New Business Ideas: The Power of Many
Small Business Trends explain some case about new business ideas.
Two heads are better than one. Now you can imagine how powerful the wisdom of crowds is, when business start to leverage on the expertise and effort of a group of people to create products and services or to solve problems.
Termed «crowdsourcing» by Wired Magazine, this trend looks set to be exploited by businesses and entrepreneurs who appreciate the power of crowds and communities:
- Nvohk is a community-managed, eco-friendly, surf-inspired clothing company. Pronounced 'invoke', the company combines the best of crowdsourcing and crowdfunding to develop its business. Nvohk is aiming to recruit 20,000 – 40,000 members to contribute $50 a year to build the Nvohk brand. Members will make major business decisions such as logo design, product design and advertising.
TribeWanted is creating a global tribe that not only exists online, but also on a leased island in Fiji. There are three types of membership to choose from: Nomads, Hunters and Warriors; each package differs in length of membership and privileges. When the membership count reaches 5000, the tribe will be formed and tribal decision on important matters such as island infrastructure will be made through online voting.
- Independent music site Amie Street knows economics inside out. It uses demand-driven pricing to let the community dictate the pricing of the tracks it sells on the website. Prices begin at zero and rise up depending on demand and supply factors. Community members recommend their favorite music and give back 70% of proceeds to artists after the first $5 in sales. We like it because it encourage musicians to mobilize their fan bases to support their music.
- Wanted: football fans who would like to pool money together to buy a professional league football club. At MyFootballClub, football fans currently register for free, but they are committed to paying GBP 35 when 50,000 like-minded people have registered. With a purchase fund of GBP 1,375,000, plus GBP 375,000 for operational costs, MyFootballClub will then make the move to purchase a football club owned by its members.
How do you think you can utilize the wisdom of crowds in your business? (Steven Teo)













