So you’ve started a new business, maybe even a Natural Enterprise. You’ve done your homework, and found a need with a solid business case that you think you and your partners can fill better than potential competitors. And you’ve been careful to avoid the landmines. The customers you tried out the idea on are enthusiastic, and maybe even are doing some viral marketing for you already. You’ve found a way to organically finance the business launch, so you keep total control over decisions and don’t need to get stressed about money. And most importantly, you’ve found the right partners to start the business with, rather than trying to go it alone, and your partners have skills that complement yours and cover all the bases, and they’re people you know you’ll love working with.
If so, there’s just one more step before you launch the business: The Feasibility Test. This article explains what that’s all about. The feasibility test will allow you to prove your business concept quickly and inexpensively, and will allow you to rapidly prototype your concept with ‘pathfinder’ customers (those who see more value than others in your concept, and are on the leading edge of thinking about their own industry), and, when you fail to get it perfect the first time, will enable you to ‘fail fast and cheaply’ and learn a lot quickly from your mistakes. There are no hard and fast rules for feasibility tests — they depend on the size and nature of the business. Generally however, they take you through three steps: viability testing (validation), piloting (prototyping and experimentation), and scaling (gearing up to full production of your product or services). In the course of these three steps, you will be attempting to answer ‘yes’ to all of the following questions:
I have met entrepreneurs who went through all of the above steps, and at the end of them had lost their enthusiasm for the idea, but still went ahead because they had invested so much time and energy that they didn’t want it to go for nothing. Life is too short for that. As I’ve said before, if the work you’re doing, or planning to do, is not at the intersection of What you love, What’s needed and What you’re good at, it’s time to quit. Even if it’s before you start. If you have done your research and you can answer ‘yes’ to all of the above questions, you’re miles ahead of most entrepreneurs, and you’ll have dramatically increased the probability that your enterprise will be low-stress, beholden to no one but you and your partners, financially successful, and a place wherepeople love to work. And damn, could we ever use some more of those. |
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This is actually incredibly relevant to what I do — when I’m working on docs for small business software, you come into contact with a lot of people who are just starting out.So many people start with what they want to do and how they feel about it instead of discovering a need, generating a positive and accessible solution, and then realizing the ingredients that solution requires. Really nice synopsis, Dave.
Thanks, Meg. It’s true, isn’t it — we think that just because we’re really interested in something, that if we make it the rest of the world will want to buy it. What is so amazing about the Internet is that it makes it much easier to do advance research at almost no cost except your time and energy. What is dangerous is that sometimes people think ‘online’ research is all they need to do — when the most valuable (and shoe-leather-wearing) research is face-to-face conversations with potential customers.