Question
The basic idea will largely target extremely rural communities, townships and villages with limited resource availability in regards to having/accessing transportation to be able to purchase necessary groceries, household items, run necessary errands etc. These areas do not have cabs, city buses or any form of public transportation. Food deliveries as well as most things are limited to "city limits" only. I am in the process of developing ideas (currently at # 1,000,003.7) and need input on how best to approach this initially. I am gearing this toward, though I won't be offering public transportation (increased insurance liabilities), purchases can be picked up from the merchants and delivered for a fee. I should think that local merchants in these rural areas would like to contribute monetarily to be included in a list of Businesses from which the client/customer is given to choose where we pick-up items. This serves to help alleviate the costs of our services, while also assuring merchants that patronage from our clients will continue. Stores frequented would be limited to the closest available from their home, which would help maintain/increase local revenue as well as keep their tax dollars in their respective communities. As such, in all cases, delivery drivers would be from the immediate communities or close vicinity to help reassure the customers of the company's honesty, integrity & genuine concern for their well-being & safety, since to date, the more specific seemingly targeted population will include, but not be limited to disabled and/or elderly participants. ( The latter statement concerning the targeted demographic) is based solely on presumption, coupled with observation of the communities and towns that began the culmination of this idea. I could go on to list more specifics and ideas (of which would put me significantly above the # mentioned earlier) with respect to utilization of volunteers from Civic organizations to help meet their obligations, and possibly providing summer employment for promising high school students (referred by school staff) etc etc. I hope that through this brief description, you also can envision the possibilities. But....there is far more, which is the purpose for my questions above. I also would like to hear potential concerns and possible problem areas to see if they correlate with mine. I realize that this is quite basic, but if the concept isn't grasped by others at this juncture, it would serve no purpose for me to continue. Thank you for your time!
Answer
Excellent question. Already says a lot that you're asking it in the first place.
For starters, I wouldn't ask for idea feedback from anyone aside from your market. Period.
Every expert will have an opinion, every family member will weigh in, all your friends will find an issue (or worse give you false reassurance).
The only reliable way to get feedback on an idea is from the target market itself.
If you haven't read Lean Startup (https://www.amazon.com/Lean-Startup-Entrepreneurs-Continuous-Innovation/dp/0307887898), that is the first thing I would do. If you're in a hurry, google around and get the gist of the method and you should be fine.
Then, I'd find a way to describe your idea in a sentence. You can be as vague as, "I'm creating a service that delivers groceries to rural areas." No need to get caught up in the specifics. Just be able to articulate the crux of the idea clearly. From there, you iterate.
If you can get a prototype in front of your market, that is the best way. If you can't there are plenty of ways to test the idea that don't require a ton of money and time - for example, surveys.
Here's a quick primer on how to do that in a way that will actually be useful: http://www.thatseemsimportant.com/2016/08/04/customer-survey/
Hope this helps!
