The number one question we hear at The Launch Pad has to be “Is my idea worth pursuing?”. This question, in one way or another, is a thought that every founder has had for their business. It makes sense that an aspiring entrepreneur would want to hear a yes or no answer from someone experienced in their field, but no one has a crystal ball and can tell you if your idea is worth pursuing or not. So does this mean that there is no way to objectively determine if a venture is worth pursuing? No. In fact, there are a few questions you can ask yourself to better understand if a venture is worth pursuing.
1. Are you passionate about the idea?
Easily this is the most important aspect when starting a business. If you are not passionate about your idea, it is going to be difficult to stay motivated throughout the process of building your business. There is no such thing as overnight success, and a business is far more a marathon than a sprint.
2. What problem are you solving?
The one thing every successful business has in common is that it solves a problem, otherwise people wouldn’t use it! If the problem hasn’t been solved ask yourself why not? There may be a good reason why someone hasn’t solved the problem.
3. Who and how big is your target market?
Who will be buying your product or service? Is it for men or women or both? What age group? Where do they live? How much money do they make? These are some questions that should be answered to figure out in order to better understand your customer and how many customers you potentially have.
4. Have you asked your target market if they would use/want your product or service?
The easiest way to find out if your product or service will sell is if you ask your customer! See what matters to them and how much they would pay to have their problem solved. A great way to do this is by sending out a survey to your target market. You can set up a simple survey using SurveyMonkey.com
5. What is your business’ competitive differentiator?
Finally, how is your business going to be different than your competitors? Why are your customers going to use you over your direct and indirect competitors? The three questions I always asked myself to better understand where my business can have a competitive differentiator is: What do my competitors do well? What do my competitors do poorly? What are my competitors missing?
