TLDR: If you want to turn it into a successful business, I believe the best time to pursue an idea is when there is an overlap between the following three areas:
- There is market demand for a solution to the problem your idea solves.
- You are particularly well suited to solve the problem, i.e. you have some edge over others who also want to solve this problem.
- You want to use your solution to fix your own problem.
Is The Problem You Are Solving Relevant?
This is a bit of a cliché by now, but ideas are a dime a dozen.
People get all sorts of whacky ideas all the time, but that doesn’t mean they’ll turn into successful businesses.
A business works by providing a service or product in exchange for something of value, usually money. So if you want to turn your idea into a business, you have to figure out if people are ultimately willing to pay your for it.
When figuring this out, it’s important to remember that people don’t really care about your idea, they want to fix their problem. So figure out what problem your idea solves, and whether or not the problem is big enough for someone to want pay for it. Then you can adjust your idea afterwards, to solve it in the best possibly way.
“Pay” in this context doesn’t necessarily mean give you money in exchange for your service or product, but it does mean that the consumers of your idea need to give up something of value. Generally, people value their time, reputation and money, so if you can find people who are willing to exchange one or more of these things for your idea, you’re onto something.
Similarly, “problem” can probably be thought more of as an itch or craving: something that people want to alleviate. When you think of why people use Instagram, you don’t think of it as solving a problem. You probably think of it more as something that satisfies your need to feel close to your social circle.
What’s Your Advantage?
Having taken the leap from corporate life and become an entrepreneur myself, my friends will sometimes suggest ideas that they came up with in the shower and think I should pursue, like “what if you made an app that takes a photo of your fridge and suggests meals based on what products you have?”
Ignoring the fact that they often haven’t really thought very far ahead with the ideas and seem to think I don’t have anything else to do but carry out their weird shower thoughts, I am also usually critical of their ideas because: Why would I be particularly well-suited to do this?
If a business idea has passed the litmus test and actually solves a problem that at least a dozen other people seem to have, the next thing to address is whether you are actually the best person for the job.
Take the “fridge photo recommendation” app: How easy would it be for me to develop an app, create an image recognition algorithm and a food recommendation algorithm and tie it all together in a great user experience?
If the problem you are solving is actually a real problem, you better believe there are solutions out there trying to solve it too. You’ll have to fight to stay ahead of the competition, and if you want to maximise your chances of success, you should pick a playing field where you have the advantage.
Eat Yor Own Dog Food
The third rule of when to pursue a business idea, is when you have a need for your own product. Using your own product is often referred to as “eating your own dog food” or “dogfooding”, and has several advantages.
First, you’ve already got your first customer who knows the problem intricately and is therefore uniquely positioned to develop the best solution: Yourself. This is in itself a competitive advantage, since you can run a pretty tight development feedback loop from the start just by yourself. Of course, you should always include users and customers in your feedback loops, but it’s a significant advantage to be able to use yourself as a first line of validation.
Second, if you consider yourself as one of your initial ideal customers, you have a head start on profiling and connecting with your early adopters. You know a good idea of where to reach them, what troubles them and how to relate to them. The perfect ingredients for a good sales and marketing setup.
Finally, I find it much easier to motivate myself when the product I am making directly benefits me. It’s much easier to be long-term passionate about something that might as well have been your hobby project, nd even if you don’t reach your desired level of success, at least you helped yourself.
The downside to building products that you need yourself, is that it’s a lot easier to listen to your own opinion instead of talking to your users. You run the risk that you inadvertently bias your product towards what you think is useful versus what your users think.