Every day we work with ideas. Great ideas from startups and entrepreneurs. But unfortunately, not all of them make it to the grand finale. Sometimes in the processes of actualization, the idea gets outdated. Other times a customer puts the project on hold to refine the idea.
Here are some rough statistics. About 90% of all startups fail. Often, because founders jump straight to implementation, skipping the research and calculation stages.
Every idea needs proper validation. So, here are a few things to consider the next time you have your “A-ha!” moment.
1. Do the googling first
You think that your idea is one of a kind, don’t you? In fact, only about 10% of all ideas are unique. For everything else, you could probably find an existing product or service online.
To be fair, not everything you find is going to be good quality. But if there’s a big company who’s taken the market then it’s better to stop now. Unless you can do it better than the competitor.
2. Make sure that the problem is real
In other words, make sure that market needs your solution/product. Building a business around an existing demand is much easier than building a demand around a business. The latter means that you’ll have to discover the problem to your target audience and explain why it needs a solution. It takes a lot more time and effort and does not guarantee success.
3. Think of USP in advance
The unique selling proposition is what makes your offer different from everything else on the market. Thus, it is the reason why people will buy from you. If you can’t tell what’s unique about the idea you’ve come up with, then there are two ways to go about this. Either let it live in your imagination or take some thinking to make it outstanding.
4. Do market research
Marketing is not only about promoting the offer. There’s a lot of analysis, research, testing, investigating to it. The more accurate data there is, the better. Doing market research in advance allows determining the most influential competitors, countries that are best for first campaigns and most importantly get to know the people you’re going to reach out to.
5. Consider customer acquisition
Doing market research is useful for one more reason: it gives a clue of how and where to get first customers. Think of all the possible ways you could start earning money and gaining advocates for your brand. The earlier you start thinking about this, the more chances your idea has to survive.
Having a customer acquisition plan is also an advantage if you’re willing to attract investors.
6. Think through a monetization plan
Let’s be frank here; your idea should make money. Your service or product could be offered for free at first to get customers and some buzz. But later on, you are going to need money to grow and improve.
Keep your competitors and target audience in mind. If possible, run a survey to find out how much people would be willing to pay for your product and work from there.
7. Build an MVP and test it
You’ve made it this far! It probably means that you have a pretty good looking idea. Then, it’s time to build an MVP and how other would take it. Once you have the prototype ready, use and test it and have others test it as well. But whatever you do, stay away from your friends and family. They’re biased.
Go where people don’t know you and get ready to hear the real thoughts. If you end up with a product that nobody would never really use, scrap the idea.
Otherwise, roll up your sleeves and keep working.
Conclusions
Validation is essential as never before. In the world where everything changes with the speed of light, it’s important to make sure that what you’re going to invest in is worth the effort.
