Have A Good Business Idea? Here's Some Important Advice

Every big company started with a great idea. However, the business idea by itself is not the reason for the business's success. There was a lot of effort, dedication, innovation, and commitment to transform this idea into a viable business model. Many people have had great business ideas but just couldn’t turn them into successful companies. 

You need time and effort to reflect upon your business idea and fine-tune it if need be. The steps after coming up with an idea are crucial as they can make or break your shot at success. Here is some advice if you have a great business idea that you’d like to bring to fruition.

Discuss the Idea with Your Network

All ideas are great in our heads until we voice them out loud. Then, our trusted friends, family members, or colleagues can point out the pros and cons of these ideas. Discussing business ideas will refine the idea, add to it, remove unnecessary or unhelpful elements from it, and push it in the right direction. The main questions that should be answered while discussing your business idea are discussed below. 

Does It Solve an Existing Problem?

Your idea needs to solve a problem that many people have in some way. Asking your network will show you if your friends, family, and co-workers have this problem and if your idea is the right solution for it. 

Is It Worth Paying For?

What makes an idea great? If people are willing to pay for it. The idea remains just that until your first paying customer. Asking your network if they are willing to pay for such a product will show you if you have a viable idea or if you should move to the next one. 

What Is the Price Range?

Even if people are willing to pay for your hypothetical product, the price point is critical in determining if you should move on to the next step. After getting an estimate of how much money potential customers are willing to pay, you will compare that amount against your estimated expenses and determine if it’s a profitable endeavor or not.

Conduct Market Research

After your business idea is formed, you need to do market research to figure out if it can be turned into an actual business. The first thing you need to know is if there are any competitors in the market. Will you offer something similar or different than what they offer? Knowing your competitors and any businesses that might use your idea to get some share of the market will give you an insight into how competitive this field will be. During the research process, look into businesses similar to yours, familiarizing yourself with only success stories but also tales of failure. In doing so, you allow yourself to learn from their mistakes and know what to avoid. 

Additionally, you should be able to identify potential partners that will help you grow your businesses. You should look for companies that will include your products or services in their retail locations. As the information found at www.uniwide.co.uk highlights, startups usually partner with established businesses to grow their company faster. Other aspects you should consider through your market research are the existence of a niche market for your idea, where you will find customers, and what competitive advantage you can offer.

Form a Business Plan

After gathering enough information about your idea and the market, you need to draft a business plan to have a vision of how your business will function. It is essential to write everything down as many of our thoughts vanish after a while. However, you don’t have to write a formal business plan just yet as they are typically for investors or partners. Things you’ll need to include in your business plan are the story of your business, operational and financial goals, the marketing plan, and how the business will grow over time. 

Adopt the Lean Startup Model

When you get the whole image clear, it will be time to put it into tangible steps. However, many people try to start big which makes them spend a lot of money in the beginning. This is a huge risk as you are still not 100% sure how your idea will fare in the market. Here comes the “lean” concept which is basically to trim down your business idea to the core features only. You will remove any “addons” or “extra” features that might not be essential in the beginning. Set a trial period for your lean product and set goals to review them after the trial period expires. 

Launching a trimmed-down product will enable you to validate your idea and measure interest in your product. It will also reduce the initial production costs while focusing on testing the market to ensure that there is actual interest from customers and that a substantial opportunity exists and is worth exploring. 

Raise Funds

Knowing your initial production costs and forecasted expenses will give you valuable insight into how much capital you’ll need to start your business. There are different ways to source funds for your business that you may not have even considered if you already have enough money to start and aren’t actively seeking outside investment. If, however, you lack the initial funds, you can access a loan from a bank or the Small Business Administration (SBA), but keep in mind that you will pay interest on the principal. 

If you want to avoid loans and are open to the idea of having external stakeholders, you can approach investors who will provide the required funds for a share of the company’s revenue. On the other hand, if you find that you are attracting attention on social media platforms, you can use it to your advantage by crowdfunding your project through websites like Kickstarter which allows startups to collect donations from people all over the world.

No matter how the idea sounds in the beginning, working on it can make it even better. Don’t disregard any ideas that come to your mind. Check their viability and affordability to ensure that you’ve got yourself a great business idea that is worth developing. If the idea didn’t work well through these steps, find another one or tweak the original idea.