How do you know if your new business idea is good enough to sustain itself?
In a nutshell, all the business training out there will suggest you do the research.
I’m sure you know that. It’s business 101.
So I won’t make this another post about ideal customer avatars and all of that.
If you want my take on this stuff, here’s a post about it.
But this post IS about ensuring your new business idea is sustainable.
Here's How
For clarity, we don’t REALLY know how great our new business is until AFTER the early adopters jump on board.And AFTER we’ve picked through the low hanging fruit.
If you’re anything like me, you get excited when people start giving you money for the new product, or business venture you’ve created.
Unless you’re really great at going out into COLD traffic and converting people who have no idea who you are or what you sell…
…I’m guessing you’re first sales are from the other end of the spectrum.
The other end I’m talking about are the people who know, like and trust you.
And perhaps, you have a few people to buy from you because they’re GOOD friends and feel kinda guilty if they don’t.
Nothin’ wrong with that.
However, this is where I would get messed up. Because I would think my new business idea is a success already from those sales.
Because I’ve “validated” the market, right?
Wrong.
I haven’t REALLY validated anything - especially my new business idea
All I did was prove I could sell my thing-a-ma-jig to people without really trying because they know and like me.
Really, how hard is it to get your aunt Wilma to buy something from your new business? 🙂
The REAL TRUTH about our new business idea is when we get past those first sales and put it in front of cold traffic.
This means you’re offering it to people who don’t necessarily know you.
And they certainly don’t know how you can help them (yet).
So this gives you the ultimate opportunity to TEST whether or not you have a good offer that is sustainable.
Because when strangers “vote” with their wallet, you’ve got something.
Can you see the difference?
Making a quick decision about the validity of your new business idea based on the early adopters and “lovers” of your business is probably not a great idea.
I’ve made this mistake many times in my businesses and I see coaching clients do this all the time too.
It’s human nature.
The advice I give them is always “hold on…we haven’t been through the second round of validation yet.”
So take your new business idea, service, or product and run it through AT LEAST both of these validation filters to see if it’s sustainable or not.
Hope this helps!!!
If it did, or even if you have questions or your own insight on this, I'd love to hear from you below!!!