Are You Guilty of Self-Validation?

This is a big bias entrepreneurs tend to have when starting up. I have been very guilty of this.

How do you know your business idea is good? Do you feel it or do your potential customers say that? A lot of the times we feel that there ‘should’ be a need which our product/service caters to. This should can be quite risky. Before proceeding with the idea, a proper validation is a must. Self-validation, i.e. validating the idea yourself, is a trap entrepreneurs often tend to fall into.

A proper and adequate validation involves doing the following:

Assessing whether a need exists: Some good ideas to do this are

- Talk to/survey potential customers

- Identify whether customers are interested in your product by analysing their current behavior

- Create a MVP and test out your hypothesis

- Conduct a comprehensive research (including primary and secondary research)

Is the market big enough: Try to estimate the potential market size the idea is catering to.

Will the customers be willing to pay for your product/service: Analyse whether your business idea has advantages and customer would be willing to pay for it.

This is very crucial as following up on an idea which has not been adequately and appropriately validated can result in waste of time, energy and resources.