Why Your Great Idea Actually Sucks

So you’ve just come up with an amazing idea that you think will change the world and make you a bazillionaire. It’s such a great idea that you’re probably eager to give your boss a call right now and tell them exactly what you think of them, as you quit the job you’ve worked at for the last 7 years.

Well before you make that call and commit what will likely be financial suicide, take the time to read further down in the post to see why your great idea might actually suck.

If You Build it They Won’t Come

Most of my friends and colleagues are either web developers, designers, entrepreneurs, or all of the above. They’ve probably developed and designed hundreds of websites throughout their web development careers. During this time, they’ve had a lot of really great ideas, or so they thought…

Those great ideas actually turned out to be a great waste of time and money. Now I’m not just being mean here and calling other people’s ideas lame or bad. It may sound like that but trust me, just keep reading. What I’m trying to do here is make a point. There are a lot of great ideas out there, but most of the time, those great ideas are good in concept, but just not practical in application or execution.

What ends up happening is that you come up with an idea you think people will love, frantically start building it or hiring someone to build it, only for no one to actually use it when you’re done. Now, this certainly isn’t always the case, but unfortunately for most internet entrepreneurs, it’s what happens.

Why Does This Happen?

There are many great ideas in theory, but unless your idea addresses something that hits home for users, they probably won’t use it. The key to coming up with a great idea that people won’t just use, but are willing to pay money for usually comes down to three distinct things.

Great ideas are ideas that typically solve a problem, automates a tedious task, or makes life easier for people in some form or fashion. If your idea can do one out of the three, you’ve hit the jackpot.

Don’t Build Until You Have Customers

One of the best ways to avoid wasting your hard-earned cash and time on an idea that sucks, is to simply find out who your customers are going to be. If you know in advance who you’re marketing your product or service to, then it all comes down to finding out whether or not they would use it and/or pay money for it.

Look at it this way, you can either build a product or service, cross your fingers and hope they use it, or you can hash out your idea, then straight up ask them if it’s something that they would use or pay for. If the majority of people you ask say no, you’ve just saved yourself a lot of time and money in the long run. If however, they say they would use your service and pay for it, then you already have customers lined up for when your product or service launches.

In the end, it’s a win/win situation and no brainer to do this. Many of the startups and businesses that ended up failing didn’t take the time to do this when they started out.

A very good way to test this if you’re planning on starting an online business is by setting up a beta launch landing page describing your idea and allowing potential users to subscribe by email to get notified when the service launches. 

Conclusion

All in all, great ideas aren’t an uncommon thing. There are many great ideas out there, but the ones that succeed are from people with the resources and expertise to execute them correctly. 

If you have what you think is a great idea, test the market first. Don’t waste all your time trying to build it before you know anyone will use it. If you have an idea that you would like to have developed but don’t know how or have the skills yourself, ChillyBin has you covered. Get in touch with us today!