So you have an idea and you’re pretty excited about the response that your mom and friends have been giving you about it, what next?
Is the idea startup worthy? Here’s a short list of things to determine before you quit school or your day job.
1. Understand your competition – analyze the current marketplace
- What does your competition offer? What do you think you can do better?
- If there is no competition, ask yourself why?
2. Who are you targeting? – analyze your customer
- Don’t make assumptions – create a focus group of potential customers and start asking questions, buy them a meal and take notes.
- How will your product or service solve a problem they are currently having?
- How well will your product or service integrate with current solutions people are using?
3. Consider your skill set and product or service – analyze yourself
- Don’t be blinded by enthusiasm – are you willing to put in the time, energy, and passion needed to sustain this business?
- What skills are you lacking that you will need to find in order to put together a strong team? Write up a strengths and weaknesses assessment on yourself (or have someone close to you do it for you) so you can identify what you truly need to move forward.
- Do you believe in what you are creating? Are you really solving a problem? Will it benefit others and be good for society?
- Will this product or service make money?
These are just a few things to determine before you drop everything for your idea. Entrepreneurs please weigh in. What are some more things to determine before diving head first into startup pool?
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