The Journey of a Thousand miles starts with a single step

Yep - it's an old Lao Tzu saying from sometime way back in B.C.. But it still means a lot to me, especially when thinking of the latest idea and thinking it through on what to do next. Where do you start after the idea? What do you do first? Register a domain? Incorporate your business name? Write a business plan? All these can happen. But how about doing a simple feasibility analysis before you go ahead and start spending your valuable time and money into launching full steam into your new business?.

 

Surprised at this suggestion? Here's why. A feasibility analysis is a way to understand the market pain, do a market survey and get a better hold of how much money will you really make by launching your idea into a real business. Also, will help you figure out ways in which you can impact the triple bottom line. The last thing you want is that you fall in love with the idea and go ahead and launch the business which might include raising capital from family and friends and running through your credit cards. The feasibility analysis will also help you think through your idea and do quick check on the RoI of your time.

 

The market survey is one of the most useful parts of your feasibility analysis. What is the need in the market? Will people buy it from me? Why would they buy it from me? What should be the price points of my product or service? Who is the competition? How can I differentiate myself from the competition? What should be the distribution channels? How can I be innovative? Am I ready for this?

 

To do a market survey, you can use a Google Template and create your own questions. Here's the Template Gallery: http://docs.google.com/templates. You can search one for surveys and then modify it. Once you are done with the questions, you can make a link and send it out to a huge sampling of folks who you believe make your target market. Make sure to not give out your secret sauce.  Here's an example of a market survey we are currently doing for a company coming out of Artilient Labs: www.LeadersMatrix.com (yes, you can take the survey too). There are other tools also available online such as Survey Monkey but the free version has some limitations.

 

Once you tabulate the answers from the market survey, you should take a Go/No-Go decision on your potential business. No worries if the answer is a No Go as the next big idea is just around the corner. If you do decide to go ahead, then get ready to put your blood, soul and credit cards into it. Also, here's the Artilient Labs Company Start-Up Checklist that might be helpful to you. Made this over the years starting several businesses - some successful...and some non-profit but not by choice.

 

And remember... If you shoot for the stars and hit the moon, it's OK. But you've got to shoot for something. A lot of people don't even shoot.