We all know the old saying “fail fast”. It goes around and is often completely misunderstood. Failing fast is exactly what you – if you’re going to fail at all. Instead of using the term ‘fail fast’ others prefer ‘testing the waters’. It’s the best way to see if your idea has a chance in the market.
What can I do to see if my idea has a chance?
You need to do the bare minimum and just start to test the waters and see if there is any need for the creation you have come up with. If your idea is a success, then a great time to high five a friend. If you fail, just change your course. Think about any large civil engineering company, most of them are successful because they started small.
Everyone else has ideas to
Everyone has that great idea, and some choose not to do anything with it whereas others they can gain success and own it given how well you have executed it.
While you can say you can take over the world with your idea that may be so but unless you know how to do it properly you won’t be getting your feet off the ground. Everyone has passion and determination to go far with their creativity just ensure it is your own idea and not stolen from someone else’s wild imagination.
Don’t spend all at once
With a business, especially an online one you need to start small. People get carried away want everything now and do nothing but spend, spend on all these things like branding, websites and software that they realise soon after there is no money left for marketing or just the general running of the business. Look at the approach and determine what you can start with and then work with investing more money into your marketing rather than the features and fancy stuff we all get sucked into buying.
Start bare minimum with just the idea, start a blog then see if you gain followers and people start commenting and seem interested.
However, if your idea is to start an energy infrastructure company, you might need to spend your savings. Of course, it will always depend on your idea and budget – so do your research!
Measure potential interest
Talk to the target people and other potential customers who the product might suit. Keep track of the responses you get. If you are getting positive comments, then it could be a winner. If you get a quick comment, then a sudden change of the subject without any questions getting asked about the idea you haven’t hit the wow factor yet.
It is best to steer clear from family and friends as most times they will agree and say what they think you want to hear and don’t give their honest opinion if they hate the idea. You can do a test by creating a landing page which will have an introduction with the call to action sign up to be notified part then you can invest a small amount of money for search engine marketing and wait for the hits.
Compromise
Sometimes while your idea may be great, you can be a little off the mark. You need to adapt and change things a little to go with what the majority want. Don’t stick to the first idea you had and stay there learn to be open, change the course up a little and listen to the potential customers and what they want.
If you learn to succeed slowly and things aren’t going well, you can quit and walk away without having put too much into it. Rushing will waste money and can potentially wreck your dream business. Slow and steady wins the race.