Heres what to do, and where to start, when you have a business idea

Heres what to do, and where to start, when you have a business ideaHeres what to do, and where to start, when you have a business ideaYou start by making sure your business idea is really as great as you think it is. One of the leading causes of failure for startups is that there was no actual market for their products. It doesnt matter how great the startup founders think an idea is the only thing that matters is how many customers think its a great idea.Ideally, you would find at least 100 potential real customers who would buy your product today if it existed. Not friends and family who will tell you what you want to hear, but qualified buyers who are tripping over themselves to get your product and cant wait until it comes to market.In essence, this is what Kickstarter is really about potential customers who are so excited about an idea that they are willing to pre-pay for a product that doesnt yet exist. When you have that kind of interest in your product, funding your startup is a lot easier.The next step is to do some basic business planning, and make sure youve thought through the business step by step. There are plenty of simple basic business planning guides online.Keep the first draft simple Imagine that youre telling someone a story of what your first year in business will look like. Describe your product or tafelgeschirr, what will it cost to make it, how will you make/deliver it, what equipment do you need to get started, how many employees will you need and when, what will you charge for it, who is your customer, how will you find them, how will they find you, timelines and milestones, etc.Somewhere in there you need to build a sample income/expense table that shows how much cash youll need each month (rent, supplies, payroll, etc.) and where it will come from (startup funds, sales).Once you have a draft, I would work with a startup coach, local entrepreneur network, or an experienced business mentor to start flushing out more details and challe nging assumptions in your plan. Youll also want to start building out a prototype of your product or service to help validate your ideas and test assumptions. (Bernie Klinders answer to What is the process to test the viability of a business idea?) Getting an actual product/service into the hands of early adopters who are willing to give you feedback is crucial and will enable you to make needed changes before you spend all of your startup funds.Once you have a working product on a small scale, and lots of waiting customers, working out the details to launch should be fairly straight-forward.Hope this was helpful. Good luckThis articleoriginallyappeared onQuora