Assuming your research process has helped you uncover your competition, you now need to find out what they’re up to. You could become a customer of the competition, whether by shopping them yourself or by enlisting the help of a friend.
Visit their website and put yourself on their list. Talk to your competitor’s customers and tell them what they like or don’t like about your competitor’s product or service. If you conduct formal research, include a question like ‘Where do you currently go for that product or service? Why?’
Your aim is to understand what your competition is doing so you can do it better. Maybe their service is poor. Maybe their product has some flaws-something you’ll only know if you try it out yourself. Or maybe you’ve figured out a way to do things better, smarter and more cost-effectively.
Find your selling point. It’s going to be the core of your marketing program, if and when you’re ready for that step. It’s also going to be what sets you apart and lures customers your way.
After all this – the idea stage, analysis of the idea, competitive analysis – you might find that your idea (and not your competitors, as you’d hoped) is the one with the holes.
Does that mean you need to scrap the whole thing and resign yourself to life as an employee? Not necessarily – sometimes it just needs to be reworked or retooled.
That can be disheartening if you’ve already spent X amount of hours in the idea stage, plus X amount of hours on market research – only to find that you’re not quite ready to get started after all. But taking the time to refocus your energies and determine why your idea needs some tightening is the best predictor of future success.
No entrepreneur wants to hear that their ‘baby’ is flawed, but only by listening and reacting to feedback can he give his idea a chance for success. Ask yourself, ‘Is this a weakness that can be overcome?’ If you can’t create true value for your customers and your business, then it’s time to pick another idea to pursue.
Also read: How to Start Your Own Successful Business Consulting Service
Remember, though, that many ideas simply need some fine-tuning. Before you panic and start flipping through your idea books again, closely consider whether you can make this idea work. After all, there was a reason you thought of that idea in the first place.
Some ideas that seem like they’ll be total duds after doing a little research end up being great successes. Sometimes you look into an idea and find it was just luck – but many times, you find the original founder had some clear insight into the potential.
That insight was his or her focus, and it seemed to lead them to success. We’ve seen many people launch ideas that we thought were beyond foolish, but then we learned more about the idea, the customer and the vision – and realized the true risk being taken.
