How do you guys come up with business ideas?

Problems. When ever I have a problem (or tasks that are tedious) I make a note of it. Later I reflect on my list of problems and think about whether or not I could create something to solve any of them and if the problem is something other people likely encounter. This is my favorite method because if I decide to make anything I am making my own life easier at the very least.

In almost ALL cases, I won't build something unless I am personally going to use it. I have found I am far less disappointed if people don't use it or it's just not ready for the world right now.

MyPost.io was a perfect example of this. I wanted a place to post web pages on the Internet in seconds where I could do so anonymously and without having to sign up for an account. So as my first project, despite my want to monetize it, I never did, but it has helped me advertise my own products beautifully, so in return for "free" comes with the fact that I can link back to my products on over 8,000+ posts, for which people and businesses are sharing that post.

Aside from posting on Twitter once and Hacker News once and ProductHunt, in which it barely got anything, it has somehow made its way around the entire world, as far as Russia, Philippines, South Africa, China, and Australia, and is also written in their own languages, despite the "post area" being in English, at least the world can understand it.

So as for the ideas: I take a look at something and figure out if I can do it better and make it more affordable, especially if I want to use it. This is not to say that I don't use others' products. I most certainly do, but if I see a SaaS for $100+/mo (no offense to those who are charging that much -- it's just not a price everyone can afford) -- I know I can't afford that. Of course, I'm going to try and come up with a better price and system.

This week, McDonalds has a sale on 20 nuggets for $4.99, while Burger King has 10 nuggets for $1.89. Competition drives incentive for companies to do better and both may not realize that they are competition, or that their competition actually compliments each other, but they are still going to drive sales, no matter what. People who love McDonalds will go to McDonalds and people who love Burger King will go to Burger King. Welcome to the beauty of capitalism: it creates competition that we all actually need.

And competition is certainly something we need: http://www.confessionsoftheprofessions.com/business-needs-competition/

If I know there is a very strong competitor and the work is too much for me to take on, I leave it alone. But currently, for a project I'm doing, it's a WordPress sandbox generator. I found 3-4 other companies doing generally the same thing and after feedback of mixed reviews that included: "I have no use for this" or "Someone already did it" -- only makes me know that I should create the product. Why? Because I'm not those companies. I want to create it a certain way that works for me, on the very powerful server I need it on, and that's what I'm doing. Whether others use it or not? Awesome if they do, not really a problem if they don't.