5 tips to see if your business idea is worthwhile!

Defining a good idea is hard – and I speak for myself when I say this. To understand which ideas deserve to see the light of day we need consideration, work and an XL dose of good luck. If there was a magic formula that we could use to understand if a product or service would succeed we wouldn’t have all the pearls someone gathered at the Museum of Failure (www.museumoffailure.se), coming from well-known brands. In a way, they’re comforting examples ;)

So, on what methods can we rely to validate the quality of an idea? On my research I found an answer: there’s no secret recipe. Nevertheless, I leave you some of the ways I’ve been putting to the test and that have helped me at this stage:

1.?PASSION (or let′s say, you need to be CRAZY)

Feeling that this is THE idea is a great first step! If it’s good enough for you to change course and to embrace the uncertainty of a new project, there’s a fire burning there, for sure; But don′t treat it as your baby. Be prepared to treat the product or service as an asset that needs to get sold, to define its strategy and to separate emotion from reason. Connected with a clear idea is also a concrete business model on how to generate revenue. Even if you know that only 5% of companies make it, you are crazy enough to still go for it;

2.?MENTORSHIP

Finding key mentors that know the category of the product or service and that can comment and criticize constructively is a mandatory step, after you’ve written down the main aspects. Throughout UNREAL FIELDS creation process I meet amazing people that were inspired to be part of my Advisory Board. But don′t worry, one mentor to begin is enough. https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/marcwolenik/, https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/simoneethompson/ and https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/christophe-m-8025913/ are some of them ;)

3.?TEST AND ASK

Testing the idea with friends and family, or even taking a day to listen to strangers’ opinions is important. Take in all the feedback too, not only to understand if it is a viable idea, but also to identify what are the right paths to follow. It is wrong to protect an idea with your life; you must do the opposite, share and absorb like a sponge all the feedback given. We suggest you use typeform tool because is simple and efficient. See our example and feel free to fill the survey https://inslebre.typeform.com/to/dPswyo

4.?DREAM TEAM

I have to confess that my background in consultancy made me often thing that I could do a lot. But you can′t. It′s impossible to be good in all and a business (even a micro one) need help from so many fields. So, you need a team. And a good one. In Unreal Fields path, everytime I found someone with the perfect fit I didn’t give up until I had them on my team; See some of these amazing people at https://www.dhirubhai.net/company/unreal-fields

5.??BE OBCESSED

I used to think that determination, resilience, curiosity and persistence were enough. I discovered one fact that is mandatory: full obsession! And when after so much work you start feeling that other people other than ourselves fall in love with the idea. That is the icing on the cake!

Evaluating if an idea of a product or service is good or not is (almost) as difficult as defining an entrepreneur. And being an entrepreneur is not just having a good idea, an eureka moment is not enough. Being an entrepreneur is feeling the burden of responsibility and moving forward anyway. It’s being resilient and giving yourself completely to a project, knowing that throwing in the towel is not an option.

Above I mentioned some things that you can control in order to understand how valuable is your idea. However, according to Bill Gross amongst the top 5 factors that dictate a company success, team only accounts for 32%, idea 28%, business model 24% and funding 14%. The major factor that influences 42% of a company′s success (or an idea, if you want to do the analogy) is Timing, which is completely out of your control:

TIMING

Is the idea too early and the world′s not ready for it? Do you have to educate the world in order to have it implemented? Or is it too late and there are already too many competitors? Either way it will be though. We are back again to the "obsession trait" :) How many years would you wait for it to happen? 2, 4, 10 years? What is your stop-loss timing? If you are aware of it you could always decide to "no go" but then how much passionate are you about it?

And what makes my latest idea something so special that made me create a company, a team, a project, communication, production? Unreal Fields, officially born in September last, is sui generis. It gathered a team that makes me proud and that every day brings it more and more to life. This step in the world of the footwear industry with a born global brand that merges sustainability with comfort and fashion trends, handmade and technology brings a breath of fresh air to my professional career, but also to Portugal, proving that much more can be done with the resources we all know so well. Unreal Fields wants to bring the renewed and proud Portugueseness to many feet around the world!

And success, how will it be measured, when will it come? On paper there are dates, predictions, structured spread sheets. But seeing UNREAL FIELDS’s evolution has been a pleasure and an honour and this gain must also be weighed on the plate of success.

I invite you one and all to meet UNREAL FIELDS first steps (www.unrealfields.com | www.fb.me/unrealfields | www.instagram.com/unrealfields) and to share with me your opinions. Official launch is getting near: 18th of April. Thank you!