Okay, so you are stuck with a business idea. Or you may prefer to call it ‘enlightenment’ as no one before you came up with it or at least applied it to create an empire. This brilliant idea seems viable in every aspect and is ready to build upon to help you earn your golden fortune.

Wait, hold On….

Wouldn’t it be better if you performed a reality check first?

You may ask why? So read this

As per Data from Small Business Association states that 30% of new businesses fail in first two years, 50% fail in the initial five years and 66% fail within 10 years of being operational

We are certain that you don’t like to be one amongst them. Though the idea might be brilliant in your individual understanding, it might not appeal to consumers, loose against competition, not be financially viable and so on. The risks are too many.
So, before piling upon it, let us move on and find if your idea is really good or you should think about the next one.

Is my idea good? Steps for a reality check

Here are the 5 golden steps to find out if the idea in your mind will reap desired results or not. Of course, it is not a guaranteed measurement of right or wrong but has saved many ships from sinking.

    1.    Figure out the complete picture

The first step is to get your idea from your mind to a piece of paper. Never mind if it is just rough work. Just jot down the What, Why, Who, When, and How of your idea as early as possible.
    •    What is the value being derived from your idea for target consumers?
    •    Why do you want to pursue it? Are you passionate enough?
    •    Who is your target audience?
    •    When is the right time to launch it- is it now?
    •    How will it work out- what is your recipe for success?

    2.   The unique proposition

Every product/service has a problem to solve. Some like to solve it the way it is being universally solved by other companies. Only a brilliant few (like you we hope) try to do it uniquely, in a much better way than the others. To check uniqueness of your idea you can check the website of Patents and Trademark office of the country you are in.
I am sharing a few countries patent database, click on the country name:

For US
For India
For Malaysia

    3.   Is it financially viable

By now, you have some surety about your idea and are ready to start ticking. But are you sure about making some big bucks worth your efforts? Before you jump into the development phase and bring it on in full form, do find out the financial viability of your project. Are people willing to pay the price, would investors be interested in your product what shall be the development cost, the fixed and variable expenses, etc? Now is a good time to do some back of the hand calculations.
You can start with below-shared steps:
    •    Create an expenses budget
    •    Develop a cash-flow statement
    •    Do income projections
    •    Deal with assets and liabilities
    •    Breakeven analysis

    4.   Customer Feedback

This is the most important step in your entire ideation cycle. Take your idea to the real consumers and find out what they have to say about it?
Here are a few ways of collecting feedback
    •    Social Channels : (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn), forums (Reddit, Quora)
    •    Live Chat: Ask customers coming onto your site about their experience
    •    Polls And Surveys : You can do this offline or online as per your customer availability
    •    Monitor Feedback on Other Sites: there are sites which do the review of products or services. Ask them to review your site/product/service and share their view on your online channels
    •    Create A Group/Forum

    5.   Figure out the complete picture

You want to make it big- we understand that. But what is the rush? Isn’t it better to start small, assess, improve and then make the big leap than starting large only to fall down with a bang? Make a strong base before flying high.

If you have followed the above steps and still here, you are now firm on taking your idea to the next level.

Let us tell you, this is not it. Your project will need a number of iterations before it can resonate with the customer’s exact choice. Feedback plays a very important role in helping you achieve this.