Testing for Success

As I said last post, testing your business idea is vital to see if you are on to a good idea. But how do you get feedback about your business idea without giving away the idea for other people to steal and use for their own profit? This can be tricky, particularly if you are on to something that you think is a big new idea. If it’s not very unique, then you’ll have an easier time getting feedback, but then you’ll need to ask yourself why anyone would buy from you instead of all of the other businesses out there just like you. In a future post, I will discuss how to make even seemingly mundane ideas seem like a new craze.

You’ll want to get feedback from whoever you can. The best person to get feedback from is a mentor, someone who has started ideally a few businesses before and knows the ropes. Mentors are great and getting you to think of about of those little details that you may have never considered. Plus, mentors are there for you to learn from their mistakes so you don’t have to make them. Mentors are available everywhere. In a way, I am writing this blog in order to be a mentor. I could, by the way, be interested in a more official mentoring position if you would find that useful, though I am sure there are many more qualified persons than myself unless you are really trying to get the perspective of a first time business owner like myself. You may have friends that own businesses. They will give you lots of free advice. If not, ask around. A friend of a friend or family member might also do the trick. There are also people will to be advisors for a small percentage in the company, typically 1-10%, depending on how much work they do. There is also a great program called SCORE that works with people starting businesses. I highly recommend that you check that out. There are also many online communities. For example, Bank of America has a great online community that is happy to answer any of your business questions. I’ve personally learned a lot from this forum. And there is no need to be a Bank of America customer! Check it out at http://smallbusinessonlinecommunity.bankofamerica.com/index.jspa

Friends and family are another great source. Though, particularly if you have an exciting new business idea, you’ll need to protect yourself. A non-disclosure agreement (NDA) is a good way to both protect yourself and show your friends and family that you mean business. It is true that some of your friends or family might get offended by your asking them to sign this. You need to be very clear that it is not that you don’t trust them, but in today’s crazy world you have to protect yourself. I even made my mom sign an NDA when I asked for her advice on my website. If I’m going to make my mom sign it, no one else is getting out of it. Be firm about this if your idea is new. The worst thing that can happen is someone won’t sign it and you won’t be able to ask their opinions. Too bad for them that they won’t be able to get the inside scoop.

A final feedback idea that I’d like to leave you will are surveys. If worded properly, surveys can give you a lot of information about what people want or like without giving away about your business. This is exactly what we are doing at webillions.com. Check it out. Hopefully, the surveys give you only the vaguest clue of what we might be doing, but nearly every survey is designed to give us valuable information for making a better product for our customers. You don’t have to do your surveys online, you can email them to friends or even pass them out at a local group meeting or your nearby high school.

In summary, there are so many ways to get feedback and test your idea before you have to put your money where your mouth is. Please, take advantage of at least a few of these ideas and you’ll find that it will make a great impact on how smoothly your business planning and success goes. Please feel free to comment on this blog with any feedback questions you’d like me to answer.