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<h1>How many times have I heard this?</h1>
<p>You’ve got an excellent idea for a business, a product or service. Have you validated it yet? So many businesses fail due to not carrying out a validation check prior to investing time and money. What do I mean by validation I hear you ask?</p>
<h2>Business Validation</h2>
<p>People have ideas from time to time, some great, some not so great. I’m included here too, often I will have a good idea until I carry out <strong>business validation</strong>.</p>
<ul>
<li>Is my product or service a solution to a problem?</li>
<li>Will people buy my product or service?</li>
<li>Is there a product or service already in the marketplace?</li>
<li>Is it profitable?</li>
</ul>
<h2>Research it</h2>
<p>By answering the above questions, it sets the mind in the direction of validating the idea and at this stage, it should only be an idea. Would you buy a car without test driving it? Some people would, but I wouldn’t recommend it unless you are certain. It’s like a business, you have to in a roundabout way test drive it, business validation is what we are talking about.</p>
<ul>
<li>Google your product and find out If it’s already in the marketplace. If it’s already out there what can your product or service offer over and above the competition? It’s not a deal breaker if someone else is already offering up your idea, it just means you have to offer something more attractive to the buyer.</li>
<li>Identify people who can give you feedback on your idea. I would stay clear of the family on this one, especially the grandmother who would never have a bad word to say about you. You need honest and often brutal feedback that will help you make the decision to take things to the next level or not.</li>
<li>Ask if anyone will commit to a pre-order. This is a vital indicator in the validation process and you really don’t need a polished product to get a pre-order. It would help if you had an MVP or a minimum viable product/service, but not always essential.</li>
</ul>
<h2>MVP – Minimum Viable Product</h2>
<p>This is a careful way to test the market. Can you create a prototype to demonstrate what your product or service can do? We are not looking for a finished product here, just minimum functionality to demonstrate the potential. With a little luck, you will be able to obtain a pre-order at this stage.An example of an MVP would be a web application that has limited functionality but is enough to get the overall idea across to your target market. It might be that you can make it completely usable, but it’s missing the bells and whistles which can come in later versions.</p>
<h2>Pricing and costs</h2>
<p>Have you calculated if your product or service is going to be profitable? There are many who would calculate the buy and sell price and forget about all the other overheads. Your time being one of the largest of overheads. Make sure that whatever you do is worth doing and will turn you a profit. All work and no pay is no fun for anyone and will always end in tears.</p>
<h2>Summary</h2>
<p>It’s important to do the maths and the market research before investing considerable sums of cash. Business validation is one of the most important stages of creating a business. </p>
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