4 Proven Approaches for Evaluating Your Skills Fit with a Business Idea
Let me give you a quick spoiler: this headline is a catch. So you want to start a business, and you “want to be sure” that it’s a good idea for you, right?
Typical recommended approaches would be something like these:
- Conducting a SWOT analysis to identify your strengths and weaknesses.
- Assessing previous business experience and identifying transferable skills.
- Seeking feedback from close friends and family.
- Researching successful and profitable businesses within your skillset.
And these four above are THE WORST POSSIBLE things you can do!
- First, you don’t need to worry if the idea is a good fit for your skills; you first need to worry about if it is a good idea at all.
- Second, evaluating yourself instead of a business idea will lead to “later syndrome”. You will never start because you will generate so many “BUTs and SHOULDs” that you will never feel sure you’re good enough for the idea.
- Third, this is a piece of good advice for doing your career review, not taking action.
The better approach is to start with evaluating the quality of ideas. It’s tested through time that — when you start by describing your idea, emotions linked to it, and understanding (or rather assumptions) of the market, customers, and jobs to be done — then you get more clearer picture.
Questions like — How much would you like to run this business in 10–15 years or How easy it would be to attract others to work on the idea may sound all washi-mushy but they are much more telling about your chances than your skills.
You can always add skills later, if you want, but never lead with them.
If you want to know how — download my FREE — New Idea Evaluation Matrix Template and get started right away on the right idea!
