By: Paree Desai
It may seem impossible to come up with a business idea when you want to start a venture. However, once you finally have an idea for your startup and start visualizing a logo, a web page, future clients, and success of your business, it is possible to fall in love with that idea. It is hard not to, as it was created by you. There is, however, one thing that every young entrepreneur should know: the first business idea is unlikely to be your best one.
It is fine, really.
The main mistake that many entrepreneurs make is being more attached to their idea than to the problem that they are trying to solve. After spending several weeks on creating your idea and being told by somebody that he or she does not think it would work, your reaction may be to defend yourself saying “But they do not understand it!” In order not to ignore that criticism instantly, it can be helpful to find out the reasons why they see it like that. It may happen that the problem itself is not significant enough, or there is already a better solution. Or maybe your idea is good, but it needs to be changed.
And that is precisely where testing comes in handy.
Entrepreneurs can always test their business ideas on a smaller scale before dedicating a significant portion of their resources to it. Entrepreneurs are not obliged to have the finished product, an advanced website, and a large social media following. In order to find out if the idea is worth pursuing, one can ask questions, develop prototypes, produce sample products, present sketches, etc. The point is not proving the quality of the idea but checking if the problem exists and people are concerned about it enough to require a solution.
For instance, one might think that the teenage students need an app with many different features in order to manage their homework. However, after asking other teenagers about the app they might find out that the students do not really want an application full of different features but a single place where they would be able to check their assignments easily.
Such information can drastically change the original idea.
However, such an outcome is not a failure. This kind of feedback can make the idea better. The original business idea is not always bad. Sometimes, it just is not developed yet.
This process is known as iteration. Iteration is a process of testing, learning, and improving the idea. Instead of creating something perfect during the first attempt, you create a version, learn, and improve the next version.
Think of the products that you use daily. They were not created in the form they are today. Companies changed features, redesigned products, responded to complaints and sometimes changed the idea totally. Such a company that is ready to listen to the opinion of customers gets a chance to improve instead of believing that its first version is the best version.
Such an importance of feedback is caused by the fact that entrepreneurs are not always their own customers.
It means that you can consider something to be amazing since you personally are going to use this product. However, it doesn’t mean that everybody will. Therefore, the opinion of other people can be very helpful. Your friends, classmates, family members, teachers, and potential clients can tell you about something that you have never considered.
However, of course, not all feedback should be considered.
If ten people give you various opinions, it doesn’t mean that you have to change your business in ten different ways. You look for patterns in people’s feedback. If many people face the same problem with your product, you probably need to address this issue. If many people find it hard to understand the function of your product, the marketing needs to be improved. If people love your product concept but wouldn’t buy it, you need to reconsider the price and the value proposition.
The key here is to listen but remain focused on your goal.
On some occasions, testing an idea might lead to even more valuable results – the realization that your original idea wasn’t worth following at all.
And this realization might be the most difficult to cope with for young entrepreneurs. You may have already devoted a lot of time to the research, design, planning of your future project. Changing the course of action might mean that your work went down the drain.
But it didn’t.
Even if your idea doesn’t work out, you will gain a lot of valuable experience. You will know what customers like and dislike, what issues are complicated to solve and what you need to change in your approach next time. This experience can become the basis for your next idea.
This is why failure in entrepreneurship is not automatically regarded as the opposite of success. Oftentimes, failure is simply information.
For example, imagine two students who decide to start a business. The first student creates a product and gets negative feedback on it, so decides that they were not meant to be entrepreneurs. The second student gets negative feedback and asks himself a simple question “What can I change?”.
The difference here is not necessarily in their initial ideas but in how they process the feedback they receive.
In addition, there is a difference between changing your idea and failing at your goal.
For example, if your goal is to help students organize their school workload, perhaps your initial product didn’t work. However, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to give up on solving this problem. You could create a website instead. You could simplify your application. You could create a physical organizer. Or perhaps the students will need something completely different.
While your solution changes, your problem remains the same.
This mindset could greatly benefit you when becoming an entrepreneur. Instead of thinking “I came up with an idea and now I need to implement it”, you could start
This is why failure in entrepreneurship is not automatically regarded as the opposite of success. Oftentimes, failure is simply information.
For example, imagine two students who decide to start a business. The first student creates a product and gets negative feedback on it, so decides that they were not meant to be entrepreneurs. The second student gets negative feedback and asks himself a simple question “What can I change?”.
The difference here is not necessarily in their initial ideas but in how they process the feedback they receive.
In addition, there is a difference between changing your idea and failing at your goal.
For example, if your goal is to help students organize their school workload, perhaps your initial product didn’t work. However, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to give up on solving this problem. You could create a website instead. You could simplify your application. You could create a physical organizer. Or perhaps the students will need something completely different. While your solution changes, your problem remains the same.
This mindset could greatly benefit you when becoming an entrepreneur.
Instead of thinking of it as “I came up with this idea, and I have to make it work,” you could try asking yourself, “What is the problem I am trying to solve, and how do I go about solving it?”
This is a more helpful question.
As teens, we can feel pressured to have everything figured out right away. Entrepreneurship can make us feel that way too. We might believe we need to come up with one amazing business idea that we have to make happen right away.
However, entrepreneurship does not work that way.
Your first business idea can be an opportunity for experimentation and learning, instead of the destination itself. You can experiment, change direction, listen to customer feedback, fail, and then try something different.
Therefore, when you think of a business idea next time, do not automatically ask yourself, “How do I make this business idea successful?”
Ask yourself instead:
- What is the problem I am trying to solve?
- Who has that problem?
- How do I know people are interested in the solution?
- What should I test without investing too much?
- What lessons can I take away from the customer feedback?
And finally:
What am I willing to change?
Your first idea for starting a business does not have to be your great idea. It only needs to be good enough to give you some lessons.
Sometimes the idea that fails is the very idea that can teach you how to succeed.