I’ll preface this by stating that all businesses thrive on timing. It’s never about having the best product. Yes, you want your project to be good, but that's not the main point of concern, it can always be improved. The majority of business success is dependent on how receptive the market is to that product when that product is released.

Online shopping has grown dramatically, nearly doubling its share of all retail sales in the last five years. That accounts for nearly $400B in revenue in 2016 alone!

Who wouldn't want a piece of that pie?!

This tells us that market is only going to improve and more businesses should position as such. Ideas are a dime a dozen. Chances are you’re not the first to think of your particular business idea but the execution will be uniquely your own.

Customers pay for what's most appealing. That’s why some choose iMac over a Windows OS. That’s why some chose Nike or Adidas and so on. Luckily there are four ways to determine how valid your business idea is, before you toss money, and more importantly, time, down the drain.

Existing market and size

Is a key area under-serviced? What’s missing? What’s needed? Usually, answers to these questions stem from your own experiences or observations. Let’s take men’s dress shoes for example. Based on your profession and taste, you can easily pay thousands for one pair. But if you’re just out of grad school going into a competitive finance field, you might not have that available in your budget — who doesn't hate student loans?.

So if that millennial grad — who is probably an online shopper — is in need of a quality shoe at a more reasonable price, they will be in a completely different market than the retired Harvard professor.

If you don’t have customers, you don’t have a business. Specifying who you’re selling to is the first step in determining what you’ll sell. If it’s a good business idea, then you’ll be able to do something specific for the individuals who need that help.

1 Identify key sources of information

Who do customers look to when making a decision? Where are they getting their information? This is all part of articulating your customer profile. Having a clear understanding of your decision-making process will not only prepare you for inquisitive customers but will help determine how to refine targeting, understand the needs of the marketing and even teach practical elements like copywriting or creative assets.

2 Develop an MVP

What I mean by developing your MVP, or most valuable player, is ensuring that whatever idea you test is your best idea. The idea you believe will go a long way into how successful you can be. This should be a prototype that functions closely to what your customers expect and gives you a chance to not only collect feedback but focus on factors like pricing — a big hurdle early on for most entrepreneurs. In addition, your MVP should assist in acquiring product names, packaging, colors, fonts and all those other minuscule but super important contributors to your overall brand engagement.

3 Map Out a Marketing Plan

“Marketing is the management process for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably.” –The Chartered Institute of Marketing

Now that you have an MVP and the feedback, how do you find more of the people who would buy in? That’s where marketing comes in.

Knowing what channels to use, what assets you’ll need to create, and what connections you’ll need to make — even in hiring staff, choosing shipping partners, etc. — will go a long way in getting and keeping customers to sustain your business venture. The key is to do this with profit in mind.

You should enter any business venture with confidence after taking these steps into account. When we start getting our own business off the ground and throw our support behind on another, that's when we really start gaining power.

Thierry Augustin

Writing since December 2016 · 1 story contributed