In order to test a business idea so that you don’t waste money and time bringing something no one wants to market, you need to make sure that there are enough people who will buy it, and then you’ll need to make sure they’ll buy it from you. Fortunately, you can do the research on your idea without spending much time or money.
* Look At Your Competition – If someone else is highly successful selling what you want to sell, you can also be successful. Take a look at all their offerings, how they offer it, and start following their audience too.
* Start Building an Email List – Don’t wait on building an email list. You can build it via surveys, offering a wait list, giving away a freebie, and other means. Don’t be afraid to collect information while you’re deciding.
* Check Out Google Trends – With Google Trends you can look up almost anything to find out what the interest is online. If you want to sell vegan vitamin B12 supplements, for example, you can find out how popular they are.
Link to Google Trends – https://www.google.com/trends/
* Find Out Market Size – You can validate demand by learning what the market size is. What’s cool is you can use Facebook’s advertising platform to learn more about your audience, including how many of them exist. For example, you can find out if there are enough 28-year-old moms of twins that need your product.
* Develop a Landing Page – Even if you don’t have anything to sell yet, you can create a website and landing page that collects information and email addresses on people who are interested in that type of product anyway. Just give away a free information sheet or checklist or something like that to get people thinking about the product.
* List It For Sale – Even if you don’t have the product yet, you can test market desire by listing it for sale without a way to pay. You can do this via listing sites like Craigslist, or you can do it via your landing page. Put them on a waiting list for the product, and you’ll have immediate sales if you decide to go forward.
* Ask People to Pay in Advance – If you can get enough orders before you even have the product to justify starting the business, then why not? People use this idea very successfully when they use crowdfunding, or pre-orders for books and other merchandise. Don’t spend any money, because if you don’t move forward you’ll have to refund.
* Focus on Solutions Not Problems – When you can come up with an idea that is something people already want, you usually can be sure that you have a winner. But, there is more to it than that, such as ensuring enough people want it to support your business, and whether or not you have the skills to see it through.
Doing this research in advance is imperative if you want to be successful in business. Taking any product or service to market before you have done your research is a waste of time and money. Be sure that someone wants it and that you can deliver it before you get too excited, and you’ll be glad you did.