11 Steps to Validating Your Startup Idea

Are you an entrepreneur who has tried out multiple business ideas, but hasn’t yet figured out the perfect idea for your new business? Well, you’re not alone. In fact, many startup founders experience a few failed products before finding success.

The best way to avoid falling into this trap is to launch an MVP (minimum viable product) that validates your startup idea before you put all of your time and energy into it. There are countless ways to launch a business MVP, so let’s go over the most important steps and what has worked for me in my business.

1. Let the idea find you, instead of forcing an idea

Many startup founders (and I’ve also made this mistake) approach finding a right startup idea the wrong way: they start from a blank slate. Then they try to come up with ideas that people may possibly find cool. They start with ideas rather than problems.

This is actually a backwards approach. Instead of trying to find a startup idea, you should instead look for problems that you might be having or problems that others are experiencing.

2. Test things out on a small scale before investing your time

This point will save you hundreds (if not thousands) of hours, and the concept is also pretty simple: before investing a lot of time into a project, create a mini-version of your business idea and see if people are willing to pay for it

Also, be sure to get a few upfront payments before investing too much money as well. It’s easy for someone to say they might buy your product after it’s launched. These people may even have the best intentions and cheer you on while you’re building your product, but their enthusiasm can often be misleading. People want to be nice and encouraging, but it’s important to know that this isn’t the same as handing over their payment details.

So, create a mini-version of your product—as minimal as possible—and see how the market reacts to it (namely, are people willing to pay for your product?).

Read more: https://www.allbusiness.com/