Questions to Ask If You “Know” You Have a Great Business Concept

You’ve probably already heard things like “half of all new startups fail within the first two years” or “new business ideas are a dime a dozen.” That’s just the glass half empty perspective, though. If you can come up with a brilliant idea to meet consumer or business needs in a way that hasn’t been done before, you may just have a million (or billion) dollar business concept. But how do you know whether your idea has what it takes to translate into success or is doomed to fail?

While there’s no 100 percent accurate way to really know, it’s important to objectively evaluate your great business concept before you gamble everything on it, so take the time to ask yourself these 5 questions.

Top Business Ideas

Is There a Need for my Concept? Your concept doesn’t necessarily have to be free of competition (in fact, it’s pretty tough to come up with any business idea that won’t have some competition), but you do need to make sure that your product or service is somehow different and more effective than whatever else is already out there. For example, you’d probably have a tough time coming up with a search engine that could beat Google, but you might be able to develop something like test prep software that’s better than the existing products on the market.

What Is my Elevator Pitch? The best business ideas are often the simplest ones: they’re concepts that can be easily explained, and that your audience can immediately see a reason for. Consider how you would explain your business idea to a top executive or venture capitalist if you only had the length of an elevator ride to get your point across. If you can express your idea in a succinct and convincing way, chances are you’ve got a good concept on your hands.

Who Is My Target Market? It’s very difficult to be all things to all people (even popular and culturally pervasive companies like Apple have their detractors), so you need to figure out what specific demographics your idea is going to appeal to so that you can target them. Ask yourself—will my target groups have an interest in this product? Will I be able to successfully market to them? Knowing who you’re catering your business concept to will allow you to come up with a focused plan.

What Are Potential Obstacles to my Idea? You may be getting lots of positive feedback for your idea from friends, family members, and co-workers, but you need to also talk to people who can help point out potential obstacles you may run into. For example, if your idea takes off, will you be able to scale up to meet the customers’ needs? Are you going to run into any issues with existing patents and copyrights? Think critically before you embark on your business venture so that you can head off any possible problems.

Will There Be a Long-lasting Need for my Idea? Fads come and go, and the businesses that latch on to these fleeting trends go with them. For example, teen clothing retailer Aeropostale has been struggling in recent years because they’ve failed to harness the fashions and marketing techniques that appeal to high schoolers today, while competitors such as Zara and H&M have succeeded by paying attention to their customer’s likes and adjusting to current fashion. Any business concept you come up with needs to be flexible and capable of growing as our culture changes. Ask yourself if you can see a need for your concept 5, 10, or 20 years down the road. If you can’t imagine a future where your concept is valuable, it may be time to go back to the drawing board.

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