Every great business starts with an idea. No matter whether it came to you while walking your dog, enjoying your favourite coffee a Parisian café, drawing it on the back of a bar napkin on that memorable night in November, or if you had your own Eureka moment in the bathtub. See, being a creative entrepreneur, you have a thing with ideas – you have several of them; but the challenge is how do you know if this idea, your brilliant concept is worth pursuing, with your heart, soul, time, and money?
We’ll fear not my Creative Genius, your friendly neighbourhood Creative CEO has a few quick tips for you. To evaluate any idea, ask yourself these 3 Critical Questions:
ARE YOU SOLVING A PROBLEM?
I always say this to all my clients. People don’t really buy products or services; they buy solutions to their problems. Every successful business is essentially solving a major problem, and customers trade their money for the solution.
Can’t go to the restaurant, but need food delivered to you? With Zomato, you can.
Want a clean cab, quick doorstep pickup and no big surprises on the taxi bill later? Try Uber, Ola, Careem, Lyft
Want to send money to anyone in a flash, with just their email address? Use Paypal or Wise
You get the idea. Every successful brand today, has survived because they correctly identified challenges, it’s potential consumers were facing, and offered a solution. If your super-duper business idea can make life easier, or create a win/benefit for your customers, you could be onto something big.
HAVE YOU IDENTIFIED YOUR COMPETITION?
Competition is not a bad thing. Some competition in the area you are planning to be in is good. It signals that there is some demand for what you are planning to offer.
Which are the other companies that operate in the business you want to pursue?
What are their key selling points? For E.g. Zepto – 10 minute grocery delivery; Domino’s – 30 minutes or Free; Hurrem’s – Premium 100% vegetarian, authentic handcrafted baklava; Rolls Royce – The epitome of automotive luxury; Gucci – Redefining luxury fashion and so on.
How do they attract their customers and market to them? Do they advertise on TV, give away samples at the mall or limit it to only exclusive events at the fanciest of hotels?
Spend some time looking at their website, social media, and offline channels so you understand them better. It is always good to do an analysis of their strengths and weaknesses to understand, what you’re up against, and where can you outperform them? Is there something, they are not giving their consumers, that the consumers really want?
WHAT DO YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE SAY?
At times friends and family may love your idea, just because it’s your idea and they want to support you. Or they may not know much about the product or service as they are not the ideal customers or end users. So, it is extremely important to know how your target audience – intended customers and end uses feel? To get a real sense of how strong your idea is, look at undertaking in-depth research such as focus groups, surveys, social media polls, kick starter campaigns and the like to gauge interest.
To get a business off the ground takes a lot of time, effort, money and thought if you want to do it right and succeed.
Take the quick quiz now to get a better assessment of your idea’s viability and sign up to our mailing list to get tips, learnings and insights on how to succeed at business.
Comments