How to Know If People Will Buy Into Your Business Idea

Starting a new business can be a wonderful experience. There is nothing quite like launching a new product or service to the marketplace by yourself; identifying and filling a gap that nobody else saw. It can also be a time fraught with worry and stress. Will my business succeed? Do people want my product or service?

Answering these questions is the first step to getting your business off the ground, but how do you go about the exactly? In this article, we will talk you through the various steps you should work through when discovering if people will buy into your business.

Demand Validation

Validating the demand for your business should be the first step in figuring out whether people are going to be interested and will buy into your idea. Every business needs consumer demand to be successful, and while some businesses create their own demand, they are very much the exception.

Most products and services aren't completely new to the market, they are a new take or refinement on something already in existence. The simplest way to validate demand is to seek out existing similar products and services, and assess how they are performing in the market. If similar businesses are struggling it might be an indication that the market demand isn't there, however, it could also be a symptom of something they are doing wrong so research thoroughly.

Asking the Right People

Every business has a target market. A demographic, or set of demographics, that make up the people most likely to be engaged with your product or service. It may seem obvious but when assessing if people will buy into your business it's important to run your market research on the right people—your potential customers.

In addition to market research, it's also a good idea to have, at least preliminary, discussions with lawyers, accountants, marketing, and banking specialists to get a good idea of the challenges and financial projections you should expect from the business. A large number of businesses fail, not because they were a flawed idea, but because they didn't forecast and plan for potential challenges and hurdles fully.

Are You Solving a Real Problem?

Your business must solve a problem for its customers. Without solving a problem, no matter how trivial, you don't have a business at all. Problems come in many shapes and sizes, they don't have to be ground-breaking and life-changing—serving ice-cream is solving the problem of people looking for a cold, dessert. The important thing to remember is that the business should solve a problem, whatever is it. Don't be a solution looking for a problem as regardless of how streamlined and revolutionary the solution is, without a problem to solve, you will struggle to find a market.

What Value are People Getting Out of Your Solution?

In order to persuade people to buy into your business, to choose you over the numerous competitors you may have, you need to offer some kind of value to your customers. It's not enough to simply provide the same value as everybody else in the market, you need to have something unique. This element is often referred to as the Unique Selling Point (UPS) of your business. Think carefully about what your UPS is as it's the primary edge you have to convince people to work with your business rather than competitors.

Is that Market Big Enough?

No market is big enough to support an endless amount of businesses offering their products and services to consumers. At some point, the amount of supply will simply exceed the demand. It can also be hard to persuade customers to move from an existing favourite, unless you are offering something truly revolutionary, and at a similar price point.

Check the marketplace before you get things underway: look for how much demand exists, how many competitors there will be, and decide if the market has room for you to move into. It's not a simple numbers game, though. A market with only a few businesses may be harder to break into than a market with thousands if those businesses are satisfying all the demand.

Take on Constructive Feedback

Feedback is important in any venture, business or otherwise. When you are living and breathing your business as you build it up from the ground, it can be hard to see things from an outside perspective. Of course, not all feedback is worthwhile listening to, but constructive feedback is something you should always aim to take onboard. Even if ultimately you don't follow the advice for whatever reason, taking it on board and considering it will almost certainly help you to further assess and refine your ideas.

No business venture is a guarantee. No matter how much of a sure thing it may seem, how much market demand there appears to be, businesses, unfortunately, fail to get off the ground every single day for a variety of reasons. The advice is this article won't guarantee your business will succeed, but they will help you to overcome the first big hurdle, helping you move on the path the success.