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Hi guys, these days I have invested time in creating a list of questions that I will need to validate each business idea before investing time and money in it. These questions were partly taken from here, partly from books and conversations with different experts in the field. I would like to get your opinions on them. I thank you in advance!
## Needs
- What problem is your service/product trying to solve?
- How is the problem being solved now? Why is it better to adopt your solution?
- How unique or valuable will your product/service be relative to what already exists in the marketplace?
- How much value will your potential customer perceive relative to price?
- How many value attributes can you skew (better ingredients, better packaging, better service, better features, better price, etc.)? And at what cost?
- What might be the motivations that would lead users not to use your product?
## Control
- Will your business have any major third-party dependencies?
- Is there ONE company that your company will rely on? For revenue? For operation?
## Entry
- How complicated and costly (time, skill, money) will it be to launch your business into the marketplace?
- Once you start your business, how difficult will it be for some other person or company to compete with you?
## Time
- How easy/difficult will it be to remove yourself from operation of the business?
- Can your product (or service) exist without you?
## Scalability
- Once your solution/product/service is created, how easy will it be to replicate? Can you readily service a demand for hundreds? Or millions?
## Type of use
- How often can you product/service be purchased or consumed? Once you get a customer, will they buy over and over? How often? Daily? Weekly? Monthly? Yearly? Or just once?
- In what ways could you make your users dependent on your service/product?
## Marketing
- Is the TAM large enough to change your life and to boost expected value?
- How can TUM[^1] be expanded into TAM? Are there mediums and marketing channels that hit your target market? Franchises? Chains? Internet orders? Change business models?
- How easy/hard would it be to reach your target market through your marketing efforts?[^3]
- Can you communicate or demonstrate your value-skew? In which ways?
- What would be the price of your service/product? Is this price realistic based on the value received? Or is it an arbitrary price designed to make you a profit, but few sales? The former should set the price, not the latter.
- What are the initial costs to go from idea to market to your first sale? Is this reasonable with your financial situation?
- What's the customer acquisition cost the cost to find one customer via marketing?
- What would be the manufacturing price[^2] and the net profit?
## Others
- Who might be a potential suitor for buying your business and achieving your escape number?
[^1]: Total Unreachable Market (TUM) is people who might have an interest in your product, but don’t have access to it due to logistics or geography.
[^2]: It's the cost to produce one unit.
[^3]: To estimate TAM/TUM figures, start with industry sources or marketing research companies like Gartner or Forrester.
## Needs
- What problem is your service/product trying to solve?
- How is the problem being solved now? Why is it better to adopt your solution?
- How unique or valuable will your product/service be relative to what already exists in the marketplace?
- How much value will your potential customer perceive relative to price?
- How many value attributes can you skew (better ingredients, better packaging, better service, better features, better price, etc.)? And at what cost?
- What might be the motivations that would lead users not to use your product?
## Control
- Will your business have any major third-party dependencies?
- Is there ONE company that your company will rely on? For revenue? For operation?
## Entry
- How complicated and costly (time, skill, money) will it be to launch your business into the marketplace?
- Once you start your business, how difficult will it be for some other person or company to compete with you?
## Time
- How easy/difficult will it be to remove yourself from operation of the business?
- Can your product (or service) exist without you?
## Scalability
- Once your solution/product/service is created, how easy will it be to replicate? Can you readily service a demand for hundreds? Or millions?
## Type of use
- How often can you product/service be purchased or consumed? Once you get a customer, will they buy over and over? How often? Daily? Weekly? Monthly? Yearly? Or just once?
- In what ways could you make your users dependent on your service/product?
## Marketing
- Is the TAM large enough to change your life and to boost expected value?
- How can TUM[^1] be expanded into TAM? Are there mediums and marketing channels that hit your target market? Franchises? Chains? Internet orders? Change business models?
- How easy/hard would it be to reach your target market through your marketing efforts?[^3]
- Can you communicate or demonstrate your value-skew? In which ways?
- What would be the price of your service/product? Is this price realistic based on the value received? Or is it an arbitrary price designed to make you a profit, but few sales? The former should set the price, not the latter.
- What are the initial costs to go from idea to market to your first sale? Is this reasonable with your financial situation?
- What's the customer acquisition cost the cost to find one customer via marketing?
- What would be the manufacturing price[^2] and the net profit?
## Others
- Who might be a potential suitor for buying your business and achieving your escape number?
[^1]: Total Unreachable Market (TUM) is people who might have an interest in your product, but don’t have access to it due to logistics or geography.
[^2]: It's the cost to produce one unit.
[^3]: To estimate TAM/TUM figures, start with industry sources or marketing research companies like Gartner or Forrester.
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