Have you ever been frustrated when dealing with a business, and wondered, “Why are they doing this in this way? It’s inefficient, or ineffective. Why don’t they do this another way?” then you are an entrepreneur. That’s right, you have just had an idea for starting a business. While not all of these ideas will be great, or even feasible, by learning to pay attention to these ideas and keeping track of them, you may eventually come up with the next world-class business!

Almost all business owners start their small businesses from frustration. Either they haven’t been able to find the product or service they need, the companies who provide the product or service they need aren’t able or willing to help them, or the companies who provide those products or services are so difficult and frustrating to deal with that nobody likes dealing with the company. If you can imagine how to do any business better, you are coming up with an idea for your own business.

It may not be feasible to go into competition with a large company. If you’re dealing with a large company with a frustrating phone menu, however, you can design a better phone menu and approach them with it. Or, with even less work, once you’ve figured out the phone menu, you can market your service as a timesaver for people who can’t or don’t have time to figure out the phone menu for that company! Simply ask yourself what you would have paid someone else to deal with it for you, and there is your business.

Again, not every idea is workable. But by learning to not discount the ideas as they come to you, but to keep a journal or even a word processing document on your computer, and keep track of your ideas, over time you may see that your thoughts tend to run in certain directions. Perhaps you hate inefficiency or inconvenience, or you have a significant improvement to a product or service, or even to the way it is presented or delivered. By categorizing these ideas, and reviewing them often, it is quite likely that at some point an idea for a business will occur to you, and then you’ll be on the path to starting your own company.

Especially if you’re unemployed, or looking to change your current career, this may be particularly useful. If you end up going to work for one of the companies that frustrated you, you can use the information to improve the company from within; or if you go to work for one of their competitors, you can use the information to improve your new employer’s company. And if you’re thinking about going into business for yourself, you may just come up with the next million-dollar idea!