To determine whether or not that idea is worth pursuing and turning into a business you need to do your research. You need to research if there is a demand for what you are wanting to bring to the marketplace.
Just because you have a great idea doesn’t mean that people are going to want it. You don’t want to fall into the trap of what’s called “hope marketing.” People who fall for this create a product or service, invest time and money, and hope that it sells – this is referred to “Hope Marketing.”
[bctt tweet=”Here’s how you find out if there’s a demand for your product/service” username=”Ed_Troxell”]
Open up a Google doc, give it a title, and start writing down everything that comes to mind. Use the heading sections within the Word doc to distinguish sections on the page. Example use H2 for major headings and then work your way through the different heading options as if you were outlining a paper for school.
This may seem like extra work that you don’t have “time for,” but I guarantee that if you take the time to research and organize your thoughts it will pay off later. It will also save you time and money. The worst thing you can do is skip the research and organization part and jump right into production. By doing that you are not setting yourself up for success and you are not doing your customers any favors; your business will not be built on a solid foundation. To build a solid foundation you need to put in the work upfront.
So how do you find out if there’s a need for what you have to offer? You simply ASK.
- You ask people you know
- You ask people online through social media and email and networking groups
- You can start handing out a survey
The more specific your questions, the better! If you can limit them to five or less, you’re more likely to receive responses.
If you really feel like you have something you can set up a website with only a landing page where you can collect email addresses. You are basically just giving a little tease, a little sample of what you want to bring to the marketplace and see how much interest it sparks. This is a great way to test the market.
Meanwhile, you are organizing your findings to determine whether or not you should move forward. Remember that sometimes things can go really fast and you’ll want to jump quickly to “seize the moment “but you want to make sure that you remind yourself to take it slow. Slow and steady always wins the race. Oftentimes businesses grow too quickly and can’t keep up therefore they go under. It’s happened over and over and you want to make sure you are not the next one.