Questions

I am ready to become an online entrepreneur. I have several ideas and am having trouble picking which would be best. I'm seeking a solid, concrete opinion from someone who's started a successful business. #1: A product (paper, cheap and simple). It's a very simple and unique goal-setting program that would require a monthly subscription. #2: Art lessons. I'm an artist and could build a list around a free lesson, with an upsell for monthly subscribers to join a live feed each week teaching them how to draw. #3: A membership site geared to help mentor youth. Resources for teens and their parents to help the two connect and help youth get set up for life, especially as entrepreneurs.

In order to pick "which would be best" do market research on each. That will not only give you an idea of which is most likely to be economically viable, but it will also let you to start refining / iterating each idea to one that might work better.

For each idea find out:
1)
- Who would want it?
- Who would pay for it it?
2)
- How many buyers could there be?
- How much would they pay for it in their lifetime?
- How much would it cost you to produce each product?
3)
- What have your potential customers tried before, and why did it fail (you'll want to avoid the failure reasons with your idea)?
- Is there existing competition, and how would you be different / better?

To get answers to these questions you can:
1) Ask friends / family
2) Ask people at Meetups
3) Ask people online (forums like Quora and Reddit)
4) Ask people that have had previous experience in the fields you're exploring.

The answers to the questions will let you rank your ideas in terms of most likely to least likely to work. Start with the most likely one, or if you have time /resources to simultaneously test the waters on two of them, pick the top two.

Implement the top idea as a "minimum viable product" (MVP), and see how it goes. Iterate according to feedback you get. Set defined timeline goals of success and see if you can meet them. Continue iterating tactics / ideas / etc. to follow the promising data.

If you'd like to discuss any of these steps in more detail in relation to your specific ideas let me know,

best,

Lee


Answered 7 years ago

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