What if inspiration has struck you with a new business idea? How exactly would you transfer that idea into a sustainable business model?
Don’t worry – It has been done numerous times before. Yes, you’ll need to do a lot of research, hustling, and coffee-drinking, but it’ll be worth it. Although every company has its own path, there are some fundamental steps you can take to develop your idea.
In this post, we’ll try to guide you through the process of turning an idea into a manageable business. We’ll get you covered with all the needed information, tools, and resources.
Let’s dive in.
1. Define the Exact Problem You Are Solving
Strip any successful company down to its core function and you’ll see that it enhances the lives of its customers by eliminating a certain problem. We are sure that by having a business idea, you already have a couple of solutions it will provide, yet the focus should be on the problem.
How?
Well, this is surely something that needs to be thought of and defined by you. However, here’s a useful LinkedIn post to help you along the way: 4 questions to define the problem your business solves.
2. Create a (Validated) Business Plan
Put simply, a business plan is your business’ roadmap that outlines its main goals and ways to achieve them. A good business plan should include a summary of your products or services, financial planning with a defined budget, and a marketing/sales plan. Since, for now, you just have an idea of what your business would be about, the mentioned tasks can be a bit of a hustle to define.
How?
What you need to do here is to:
- Outline your business model in simple terms, preferably on one page
- Develop your idea in detail
- Calculate the cash flow and how profitable the business is
- Get the validation of your idea
- Create an internal business plan
We suggest trying IdeaBuddy, a tool that will light your way from concept to completion. With built-in templates, wireframes, and AI technology, it will provide you with a documented business plan. You can present it to your partners, or even potential investors.
3. Find Your Market
By now you should have a clear picture of your ideal customer. You need to define where your potential solution fits into the sea of different consumers. Despite all of them are having different habits, characteristics – they are facing the same problem. Make sure your potential customers understand your solution.
How?
Test your idea by creating a simple landing page. Today, crafting a website and especially a landing page is pretty simple, with all those website/page builders available. Ucraft, Wix, Squarespace…or, page builders compatible with WordPress like Elementor, Divi, or Beaver builder – the choice is up to you.
Now, you should promote your page in order to get some traffic, emails, and other data from your potential customers. For this matter you want to use Facebook and Google Ads, to get the results fast. Yes, you’ll need to spend some budget, but don’t get discouraged – basically, it is up to your financial possibilities. Here’s a resource on how you can get the most out of your advertising budget.
One more thing to keep in mind: make sure your website/page design stands out from the competition. That way you’ll get traffic faster and your idea can be noticed by potential partners. Here’s a great example for you to check out: How we got featured on Elementor.
4. Find Partners
This goes side by side with the previous step. In order to attract business partners or investors, you need the whole package: a great idea wrapped up nicely. Why should you aim for having partnerships? Well, can you think of a successful startup founded just by one person? Yes, there are a few, but that’s the thing – a few.
Having a partner(s) can bring you many benefits: from financial support, providing you with his/her connections to being a sounding board for your ideas.
How?
Check matching sites as CoFoundersLab made especially for this matter.
5. Figure Out Your Fundings
No matter how excited you are about your project, you need a certain budget to get the business off the ground. Apart from having a (small) advertising budget, you’ll need to be prepared for the product/service development phase.
Except for bootstrapping and getting help from friends and family, make sure you get all the needed information regarding bank loans, credit cards, etc. However, startups are often financially supported by (angel) investors, so you should connect with some.
How?
Here’s a list of websites where you can get connected with angel investors. Do thorough research, create custom pitches, and be patient and persistent.
| Angel List | https://angel.co/ |
| Life Science Angels | https://lifescienceangels.com/ |
| SeedInvest | https://www.seedinvest.com/ |
| Tech Coast Angels | https://www.techcoastangels.com/ |
| On Startups | https://www.onstartups.com/ |
| NEXEA | https://www.nexea.co/ |
| Angel Investment Network Blog | https://www.angelinvestmentnetwork.net/ |
| Hyde Park Angel Network | https://hydeparkangels.com/ |
6. Think of a Pivot
If you followed our previous steps, by now, you should have a decent lead/customer database. Think of them as early adopters that can help you to define your business roadmap. Listen to their feedback carefully and don’t be surprised if it’s entirely different than what you expected.
Gather all necessary information and create a pivot version of your idea, or at least have a plan “B”. When it comes to pivoting, think of it as using the new data to develop your idea in the right way.
How?
Reach out to your customers via surveys, questionnaires, or short calls. It’s up to you to figure out what is the best way for your particular audience. It really needs to be tailored in accordance with the problem you solve.
Final Thoughts
We hope that this article showed you the way you should take to turn your idea into a revenue stream. Once again, these are just the basic steps, but by following them you’ll certainly get to the make it or break it conclusion.
Stay positive, be persistent, work hard and it will pay off.
Good luck!
Man idea -DepositPhotos
