High Tech Executive Becomes Business Owner

You don’t need a perfect idea to start your own business. Entrepreneurs simply possess a drive to control their own destinies. A new corporation doesn’t require extensive expertise into industry technicalities. It can be a business idea you stumble upon. That’s what happened to Todd Basche.

Todd was vice president of application software at Apple Computer. But he had a dream of creating his own business. His quest drew him to the combination lock industry. Todd had an idea to innovate this $1 billion consumer market. He wanted to introduce letters instead numbers to combinations.

Todd and his wife Rahn created Worldlock. They developed an initial product and licensed it to office supply chain Staples. The business was self-funded; no outside capital required. During 2007, the company was based in their home in Santa Clara, California.

Following a methodical marketing strategy, the company steadily grew. It is no longer the home-based business it was when Todd and Rahn started. In 2009, the company’s product increased in market presence from hundreds to thousands of retail locations.

Simplifying a product for consumers is the foundation of Worldlock. The founders improved upon a low-tech device that had not changed since its inception in 1862. There are plenty of other consumer product markets dominated by major manufacturers who haven’t innovated in generations.

Your new corporation can succeed by providing a basic convenience improvement to an existing product. There’s no need to invent a new technology. You can compete with large enterprises within an industry by creating simple product adjustments. You can even contract out the manufacturing and concentrate your company on marketing efforts.

This simplifies your search for business ideas. You can select products familiar to you or conduct a poll. The leap from being an executive at a large company to having your own business doesn’t have to be within the same industry. Your general business knowledge about product development or sales can apply to the entire world of products.