Source of ideas arises from three categories
- Internal sources
- External sources
- Personal activities
Internal sources
- Research and development department
- Sales personnel
- Employees who serve the customer
- Production personnel
- Executive or top level staff
- Customer care department
External sources
- Customer suggestions
- Competitors product
- Trade journals and magazines
- Member of the distribution channels e.g. suppliers, manufacturers, wholesalers etc
- Trade associations
- Government libraries and government statistics
- Government agencies who facilitate in entrepreneurial activities i.e. financing and providing entrepreneurial information tree of charge
- Business partners
- Marketing and advertisement agencies
- Schools and training institutions
- The internet
- Non-government organizations
- Trade fairs and exhibitions
- Business seminars and workshop
- Industry/market survey
Personal activities
- Experience and exposure i.e. through traveling
- Developing creative thinking
- Converting talent from business opportunities
- Keeping up with the current trends in business i.e. technology
- From the occurrence of evenly both within and outside the business
- Adding value to an existing product