Seeing The Light – An Idea or a Real Business?
We have all had one of those lightbulb moments which we think will translate into a viable business. The challenge is to have the drive, passion and determination to turn that idea into a reality.
Before an entrepeneur pours all of his or her energy into converting that idea, the most fundamental question that needs to be asked is “Is this a real business?” i.e. is there a market for my product?
The key to determining whether the idea is a viable business proposition is Research, with a capital “R”. How many businesses do we all know which sounded like a great idea, but failed before they were off the ground. The chicken came before the egg.
When we conceived the MyProjectTracker concept, we almost (but not quite) fell into that trap. Having worked in the murky world of IT, we were convinced that we had seen the light and that our idea for a straightfoward, online, hosted project management tool was unique. We had the product designed and quoted for before even thinking about checking had it been done before.
Then we spoke to some friends who mentioned a couple of well known hosted project management solutions and asked whether we could realistically take them on as competitors.
We realised the folly of our ways and put a screaming halt on the product design for a time while we went about doing some proper market and customer research.
The joy of being an e-business is that all of our competition is online i.e. we can see what they are up to without needing to ask customers (though of course we did), trying a bit of industrial espionage or any other trick. Google provided all that we needed to know about what they were up to – the good stuff and the bad.
We were happy with what we saw primarily because it supported our original view that the product had enough of a unique offering that it was possible to penetrate the market.
So if you have a lightbulb that won’t go out, do your research – if there is a market for it, take the jump and give it a go. It’s one of the most rewarding experiences you can have in business, to see your idea come to fruition and on the market!
Good luck!
