It’s true that not all good ideas can be translated into a great business.
Even if you’ve thought of a fantastic product or service, you still need the right business model, pricing, funding, marketing and people to make it work. Most importantly, of course, there are enough customers who are willing to pay for it.
In this blog post, we’ve compiled a few guidelines to make sure that you’re on the winning side before diving straight in. Check them out!
1. Is there a market for it?
Needless to mention, carrying out extensive market research is the first step to determine if your business idea is fundamentally lucrative. Not only one needs to ensure there is a market/demand for it, he or she also needs to assess whether the market/demand is big enough (or potentially big enough) to make the venture a success.
Next, based on the target market you have discovered, you now must determine the marketing, pricing and business model, and other strategies that will work for you.
Below are the few questions that you need to ask yourself to find out as much information as possible about your potential customers:
- What type of people are they? What are the demographic, behavior, education and so forth?
- How many are there?
- Where do they shop?
- What drives their purchasing decisions?
- How much do they typically earn and how much disposable income do they have?
- How often would they buy your products or services?
2. Research strategies
There are ways to “carry out” some research at zero cost.
- Quantitative research – research based on numbers and statistics
Quantitative research can show you the size, number, percentage, and other measurable statistics. You can grab these data by simply searching for some online surveys. For example, the sales figures and economic trends of a country are published by trade and industry associations.
- Qualitative research – research based on opinions and point of views.
Qualitative research can gauge your prospective customers’ attitude towards your offering. Look at your rivals’ use of technology, customer service, prices, marketing and business model and try to find out what your potential customers think about them – this will help you to identify areas for improvement.
Notes:
- You are strongly encouraged to get a mixture of all these data to have a reliable picture of the market.
- The purpose of doing research is to grab as much information as possible about the state, size and needs of your market. Sufficient research can help you to ensure the results aren’t biased.
- Be prepared to change your idea according to what your customers want, not what you prescribe as the best solution.
3. SWOT Analysis
Are you wondering what SWOT analysis is? In fact, it is a powerful analysis for anyone wishes to start a business! It’s one way to evaluate the viability of your idea. So what does SWOT stands for?
S – Strengths. What are the strengths of your business idea that can stand out among your rivals?
W – Weaknesses. What are the disadvantages of your business idea?
O – Opportunities. What are the external chances to make greater conversions?
T – Threats. In which areas or context, your business idea could be at risk? For example, is it easy for someone to slightly ‘modify’ your business idea and call it their own?
Spend some time to write them down and find the strategies to secure your business idea. Basically, you can’t protect the idea itself. But what you can do is, safeguard your name (Including domain name), brand, designs and inventions.
In short, extra work should be done to make sure your idea can’t be easily copied by a rival.
4. What’s the right Business Model?
To sustain a business, you need to have the ability to monetize your idea. In other words, your marketing, pricing, cost base etc must be in tune.
There are different revenue and cash flow models to consider. For instance, a beauty products business can charge the customer a monthly subscription fee, or based on the number of products sold. Make a plan for your cash flow based on the behavior of your potential customers.
Once again, research is vital to test the viability of your model — what are your customers willing to pay for and how much would they pay.
5. Have you got what it takes?
Last but not least, have you got the right attitude and skills to turn your idea into a success? Setting up a business is an endurance challenge. The success of your business depends heavily on your commitment to seeing it through, whether it’s the bad times or good times. In addition, your idea needs to be something you’re passionate about, and you need the skills, drive and belief to make it work.
We hope you find this post useful and come out with a great business idea! You have your business idea? Let’s look at the 7 things that you should know before starting a business here!
See ya!
