In this world of entrepreneurship, we all want to start a business to do something extraordinary and big, but the thing which is restricting us is just the start. Once started we can go far ahead in this journey, just by starting!
In this article, we would learn the concept of a business idea, how to validate it and at the end, we would be providing some basic, good ideas to learn from based on which you can think about your idea in the same way.
Validate your Idea
Starting a business is easy, what is hard is to start the right business! So, the next time you come across any Eureka Idea, give it some time to be validated. Take time to research about it and ensure the problem that you are solving is real and there are ample customers willing to pay for the product or the service you are going to start with. You can get a sufficient understanding of your business idea after following these steps.
What is Market Validation?
Market validation is the process to validate if there is enough demand and the market for the product is available. There comes many instances when we can think of any redundant idea as the most miraculous one. Market validation helps in separating the redundant from the precious ideas even before investing your full time, energy, and money.
This usually involves making your target customer know about your product, concept, or Minimum Viable Product (MVP) beforehand and using the insights for further direction of the action. This thing needs to be done at the very initial idea of the business before making any significant investment of time or money.
The market validation can be done either by
- conducting a direct interview with the target customer, or
- circulating a survey form among your target customer
What finally matters in both the methods is the final data that you get and then analyze it to get meaningful insight. In the second case, we get the data directly but the former method of interviewing people involves a long journey, covered in the following steps:
- Have a proper and simple idea about your product
- Find your ideal interview subjects
- Create your interview question
- Conduct the interview with them
- Write down the data and get insights from it.
4 Steps for Validating a Business Idea
Validation of a business idea requires some initial effort which can be beneficial in the long term in saving a lot of resources. You can follow a short below-mentioned Four Steps Formula to get a proper validation.
- Define a Goal
Have in mind what you are going to build and what you are expecting to achieve at the end of the success of this idea. It helps in getting traction and proper direction for all future actions. It gives a broader trend and direction that need to be followed by the short-term actions and helps in having proper focus.
- Have an MVP
After you define the goal of your idea, now comes the need to have a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for your product or a hypothesis for your services or state-of-the-art things. It helps you in gaining an initial understanding of your business idea and also helps your initial interviewed person and your pilot target customer to understand your idea in a better way.
- Revise the Idea
Your MVP is not your final product, it’s just the beginning. Keep making useful changes in it after suggestions and understanding. Keep Revising it a bit, to get validated from some people that could be your target customer.
- Develop and Work
Now by now, after interviewing and coming to the ground, you must have got encountered the actuality of your idea. So if you felt the idea is not worth it, discard it! But if it excites you: the story, the goal, the emission and all, Just do it!
3 Considerations for a Good Business Idea
After following the above method of business idea validation, you found an idea, right? And now you want to get started with a business idea but it would be great if you could check these three criteria for the full assurance of the business idea you choose.
- USP
You should agree that a business or a startup can be copied easily if it seems profitable. Here for such cases, you should be prepared! This situation can be solved by having uniqueness in your idea or offering. This is called Unique Selling Proposition (USP) i.e the unique thing inside your idea or offering that is making you different and more attractive to your customer in comparison to your existing or upcoming competitors.
- Total Market
A good business idea validation should consider an area that is large enough for the business to get its market share and profits. So consider the Total Addressable Market for your business idea before going ahead. Read here for more.
- Will They Pay
The whole game is of profit. So this must be considered! Are the people you are talking to ready to pay for the product in advance or at least 50% in advance. If yes, this is a good sign! Go with that business Idea.
The above-mentioned idea of validation and all is just the beginning of something good. In the end, what makes a business idea successful and others unsuccessful is the efficiency in execution. Execution matters the most. Execution is accompanied by the thirst and dedication inside the founder’s heart and mind and a great team obviously who believe the same!
Happy Execution and well wishes for your entrepreneurship journey from Biz Glows. In the future, we will be coming up with examples of some unique business ideas here in detail, be tuned with us!
FAQs
How can I start a business with no money?
Nothing in this world is free. But worry not, if you have no money to start a business you too definitely can! For that, you will have to give something else in return which is time. The business that involves time; like services, selling, etc can be such businesses that you can start with no money.
How can I start a business idea from Home?
It has become quite easy in today’s digital world to start a business sitting at home. No big physical equipment is needed for some businesses. Start by making a digital profile of your business like social media profile or a website. Now present this profile while offering your service that can be provided. You can have a lot of customers and clients after getting traction. In simple words, starting a business from home usually use digital spaces quite effectively. It has become quite easy in today’s digital world to start a business sitting at home. No big physical equipment is needed for some businesses. Start by making a digital profile of your business like social media profile or a website. Now present this profile while offering your service that can be provided. You can have a lot of customers and clients after getting traction. In simple words, starting a business from home usually use digital spaces quite effectively.
