You’ve got a killer new product or a service that will have the world beating a path to your door. But is it really something people want? Or is it just something you think they want? People who believe they have come up with the greatest idea get ahead of themselves and start building their startup only to realize the very base of their business is useless. The following tips will help you in choosing the right business for you and your customers.
1. Pick Proven Categories And Find Your Niche.
Broad proven categories typically offer greater opportunities than hot new markets. Start broad, general and proven — then think about a specific niche. At this stage, you can’t go too narrow. With a narrow niche, you can rapidly grow and easily be the sole provider.
2. Understand Your Potential Customers.
3. Define Your Competitive Advantage.
It’s important to think about what your product offers that gives you an edge over your competitors. That can range from better performance to a lower price to better features. The more competitive the market, the more important your competitive advantage is, and the more important it is to clearly identify and state it.
4. Put Your Ideas To The Test.
There are a lot of ways to test your ideas inexpensively, from creating a simple web page to putting your retail products into existing stores on consignment. The response you get will tell you what buyers in your market want, need and desire. You can then use that information to enhance your offering or to discover a more profitable market and business than you initially conceived.
5. Keep It Simple.
Many entrepreneurs think they have to come up with a new technology that no one has ever thought of or apply it in a creative way. But rather you can never go wrong by keeping it simple. Use existing technology to develop a solution that fits your customers’ needs and incrementally improve upon that solution.
6. Form Partnerships
Is your startup going to need software engineers? Will it need manufacturing? Do you need experts in the supply chain? If you answer yes to any of these questions, find partners or third parties to outsource activities you can’t do yourself.
7. Understand Your Abilities
Know your strengths and weaknesses. Once you’ve decided on a course of action and before you launch your new business, you’ll need to define exactly what your startup will and won’t do. Create a strong connection between your passion your ability to execute ideas and projects. Realistically think about what impact you can bring the world.
8. Do What You Love
You know how the saying goes, but it’s actually more than a cliché. Building a successful startup from the ground up isn’t easy, so you should really pursue an area you enjoy and care about. Passion is a key factor to success that enables you to push yourself forward, try harder and reach your goals.
9. Plan Ahead
Make sure you build a stable foundation that allows you enough room for error. This means you need to find ways to achieve your goals, even if you don’t have as many resources as you would like. You also want to be weary of taking on too many commitments, as they can put you under pressure and immobilize you from achieving your goals.
10. Choose Your Dream Team
Take great care in choosing who you will work with, hire, and do business with. Make sure you know who you bring on board, get an idea of who they are as people and how they conduct their businesses.
