FREMONT, CA: Sometimes the reason why companies fail is related to the fact that what they are selling is not solving any problem or need for consumption. Many start-ups are committed to developing new businesses because their products are not selling as they intended. In the corporate world, stories about products that have not been launched correctly are frequent, and emotional attachment or psychological persuasion is not something that is taught in sales training. Whatever the product or service that the start-up intends to place on the current market, the entrepreneur must make sure that the final product is a solution to the existing problem. After launching a product or start-up idea, the market response will be based on the solution provided and the product/service effectiveness.
Another important point is to gather perspectives from previous experiences of other companies. A business idea in a market where the entrepreneur has no experience does not mean that the founder should give up on the idea. You should, however, look for visions of individuals working in that specific area, specialists in that industry, or another entrepreneur who has previously worked in the sector.
It is also important to determine which of your ideas already exist You can have an incredible idea and only then realize that there is another company doing exactly the same thing - and the easiest way to check if your idea exists is through an online survey. Let's say your idea is a gift box subscription service for fish enthusiasts.
You would search Google for gift box subscription service and see that this service is already offered by some companies. This is not to say that you cannot start a subscription service either, but this information allows you to explore other ideas or, then, look for points to differentiate yourself from competitors. After researching each of your ideas on the internet, you can do an exercise of excluding those that already have robust competition. This is a great way to filter out the most promising projects.
Conducting a proper market research can also help to validate a business idea. Now you can buy practically everything online, and the competition grows every day. So, it is essential to choose well what you are going to sell because many sectors are already saturated. Do not try to sell everything to everyone, look for a specific niche, large and attractive enough where you could make a hole and position yourself well. Thus, carry out a thorough analysis of the market you have chosen, which will allow you to know its size and its evolution in recent years.
When it comes to product validation and what you will need to measure there are two most important things you need to do. The first one is to check if the customers buy your product or service or they are only interested in a solution, but not ready to buy yet. Pre-selling as a way to validate the product is an excellent way to gain experience and prepare yourself for more successful launches that you will use when you validate the business idea.
The second important measure is related to how your customers use the product or service as an MVP at this stage: How much time do they spend on your product? How do they use and are they satisfied with your product? Are they falling in love with your product? Are they using all features or only some of them?
You need to check if these two measures at this stage prove your expectations related to purchase and how customers are using the product. Remember that you cannot expect that everything will be ok and you will pass this stage for the first time. In most of the cases, you base your expectations on assumptions, and now you will get the facts. And facts aren’t the same as expectations based on assumptions. You will need to tweak your features, total offer and rebuild your MVP. In such a case you will have not one MVP, but several until you come to the results that are according to your expectation.
When you come to the final MVP that passes the customer’s control, you can say that you have a validated business idea.
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