Choosing a Business Idea

Identify a customer problem you can solve with the skills, time and resources you actually have.

Part 1 of 10 | Starting a Small Business in The Gambia

Learning goals Choose a narrow customer group, compare three realistic ideas and write a testable business promise. By the end, you will have an idea selection sheet to use in Part 2.

Before you begin Allow 75 to 100 minutes. Bring a notebook and calculator. No business experience or computer is required. Use an imaginary business if you are not ready to start one. Keep each lesson's output together as your business planning portfolio.

Begin with a problem people already experience A business receives money by providing something customers value. An idea becomes more useful when you can name the customer, the problem and the occasion when that problem occurs. Selling to everyone makes research difficult because different people want different things. Start with a group you can actually speak to, such as nearby households needing repairs or traders needing product photographs.

Describe the problem without assuming the solution. A customer who struggles to collect repaired clothes may need reliable collection times rather than a cheaper repair. Listen for delays, inconvenience, poor quality or uncertainty. A complaint is a clue, not proof that enough people will pay you to fix it. Part 2 will help you investigate that difference.

Match the opportunity to your circumstances List skills you can demonstrate, tools you already have permission to use, hours you can work and people who can provide reliable advice. Include travel, household responsibilities and the time needed to learn. Owning a phone does not automatically make you a trained technician or photographer. Choose work you can perform safely and honestly.

Write down local conditions to investigate: access to electricity, transport costs, seasonal demand, secure storage and customer language preferences. Conditions differ between neighbourhoods and regions. Do not assume that an idea that works in one part of The Gambia will work in another. Ask how each condition changes your cost, reliability or ability to reach customers.

Compare ideas with evidence For each of three ideas, give a score from one to five for customer need, your ability to deliver, access to customers and affordability of a small test. Five means stronger evidence or better fit. Next to every score, write why you gave it. A high total based entirely on guesses is less useful than a lower total supported by conversations.

Identify a deal breaker separately from the score. An activity may require qualifications, approval, equipment or premises you cannot yet obtain. GIEPA provides starting-business and sector-licensing signposts. Use these to identify questions, not to assume all investment procedures apply to your microbusiness. A trial must still meet applicable requirements; practising on paper is an appropriate first step.

Follow Awa through the course Awa is an invented learner planning a clothing alteration service. She can shorten simple hems and repair seams, but she cannot yet make complicated garments. She has access to a sewing machine with the owner's permission. Three neighbours mention unpredictable collection times. These observations support investigating a limited alteration service, but do not establish a profitable market.

Her first promise is: I help nearby customers repair simple clothing with an agreed price and collection date. She excludes specialist work, records her available hours and postpones buying another machine. The course's dalasi amounts are invented practice figures, not current market prices, fees, tax rates or earnings promises. Replace them with dated evidence when preparing a real plan.

Guided exercise 1. Write three ideas as customer plus problem plus service. Avoid broad labels such as trading. Make the customer and activity specific enough to investigate locally.

2. List your available skills, tools and weekly hours. For each idea, identify one skill or resource you still need and how you could obtain it.

3. Score the ideas against the four criteria above. Mark each reason as observed, reported by a potential customer or assumed. Circle the largest assumption.

4. Choose one idea for research. Write a promise describing the customer, result and delivery boundary. Name one task you will decline until you are competent.

5. Produce a one-page idea sheet with your scores, evidence, main uncertainty and next action. Ask someone to explain your offer back to you and improve any confusing words.

Knowledge check 1. Why is a customer complaint not enough to prove demand?

2. What should you do when the highest-scoring idea needs an approval you have not checked?

3. What makes Awa's initial offer manageable?

Answer guide 1. The person may not buy, may not pay enough or may already have an acceptable alternative. Demand needs further evidence.

2. Investigate that requirement before spending or trading. A legal or safety barrier cannot be cancelled out by a high score.

3. She names a reachable customer group, offers tasks she can perform and sets limits on the work and delivery promise.

Completion standard Finish when you have compared three ideas, justified every score and selected one offer with a named customer and a clear boundary. Answer all three questions accurately in your own words; revisit the relevant section if needed. Carry your idea sheet into the customer research lesson.

Sources and verification notes

GIEPA Starting a Business in The Gambia. Checked 14 September 2026. Provides registration and sector-licensing signposts. Its investment and incentive material is not a universal checklist for every microbusiness or a guarantee of funding.

US Small Business Administration Plan your business. Checked 14 September 2026. General background for market research, startup costs and finance planning only. US programmes and legal rules do not apply to The Gambia; all course examples are independently constructed.