Develop a Minimum Viable Product
Every start-up has a part of its road already trodden and lived by many other start-ups before it: the road to success. Every single new business goes through the same hoops and hurdles to get started and, as you have heard many times before, a minimum viable product is a good starting point.
But what is a “Minimum Viable Product”? It is a viable version of a product/service that you can and offer to your early customers, with a view of seeking feedback on the operational merits/faults of that product/service, so that you can optimise it based on that feedback received.
Many, too many new business owners start their entrepreneurial journey enthusiastically – and rightly so! After all, why would anyone start a new business unless they passionately believed they could do it, that they were perfect for it, that the market was ready for their product/service, and that either the product or the service they were offering were fantastic, wanted, and unique?
But here is the “but”: all those feelings and beliefs need to be flexible enough to allow you to change, even several times if necessary, the direction of your business. All that enthusiasm amounts to nothing unless you either validate your business concept or make sure that the product/solution you are creating can be scaled.
And then, there comes a little massive glitch: capital. Do you have enough money to keep on trying to refine your product/service or even idea? How many tries can you reasonably give it? What is the deadline (financial, personal, time) that will make you say that definitive “we’ve got it”?
Today, there are a lot of both formal and informal actions you can take to help you refine your idea: many come at no cost other than that of the time you need to put into a minimal market research: talk to your network of peers, friends, people you have connected with on social media and seek their constructive feedback on what you are trying to do. You will learn plenty from that simple exercise.
You must be both flexible yet rigid in your approach to what it is you are in the market to do, and why you want to do it.
All these attempts require what we would call “foundation capital”. It is that capital that allows you to slightly tweak and refine your final idea. Once you are ready to put your product/service to test, do it! If it works, you can demonstrate to anyone who is ready to pay for your “solution” that you have a Minimum Viable Product!
It is a journey of discovery, of pains and gains but, most of all, it is a journey you do not need to take alone!
Circklo’s Business Configurator is solely dedicated to sustainable start-ups. We help you configure your start-up for both profit and purpose and, after 12 modules of intensive business coaching, mentoring, dry-pitching, and networking with industry experts, angel investors, venture capitalists and other start-ups in the community, you will see the enormous difference we make to your business: we optimise your business to be investment-ready.
Join our Business Configurator to scale-up your product, and be confident about what it can deliver to your customer base. Apply now