One of the most challenging signs to make sure that you are ready to start your own business, as we previously mentioned in Are you ready to start your own business and turn your business dream into reality, is having an idea that is worth pursuing. Great business ideas have the ability to take over your life. But figuring out which idea to pursue and which one to leave behind can make you feel overwhelmed. That is considered as one of the most common reasons why people may procrastinate running their own business all their life. Regardless of the fund that you are planning to spend on your idea, you are definitely seeking growth and success, not putting all your time and money at the risk of loss.
It is essential to ensure that your idea is worth moving to the next level.Otherwise, you would have to spend the rest of your life regretting it.
Running a startup without initially evaluating its possibilities to success or failure is like gambling. So you need to keep in mind that making sure about the value of your idea is a must before moving any steps forward. The sooner you understand the value of your idea, the faster you will move along the path to success.
There are several ways to help you narrow down thousands of business ideas coming to your mind and to make a final choice to set your heart on it.
Ask yourself a few questions
Before thinking about formal rules to run a business, take a pen and paper and write down your answers to several serious questions. What is your main mission? What problem does your idea solve? How your idea will affect individuals’ lives? What makes your idea different from thousands of others out there? Are there people to pay for that? What are your expectations from your business and can you consider any chance to meet them at the end of the day? Does your idea give people a reason to be loved?
Your answers to these questions are the initial steps to move forward and preparing your business model in the near future.
Ask others about your idea
We are not leaving in an isolated world. It is a big world and there are thousands of people out there with innovative ideas, some of whom have made some steps more than you. So before taking the success of your idea for granted, ask potential customers as well as asking for consultancy. Ask your potential customers about their needs and whether your idea can solve their problem or figure out if they have already found other ways to solve it. In this phase, you can also ask potential customers’ opinions about your solution and receive feedback by presenting prototypes of your idea. You should also try to figure out how much they might be willing to pay for your solution.
Research the market
Your idea is like a powerful seed, but it can only flourish under the right conditions. So you need to be attentive about various variables that may affect the growth of your business. Timing and competitors are two important points to consider in this regard. You may have a great idea but your target market may be reluctant to accept it in a specific time or you may have lost your time by being some steps behind your competitors. You may also have some competitors and you should know whether your business idea has any competitive advantage to stand out in the market and win the game.So you should research about any potential opportunities and threats in the market as well as knowing your competitions and their specific features.
Criticize your idea
As you have now collected some information about your potential customers’ viewpoints, competitors and the market in general, it is time to wear your pessimistic lens and ponder weak points of your idea. Write down negative aspects that come to your mind, you can also ask others such as potential customers, friends or family members who don’t like your idea. Their perspectives provides a broader view to your solid idea and increases your general understanding to build your future business. You may find some solutions to address all these issues or you may simply abandon your business idea coming to the conclusion that this is not an idea people will like to follow and shift into a new business idea!
Find out about the required budget
If you are reading this step, you have probably refined your idea in order to turn it into a business. At this stage, you need to figure out if your idea leads to a winning business that can be financially viable and how much money you will need to get up and run your business at a minimum scale. You may also seek investors to help you through launching your business. There are many investors looking for new avenues into which to put their resources. In this case, you would need to know more detailed financial projections and go into details in order to demonstrate the profitability of your idea to an investor.
Make sure your idea is flexible
Listening to customer feedback and being flexible to constant changes in the market, is a vital aspect that you need to consider your idea. Evaluate and make sure there are rooms for improvement and making changes in the future in case of need. It is tempting to dive in at the deep end and build your complete business the way you imagine it but it is highly recommended to start small and move continuously forward by adapt as you go and change directions as needed.
This approach to figure out if your business idea is worth pursuing means you cannot sit behind your desk, brainstorm some ideas, and wish to build a successful business by simply relying on your solid idea or your money resource. You need to start with the fundamentals of planning and verifying if your idea is likely to stand out in the market or you may prefer to outsource this phase to professional teams who know the business and market and enable you to fully concentrate on the future of your idea by making you sure about research and planning steps.
