Loads of people come up with a great business idea , at least all think they do.
Ready to be the entrepreneur with a pathway to financial security and success.
Let’s do an easy check on viability.
First evaluate stage is simply to check if the “big idea” is worth risking actual investment. Testing the market viability of an idea is the first step in making the vision a reality.
The first important step is to identify and understand the potential audience. Who the end customer going to be?
• What do they look like?
Have a clear idea of the end consumer of a business is the first step into making the idea from a simple thought into a more structured process.
• What do they do and what is their disposable income?
Customers are going to purchase products or services, without that there’s no business, so does their economical situation allow for that? At the end is a business for profit not a charity.
• Does the business idea solve a problem for the end user ?
What the idea does for customers? What does it solve or how does it make their lives better? Beginning to see an idea from their perspective, will set the pillars to plan a business strategy.
• Is there going to be repeat customers and will they refer other users ?
Building loyalty is an important part of any brand strategy. How it will communicate to customer base and build a relationship beyond the shopping transaction ? It’s mandatory to communicate the idea and generate leads through marketing and other tools.
Who are the competitors and why should customers choose differently?
As amazing as it would be to come up with a completely original idea — a product that stands alone in the market — it’s quite unlikely, that a given product is a one of a kind.
It’s likely it will have competitors. But, competition breeds innovation and that’s fantastic for customers — who are of course the top priority.
“When testing business ideas, competitors shall always be analyzed and so should be their position in the market to ensure that the new idea offers a USP (unique selling proposition)
and that it would appeal to people because it’s better or very different ,hopefully both.”
Doing a market analysis, scrutinizing competitors e-commerce sites and their newsletters.
What is going on in their world, keeping up-to-date with their new product releases.
This exercise is not about copying competitors or re-inventing the wheel, it’s about gathering information and developing a new business idea with some easy obtainable yet valuable insights.
Whichever way, money is needed to start a new business.
It’s important to be passionate about an idea and about a new brand this will facilitate the monetization of that idea.
In reality, without money, none of this is possible. Not all business owners have cash to risk when starting a company.
Consider the initial startup capital needed to turn a business idea into an e-commerce/ physical business with a chance of success.
Identifying where money is going to come from at every cycle during the financial year with a strategy ready for a steady growth. Revenue and sales projections are obviously essential;
Market viability
Besides the importance of assessing the finances that support a dream, and even if all the figures add up – how do we know if a business idea is good? Is the market ready for it? It’s time to move beyond logistics and consider the overall picture — the market viability.
Does anyone else actually care?
It’s time to look at the business validation testing phase and ask a wider community for feedback.
Then all the hypothesis outcomes based on real insights. A good idea to do so could be:
• Setting up a crowdfunding website purely to test if anyone likes the idea. To get feedback and advice, and understand fairly quickly if others like the idea and if it’s something they’d be willing to pay for.
• Is interesting to take a look at tried Kickstarter projects. Look at where others have failed or succeeded in order to identify where the biggest obstacles come from.
• Sending out communication to a pool of people within the market the idea is trying to penetrate within and ask if this is the sort of product they would be interested in.
• Using surveys, talking to people, finding out what other people think and don’t rely purely on what we want them to think.
BETA is best
Trying the ideas with a selected group of people by putting them into Beta phase.
No idea needs to go live — or should — until it’s been tried, tested, and iterated and validated by consumers.
It doesn’t matter if we think that the idea is cool or trendy, it only matters having an audience that wants it and that audience sees the value in it.
The audience is the best chance to understand what needed to reach the minimum viable product.
“Once there’s a product or service an audience is willing to exchange money for, then we’re onto something.”
What does the brand represent?
A business idea is not just a product we can move off shelves or out of warehouses.
It’s also a brand and we need to know what that brand is going to represent.
How and what will it communicate to customers?
Starting to consider the tone of voice mapping out brand’s own persona and culture.
“We need to be able to build an audience who will buy products. But before that, there’s a need to introduce the brand and be relatable.”
There are a whole load of testing tips and ultimately it comes down to the idea and the consumers.
Going full speed into a new business venture without carrying out appropriate tests, speaking to potential customers or building brand strategy is a recipe for a disaster.
Once the initial groundwork has been done and the business viability has been proven, it probably time to go!
Raffaele Felaco | 2020
UpBiz 