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Entrepreneurship: Should I spend my money to test a potential business idea?
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Priyanka Sharma, consultant on business,startups digital marketing answered:

Hello I am Priyanka.

I would share my experience with the person who is this.

Step 1: Write Down the Problem, not a Specific Solution
You want to be able to clearly articulate a problem that you or others experience regularly. Notice that you’re only focused on the problem here, not any specific solution — that comes later.

You want to be able to write down your problem in a simple statement. A few examples:

It’s impossible to follow up with customers once they leave a restaurant.
It’s hard to determine which customers will churn before they actually do.
It’s too hard to design professional-quality graphics for social media.
You get the idea:  keep it basic and refine the problem until you can articulate it with one sentence.

Step 2 :  Determine if it is a Tier 1 Problem or Not
It’s easy to identify problems — they’re everywhere. What you’re really looking for is what I call a “tier 1 problem” — which means the problem you’re looking to solve is one of the top 3 problems your potential customers are experiencing.

Let’s say your (eventual) target buyer is the CEO of a small business. Their top 5 problems might look something like this:

Generate more sales
Get marketing running efficiently (hire a head of marketing)
Outsource our payroll and benefits
Increase our product selection
Get better at social media and invest in Facebook ads
If you’re planning to launch a social media tool, you can see that’s NOT a tier 1 (top 3) problem for the typical CEO of a small business — it’s #5 on their list.

They’ll be so focused on solving their first 3 problems that you’ll never get a look in — EVEN if you have the best product, and EVEN if you have the best support. They simply won’t have time (or budget) for you if you’re not solving a problem that’s top of mind for them — a tier 1 problem.

This is probably the hardest lesson to learn and the one most startup founders ignore . “But my product is so great," the thought goes. "Once they use it they’ll sign up for SURE!” If you're not on top of mind, you're miles away from a purchase.

So how do you validate that your problem is actually a tier 1 problem? First you need to know who might typically buy your product. You want to build a basic profile, like this:

Company size: 100–500 people
Role: CEO or VP of Marketing
Location: North America
Industry: Retail, Technology & Hospitality
You then want to come up with a list of 20–50 prospects who meet this criteria. The easiest way to get that list is to jump on LinkedIn and research. Then just connect with all of the prospects you find with a message like this:

Hi [name],

We’re hoping to spend 15 minutes on the phone with CEOs who are experiencing [problem]. We’re doing research and have nothing to sell. Would you be available for a quick call tomorrow at 3pm?

A few pointers here:

Be short and to the point — don’t waste their time.
Include a specific day and time when you want to talk — avoids email ping pong.
Reach out to 3x the number of prospects you actually want to talk to. So if you want to talk to 20, message 60. Most won’t reply and some won’t be interested.
Great. Now you’ve got at least 20 people ready to chat who are experiencing the problem you’ve identified.
Source:https://www.startupgrind.com/blog/the-startup-framework-to-validate-your-idea-before-you-spend-1/

For further queries you can consult me.

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