanted.
Wendy Salerno got frustrated that she had to drive 30 minutes to the next town every time one of her daughters was looking for a dress for a school dance. That frustration led to Dariana Tux & Bridal.
Those are two of hundreds of stories. It’s a brilliant strategy, and one that probably sounds like common sense. Which is why I’m always surprised when people who want to start a business tell me they can’t think of any business to start.
What I Would Have Said in 2001
I get it. If you had asked me in 2001 what my ideas were, I would have looked at you with a blank stare.
I had plenty of problems, annoyances, and things I would look for but couldn’t find. I just didn’t connect the dots that those were opportunities.
Eventually I did, when I heard the same warning throughout real estate training: never work with investors. I understood the logic. Experienced investors will ask you to do a lot of work you’ll never get paid for. But I had just bought my first investment property, and I thought there were a lot of newbies like me who could really use support to find the right properties and manage them.
That is what led to the first company I ever founded.
But my approach wasn’t intentional. I latched onto the first concrete idea that came to me. I didn’t build the muscle to notice opportunities so I could later evaluate them and pick the best one.
It worked out. But an attorney I used to work with, Gina, had a much better approach.
Gina’s Whiteboard
Gina carried a little notebook and jotted down the random frustrations and ideas that came to her while she was living her normal life. She’d often write on the whiteboard outside her cubicle her business idea of the day.
Most of them were a little bit crazy or a little bit funny. So most people who saw Gina’s whiteboard probably thought it was silly and unhelpful.
I think it was brilliant.
Gina wasn’t pretending every idea she had was going to be great. She also wasn’t letting that stop her from building her awareness of the opportunities all around her.
It’s no surprise, then, that Gina is a business owner today.
The Muscle Nobody Talks About
The problem isn’t that opportunities are rare. It’s that most people aren’t tuned to see them. You walk past the same frustrations, workarounds, and unmet needs every day and you don’t register them as anything more than annoyances.
The people who end up owning businesses are the ones who trained the muscle. They noticed. They wrote it down. They came back to it.
That’s what Gina was doing without labeling it. And it’s what most aspiring owners can do if they build the habit.
Starting Your Own Journal
You can borrow Gina’s insight by starting your own business idea journal.
It doesn’t matter whether you do it in a notebook or on your phone. Just make it a goal to capture at least one thing each day that could be an opportunity.
If you get stuck, here are a few prompt questions:
What was I looking for today that I couldn’t find?
What have I complained about today?
What workaround or duct-tape fix am I using because what I really need doesn’t exist yet?
What did I do myself today that I would have gladly paid someone else to do?
You aren’t married to any of the ideas you capture. The goal isn’t for every idea to be the next billion-dollar unicorn.
The goal is to keep tuning your awareness. Because when you review those pages later, you’re going to find the seeds of some gems. Problems you’d be excited to solve, that could pave your path to business ownership.
You don’t need an idea. You need a journal.
