Imagine somebody approaching you with a business idea.

“I've got it. We're going to persuade people to pay money to sleep in strangers' homes.”

Right.

“And the strangers will let them in.”

Naturally.

“And we'll arrange the whole thing on the internet.”

Of course you will.

You'd probably suggest they have a cup of tea, get some sleep and come back when they've thought of something involving fewer strangers.

Except that idea eventually became Airbnb.

Which is a useful reminder that an idea sounding ridiculous and an idea being ridiculous aren't necessarily the same thing.

Three airbeds and an awkward rent problem

The early Airbnb story begins in San Francisco in 2007.

Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia were looking for a way to help cover their rent.

With a design conference bringing visitors to the city, they offered accommodation in their apartment using airbeds.

The original idea was called AirBed & Breakfast.

It wasn't a vast technology platform.

It wasn't a global accommodation marketplace.

It was a way of turning unused space into something visitors might pay for.

The concept later developed with Nathan Blecharczyk into the business known as Airbnb.

What makes the story interesting isn't simply how large the company eventually became.

It's how ordinary the original problem was.

Some people needed somewhere to stay.

Other people had space available.

Could somebody connect the two?

The bit where everyone tells you it won't work

It's easy to look backwards at a successful business and assume the opportunity was obvious.

It rarely feels obvious at the beginning.

Consider the objections to that original idea.

Why would travellers trust a stranger?

Why would homeowners allow unfamiliar guests into their property?

Would people really choose this over a hotel?

How would anyone arrange payment?

Those are serious questions.

And they're precisely the sort of questions that an unusual business needs to answer.

But there's a difference between saying, “That could never work,” and asking, “What would have to be true for this to work?”

The second question is considerably more useful.

It turns a strange idea into something you can investigate.

Cambridge has plenty of clever people. But what about the odd ideas?

Cambridge is internationally associated with research, technology and innovation.

But you don't need a laboratory, venture-capital funding or a revolutionary invention to discover a business opportunity.

Sometimes the interesting ideas come from ordinary frustrations.

A service that's difficult to book.

A product that's inconvenient to buy.

An experience people enjoy but can't easily find locally.

A specialist skill that customers need occasionally rather than every day.

A group of businesses that could serve customers better by working together.

Not every inconvenience deserves a new company.

But the next opportunity might be hiding inside something people complain about regularly.

The question is whether anyone cares enough about the problem to pay for a better answer.

The pub test is not a business plan

There's nothing wrong with discussing a new idea over a drink.

But applause from your friends doesn't prove you have a business.

Neither does somebody saying, “I'd definitely use that.”

People can be wonderfully enthusiastic when nobody is asking them to open their wallet.

The useful test is what happens when a real customer has to make a real decision.

Will they book?

Will they order?

Will they pay?

Will they come back?

You can learn a surprising amount without building an enormous operation first.

A simple trial, a limited service, a small batch of products or a handful of paying customers can reveal whether the idea has legs.

And if the answer is no?

Better to discover that before ordering 5,000 branded mugs.

The best ideas often sound obvious afterwards

Once a business becomes familiar, we stop noticing how unusual it originally seemed.

Booking a stranger's spare room through a website once sounded rather adventurous.

Today, the underlying concept is familiar to millions of travellers.

That doesn't mean every strange idea is the next Airbnb.

Most won't be.

And even a clever concept can struggle with competition, regulation, costs, trust and the hard work of running a business.

But the lesson is still valuable.

A new business doesn't have to sound impressive at a networking event.

It needs to solve something customers care about.

Preferably in a way that makes them willing to pay.

Your next business idea might be hiding in an annoying Tuesday

Here's a thought for Cambridgeshire's business owners and would-be entrepreneurs.

Instead of asking, “What business should I start?”, try asking:

“What do people keep complaining about that nobody seems to have fixed?”

Then look for the smallest possible way to test a solution.

Not a six-month business plan.

Not a £20,000 website.

Not a company logo with seventeen different versions.

A real offer.

A real customer.

A real decision about whether to buy.

You may discover that the idea needs changing.

You may discover nobody wants it.

Or you may discover something unexpectedly promising.

Either way, you'll know more than you did when it was just an idea in your head.

And who knows?

Perhaps the next business that sounds completely bonkers will start somewhere in Cambridgeshire.

Just try to avoid explaining it to your friends by saying, “It's like Airbnb, but for…”

They've probably heard that one before.

The Business Pulse Question

What's the strangest business idea you've ever heard that actually worked?

Or have you got an unusual idea of your own that people keep telling you is ridiculous?

Tell us in the comments. We'd love to hear about it.