Rethinking that start-up idea

Starting a ‘start-up’ is the happening thing around Nigeria. In fact, while many Nigerians are busy complaining about our problems and scheming how to leave the country, in search of greener pastures, more foreigners are acknowledging those problems and turning them into opportunities for adding value and profits.

Many Nigerians are already working to make a difference in spite of the challenges. Everyday they wake up to create something of value and significance, especially using technology and social media, to disrupt and re-organize the existing inefficiencies in governance, entertainment, logistics, shopping, transport industries.

For the creative people, there is a lot of business opportunities to choose from. We are fascinated with the ideas, technology, tools and techniques they use to develop software applications and other powerful design or artistic works. They are, however, disappointed when these ideas or products never make it into the market, don’t make a sale or when their friends, mentors and investors think twice about the viability of their ideas.

The obstinate ones encounter these realities after opening shop only to discover that there is no viable market for the product. In fact, the buzzing dream is for tech entrepreneurs to find an investor that will pay boatloads of money to fund that idea or application but they forget they are investors not charity organisations. Founders who get fired from their own companies will tell you for free that after investing in your startup, investors will do anything to make the idea profitable even if it means firing you.

This is because most ideas are like sandcastles. They don’t survive the wave of customer acceptance, imitative competitors and financial model.

Asking if your ideas are viable enough are a critical step that may either help you proactively identify the challenges your product may face in the marketplace, or effectively put a timeline to the life of your idea.

Adding significant value

Significant value may not be that you are making a lot of money. As a matter of fact, Instagram, a mobile photo sharing app development company with a staff of 27 people had not made money from its application before it was acquired by Facebook  for $1bn. However, the company was providing a service that people wanted with millions of people subscribed to its service. An idea providing significant value is contributing substantively to the life of a defined target audience.

Your product or service is valuable if a lot of people become sad if it didn’t exist or ‘curse’ you if you withdrew your services. Your idea has no value if nobody cares whether it exists or not. I have met a young man who had developed a mobile app for aged women in the village. The app could help them select household items they needed and send it to their middle-aged children in the city.

The mobile app may be a killer idea based on technology, it may get wonderful reviews and recommendations but there are other simpler alternatives that make the application dead on arrival.

Your business idea must not only be existing; it must be solving a problem – and technology entrepreneurs need to understand this. A very simple test for this is to be able to define the problem you are trying to solve and the people your business idea will benefit in a single sentence.

Value can be in terms of convenience, which is the real proposition of online shopping, ease of access, money saved, entertainment, time saved or other parameters.

Significant target market

Who exactly are you serving with your idea/product?  How will you reach them?  Are they willing to pay? Is the market large enough to sustain your business? These are the core ideas that must be taken into consideration to reach a significant target market!

Having the requisite talents and skills required is never enough; there has to be a significant market and one large enough to sustain your business. You could create an app, but how will it make money apart from grants and competitions?

Opening a fast food joint that also serves chilled Cola in middle of Sahara Desert, is indeed a brilliant idea; you will be guaranteed a customer every time someone happens to be crossing the desert. But the point is, how many customers would you be able to serve in a month? How big could such a business get?

Some tough questions need to be answered about your target market: Is the size of the market large enough? Are they easily reachable? Can they afford it? Can you afford the cost of reaching them? Will your profit be enough to sustain your business in five years time?

You need to think about this again. Are you really passionate about this?

Money has never been a strong enough motivator for the world’s most outstanding entrepreneurs. During the famous Steve Jobs’ commencement address at Stanford University, he philosophically admitted that what kept him through his business challenges was loving what he did;

You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. The only way to do a great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it, don’t settle

If you haven’t read the transcripts of this speech yet, then you need to. It is Steve Jobs’ most powerful speech, even in death. Creating a business out of your idea need not be an intense activity that will make you beat a hasty retreat at the slightest hint of a challenge. You need to be sure you are in for a long haul. Do you see yourself doing this business for the next five years? Are you passionate about it?

If you will be spending a part of your life doing business, you need to be sure you are interested about the industry and willing to put your time, energy and commitment into it. You also need to be sure it will be profitable on the long run.