You may find tens of lists containing highly profitable small business ideas, but it’s a fact that not every profitable business idea can be a good choice for you, i.e. not everyone can be equally successful in starting and running a grocery shop. Whatever the business idea you have, the success depends upon the feasibility factors it has according to the situation you are in.
So, whenever you get a new business idea in mind, and you think it’s worth doing, do check the evaluate the business idea before even thinking to do it, and this is what we call feasibility of a business idea.
The feasibility of a business idea depends on various factors prevailing in your target market and one business idea may be feasible for a certain market but not for others. For instance, there are hundreds of online business ideas, but you need careful research to find and choose the online business idea that’s best for you, i.e. it’s within your budget, has the potential to grow, and is something you can do it.
You may need to do some research yourself with the help of online resources or you may also get in touch with a good business advisor to guide you in the right direction.
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- Business coaching for disabled entrepreneurs in the USA
- Seed Somo for startups that want to grow faster
- How to come up with a profitable business idea
Know Your Feasibility Factors
In order to do your own research, here we have created a checklist that can help you determine the feasibility of your business idea. Conduct the research keeping the point below in mind.
1- Have a clear idea of the product or service, i.e how is it going to work. Check out some similar products and how the end-user is responding to them. If this is something already being offered by a big business, you may need to find the gaps and fill those in your product.
2- How will you protect your idea? In the case of an invention or even innovation, timing plays a crucial role. It is very likely that by the time, you are ready with the prototype, someone else has already launched the idea, so it’s very important to protect your idea right from the time of conception.
3- Is there a market for your product/service? Even if your idea is not unique, but caters to the need of a market segment, you should proceed with it. For instance, Zomato, UberEats, and a lot of other services are already there, but you can still build something similar that connects the on-job people with home-cooked food.
4- What skills do you need? It is equally important to evaluate yourself along with the idea, because you may have a superb idea, but no skills to do it. And yes, make sure that you know the most common entrepreneurial fears and how to overcome them.
5- Do you have those skills? By the way don’t worry, if you do not have the required skills, you may find a co-founder who has the required skills or even outsource if needed.
6- Who are your competitors? The more you know about your competitors, the better product you come up with and the better chances of success are there.
7-How different is your product/service from others? Even if you do not have something different, think of packaging that sells and not to forget the product innovation.
8- Do you have the financial capacity to start this idea? Check your savings or you may fund your startup with a credit card or ask family and friends to finance your business.
9- If the above does not work, look for all other available funding options.
Related Readings:
- Five options to kick start your startup fundraising
- The art of startup fundraising
- Big list of crowdfunding websites
- Find investors through Merar
10- Do you have the exit plan? If not, think about it right before starting to build the startup!
Keep your research based on the above points, and you can figure out very easily what is the importance of a feasibility study to an entrepreneur and whether a business idea is feasible or not!