So, you have a startup idea that you think is pretty awesome, but you’re not sure if everyone else is going to love it as much as you do. 

Considering that 7 out of 10 businesses fail within 10 years, you may want to spend some time thinking about your idea before you dive in head first. 

Basically, you’ll want to take a series of steps to validate your business idea and figure out if there’s actually a need for the product or service you are selling. 

How do you do that, exactly?

Read on to learn how to find out if your startup ideas are any good. 

Make Sure You Love the Idea

Before you do research to figure out if other people will love your startup idea, you first need to make sure that you love your own idea. 

This may sound obvious, but you’d be surprised at the number of people who launch startups that they are not passionate about. 

And, if you don’t love your startup idea, then your business will inevitably fail. So, before diving in, make sure you ask yourself a few questions:

• “Do I genuinely care about this idea, or am I just motivated by money?
• “Am I motivated enough to sustain this idea for a long time, through all the ups and downs?”

If you can’t answer yes to both of these questions, then it’s best to go back to the drawing board and find an idea that you truly do care about. 

Learn Your Target Market 

Ok, so you have a startup idea that you love and that you’re willing to stick with for as long as it takes. Now, it’s time to figure out your target market. 

If your answer is “everyone”, then you are setting yourself up for a long road ahead. You need to get more specific, because let’s face it, no matter how great your product is, not everyone is going to want to buy it. 

Ask yourself questions like, “Do I see this product appealing to males or females, or both” “What age range do I think will have the most use for my product or service?” “Are my target customers spread across the globe, or do they live in a certain area of the world or of my country?”

If your targeting other businesses, and not consumers, you’ll want to ask yourself, “What size of companies do I want to target?” “What particular industry are these businesses in?” “Do I want to target new businesses, or established ones?

Asking yourself these questions will help you figure out your target market and what kind of buying power they have. 

Get Some Honest Feedback 

Many people don’t like hearing the opinions of others in regards to their business. They don’t want anyone’s pessimism to get in their head and stop them from pursuing their dream. 

Don’t let yourself be one of these people. Instead, you should be asking anyone who might be interested in your business idea what they think of it. Talk to family members, friends, and colleagues. Dive into online communities like Quora, Reddit, Linkedin, and Facebook. 

When talking to these people, don’t just ask for a yes or no answer as to whether or not they like your business idea. Dig deeper and ask questions like:

• Does this product or service solve one of your biggest problems or challenges?
• Is there a different problem that you’d like solved?
• How do you like the services or products provided by businesses similar to mine? Could they improve in some way? If so, how?
• Would you purchase my product or service? How much would you be willing to pay for it?

Asking these types of questions will not only help validate your idea, but it will also help you tweak it so it’s more focused on your target market. 

Crowdfund It 

A lot of people think that crowdfunding is only for those who need the capital to start their business. 

But, crowdfunding is also a great way to figure out if people will like your idea. Submit your business idea to sites like Indiegogo, Kickstarter, and FundedHere. 

If you’re able to raise a significant amount of funding through these platforms, then you’ll know that people will be willing to pay for your product or service. 

Create a Prototype

After you’ve done all of the above, it’s time to create your prototype. 

This working prototype will be presented to a small group of users to see how they feel about it. The goal here is to see how these people interact with your prototype, and whether or not they could see themselves buying your product in the future. 

Airbnb and Uber are two very successful businesses that created prototypes before they launched, so you know this strategy works.

Analyze the Competition

of course, no matter how niche your product or service is, you are going to have some competition. 

Take Airbnb, for example. Even though there’s not another service quite like it on the market, they still have lots of forms of competition. Airbnb still competes with hotels, hostels, and vacation rental sites. 

When researching the competition, ask yourself, “What are they doing that my product or service could do better?” 

In order to analyze your competition, you should be checking out their websites, subscribing to their email lists, and even buying their product or service and testing it out. 

Once you’ve done your research, you will develop a unique value proposition. This proposition will basically state why your product or service has an edge over the competition’s. 

Startup Ideas: Just Go For It 

Once you’ve followed all the advice above, it’s time to dive right in and start developing and launching your product. 

Remember, all startups started out as small startup ideas, so don’t let these beginning steps intimidate you. 

Be sure to check back in with our site for more startup advice. And, when you’re ready to launch your startup, let’s talk.