Test your business idea before you put your savings in
Most first plans are built on imaginary money and imaginary time. Start from where you really are.
Most new businesses are planned around the business people want, not the position they are starting from. The result is a first plan built on imaginary capital and imaginary time.
Start with an honest page
Draw three columns: known, assumed and unknown. Known is anything you can prove with a record. Assumed is what you believe without proof. Unknown is what you have not checked. Under them, write the money you could lose without touching rent, school fees or medicines, and the hours you actually had free over the last four weeks.
Talk to customers without pitching
Find people who have the problem you want to solve. Ask what they do about it today, what it costs them and when it last happened. Do not describe your idea. If people are not already spending time or money on a workaround, the problem may not be big enough.
Run a small paid pilot
Before a shop, a loan or a full stock order, sell a small version: ten orders, one weekend stall, a pre-booking list. Be honest that it is a trial. Real payment, even a small one, tells you more than a hundred people saying “achha idea hai”.
Decide your stop rule in advance
Write down, before you start, what result would make you stop or change direction. Without it, every bad week becomes “bas ek mahina aur”.
Do this today
- Fill in the known, assumed and unknown page.
- Write down the amount you can afford to lose.
- Book three problem conversations for this week.
✓