Turning an Idea into a Business: First Steps
Every dream begins with an idea. This idea can be anywhere from small and simple to complex and a little crazy. The best part of it is that even crazy ideas can be brought to life if you put in enough effort. What is important is to come up with a plan of action to get you from a vision to a product or service. In this article, we want to dive into the beginning steps we have found to be important.
Step 1 - Write down your idea
This might seem like a stupidly simple concept, but it is very easy to think of something during a dream or in the middle of other tasks. There are scientific studies that show how often humans forget their dreams if they are not written down immediately after waking up.
Step 2 - Ask yourself what problem your idea is attempting to solve
Determining a problem can be a little difficult, but it is key to building a business. The problem can be something related to the limitations of current solutions, the absence of options related to a niche market, or a pain point you have identified in your daily life. You should also identify who your target customers are and get feedback from them about the problem they are dealing with.
Step 3 - How is your idea going to solve the problem
In step 2, you found a problem you want to solve. Now, you need to explain what your product or service will do that makes it a better alternative than your competitors. You need to formulate ideas on how much market share you can garner in your respective industry or how your product can build an entirely new market. A major aspect of this step is collecting feedback from potential customers and performing user testing to refine the product. Going through the refinement process could lead to an altered version of what you first envisioned.
Step 4 - Manufacturing and Development
This step could be longer than the first couple steps. First, you need to figure out how your product or service will be built. Is it possible to make? Is it something you can design and make yourself? If not, what kind of skilled employees will you need to assist you in your journey? Is third party manufacturing an option? All of these questions will come up and in order for your company to take the next step, you will need to have some idea of the path towards creating it. The good news is that it doesn’t need to be finalized yet. It can start as a prototype or beta test and you can figure out over time the best way to manufacture and at scale for the long term.
Step 5 - Protect Your Intellectual Property
It can be scary to think about, but there are people thinking of ideas and innovating every day. Once you have found an idea or product worth pursuing, one of the most critical things you can do is protect it. You should protect your brand and this could start by filing for a trademark on the company name / product name so that no other companies within your industry can use the same name. You should also look into getting a patent if your product is something unique. Patents are extremely useful in protecting design or utility of a product and if done correctly, they give you exclusive access to a market without the risk of knock-offs or bigger companies replicating your idea.