So You Have a Great Idea?
Every day questions like this are posted on Entrepreneur forums worldwide:
At the moment I have an idea in mind that I believe could be really big. I have discussed it with a few close friends because I wish to take first-mover advantage. The problem is that I lack the programming ability to make it a reality on my own.
I have developed a workable operational and growth strategy with a revenue stream that will not commence until after 1-2 years. What should I do to seek trustworthy web programming expertise that I require?
The reality is that in cases like this all you have is an idea. Before looking for developers and spinning up a development effort you should have customers - use the well defined methodology known as SDBS:
- Sell
- Design
- Build
- Sell
Go out and prospect to find 3-5 people who love your idea as much as you do - and would be willing to buy if it was available. If necessary, search for someone skilled in customer discovery who can structure a presentation and lead them through the steps of why your idea would help them or their organization. If anything, these skills are more critical right now than having developers cranking away.
Once you find early customers then its time to start looking for developers to build a prototype that you can take back to continue the incremental Design/Build process. You could even use some web prototyping tools to mock something up (such as proto.io) , visualizing an idea of what the solution could look like - these tools are designed for use by non-developers and I have used them many times myself.
If you can't get a single customer to commit to your product before development starts, then you are likely wasting your time. Enough said.