Successful businesses have one major thing in common…they solve a problem! So before you go running to a lawyer to form an LLC, let’s figure out if you have the solution to a problem worth solving and how to turn it into a successful business.
Complete a Business Model Canvas
After noticing a problem in the world and coming up with a solution, it’s time to “test” your idea on paper. To do this, we recommend using the Business Model Canvas. This tool maps out all the questions you need to ask yourself to uncover to figure out if your idea has legs.
Please don’t skip this crucial first step. It will save you a lot of headaches, money and time. Going through the Business Model Canvas allows you to test your assumptions and gain the clarity you need to move to the next step.
Consider The Market
Ideally, before testing your solution you should research your industry, competition and figure out the market size of your solution.
Here you’ll need to consider things like target market, population density and demographics if you’re a local business and how saturated your market is. Knowing all of this will help you figure out viability and pricing as well as uncover an initial ideal customer to focus on.
Test It
Smart entrepreneurs typically don’t take the “go big or go home approach”, they test their solutions before launching. So what does that mean?
From customer discovery interviews to creating beta versions of their product or services, entrepreneurs start small.
Then as you start testing your idea, you’ll begin to see if there truly is a market for your product or service and if you need to make changes to your initial offering.
Be Patient
Us entrepreneurs get kind of excited about our ideas. And with that excitement comes impatience. I’ve seen countless entrepreneurs walk in our doors and want to open a business like tomorrow. Believe me I can relate, but it’s best to slow yourself down to ensure you’re on the right path and have a viable idea.
So take your time completing the above steps. Do your homework, talk with a business coach, heck even attend our upcoming Start Up: Business Bootcamp. The more time you spend researching and testing the better foundation you’ll have.
Stay Focused
Remember how I said above you need to start small, that also means stay focused. Too often entrepreneurs filled with ideas get distracted by all the things they see in their dreams. Look we want you to dream big, but again we encourage you to start small.
Stay focus on the problem and your solution. Yes your concept likely will eventually include various service and product offerings as you grow, but start with one thing. Focus on the main option you offer that has the most bang for it’s buck. You can add more bells, whistles, and offerings later.
We’re here to help!
We encourage you to seek on experience fellow entrepreneurs with proven success to support you in the discovery process. You need people to help you truly question your idea, assumptions and honestly help you contain your excitement so you can be sure your solution is worth taking a chance on.
We invite you to book a free business coaching session and attend our upcoming Start Up: Business Bootcamp (details below).
Our Fall 2023 Start Up: Business Bootcamp will be Monday and Thursday evenings from 5:30-7:00 PM October 16th through November 9th and is designed to help you not only launch and grow your business, but also make sure yuo have a viable idea!
