Are you looking to become an entrepreneur and start a new venture? Do you work a pretty stable job and have extra time to set up a side business?
Well, you’re in luck, because we’re here to help you validate your business idea. This is how it works.
Most potential entrepreneurs have great ideas… at least to them. Here’s how you can validate your idea and judge it’s business potential without investing a lot of money and even time.
Read other great stories for new businesses.
Do a Google search
Take out your smartphone and search for your product online. There’s a high chance you can find an existing product or service with a search on Google or YouTube. Before you get too invested in your idea, do a thorough search to find out if it already exists.
Even if it does exist, do not give up on it just yet. Ask yourself these questions to see if you should continue:
- Look for ways to improve the existing product?
- Can you offer value to the business already producing it?
- Could the market be satisfied better?
The macro test
There might be a reason your idea doesn’t exist, so you need to validate the big picture first.
- How large is the market?
- Who are your potential competitors?
- Are you differentiated enough?
Start by searching the keywords related to your idea in both Google search and Google Trends. For example, if you’re looking at an e-learning platform on mobile you can research around keywords such as audiobook, and e-learning.
Ask people for feedback
Talk to your friends or people who will be your target customers about your idea, especially people you trust. You need brutally honest feedback.
If you are the only person who thinks the idea is good, maybe you’ve got to return to the drawing board.
Build an MVP
If you’ve done a bit of due diligence and research, you may want to consider developing an MVP, or minimum viable product. This will help you get real-world feedback and actual user information. You don’t need to invest a lot of money into it or even hack something simple together.
Once you have the MVP, test it yourself and get your friends involved to see if it really works.
You should also Google “XYZ industry report” or “XYZ market analysis” to get stats and data about your market. Pay attention to the related search terms Google shows you at the bottom of your search result page. For more updated information, filter the search to only include results from the past year.
If you have any questions or would like to make a suggestion, drop us a message here.