The first thing you need to start a startup is a solid startup idea. Most of the people think that their idea is innovative and it is going to lead a startup company to enormous success. However, the reality hits them when they get down in the field. Even though the idea may be innovative, it will lack the actual demand when it hits the market. Therefore, it is important to validate a startup idea before starting physical development. The following are the top 10 best ways to validate your startup idea.

  1. Problem and Solution –

The startup idea will be successful if it is solving a common problem your targeted audiences are facing. Unless the idea is solving a problem or offering more comfort to the targeted users, no one will buy your product or service. Therefore, whenever any startup idea comes in your mind, ask the question what problem it is solving.

  1. Discover Market –

If your idea is solving a common problem, it is time to discover the market or that group of customers who are likely to be interested in your product or service. The reason is to estimate how large the group is and whether your idea is worth investing and sustainable in the future. It is also important to ask some of those targeted customers whether they will be really interested in your product to get a reality check.

  1. Study Competitors –

If your startup idea is already implemented by another company, there is no point in launching the same thing from a startup’s point of view. There will be an issue of beating your competitors and stealing customers. Therefore, if your idea has the market, find out your likely competitors. Ask what your product will bring on the table for the customers that will differ from their products.

  1. Seek The Experts –

It is important to take the advice of the market experts before actually starting with your idea. A market expert knows well whether a product is sellable in the market among your targeted audiences or not. Moreover, they will view in fresh outside perspective on your product or service which is always welcoming invalidating your startup idea. They can easily point out why your product will be successful or fail.

  1. Pitch and Survey –

If all the above four steps are green, you should go ahead and prepare a proper marketing pitch for the targeted audiences. Get a few experienced people and ask them to conduct a survey online and offline to know the ground reality. They should pitch the potential customers and see their reactions.

You should reveal the estimated price of the product to understand whether they will buy instantly or reluctantly and why they will buy it. A survey will the potential customer is the best way of validating a startup idea.

  1. Experiment With Landing Page –

Digital marketing is the best marketing way in today’s world. Therefore, before starting to make your product a reality, you should check the demand and the interest level among your targeted audiences by creating a landing page. The landing page has to be stunning as if you are selling the product and get analytics to see the interest and excitements from the clicks and navigation of the visitors who check your landing page out. Obviously, you have to set up a paid campaign to drive the web traffics.

  1. Crowdfunding Campaign –

One of the easiest and most real ways of validating startup idea is by creating a crowdfunding campaign. You will get to understand whether your idea excites people to make an investment or not. In fact, the interest from prospective customers turns into funding. Only if the response is overwhelming, you should go ahead with it.

  1. Building Plan –

Most of the time we are so overwhelmed by our idea that we forget how to actually build the product. What you may think in your head may be far away from reality. Therefore, plan out the entire process of making the product and talk to them who are actually going to make it for you to see if it is feasible and what are the compromises you have to make in the development process.

  1. Financial Validation –

The reason why startup fails in the first place is the lack of vision for financial management. You should get an expert to tell you how much it might cost to build your product or service, how much you have to sell to reach the breakeven point and how much you have to incur monthly for all the things associated like marketing, advertisement, rent, salary, and other expenses.

  1. SWOT Analysis –

SWOT stands for strength, weakness, opportunities, and threats. This is the last thing you have to do when you get green signals from all of the above. Identify the strengths and weakness of the idea, discover the opportunities where you can excel and what could be the threats in short to long run. Strengths are what the product or services are offering to the customers that will attract them and provide them more value than your competitors. Identifying the weaknesses will help to make a better version of the product and making it sustainable.

Kitty Gupta
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