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How to validate a business idea before you spend a single euro

Administrador Building products

Validating a business idea isn't asking whether people like it. It's checking whether someone will pay for it. And that takes days, not months.

You tell ten friends about your idea.

All ten say it's brilliant.

That isn't validating a business idea. That's having nice friends.

What validating really means

Validating means checking three things:

  1. That the problem exists. And that it happens to lots of similar people.
  2. That it hurts enough. Enough to change what they do today.
  3. That they'd pay to solve it. Not "I'd consider it". Pay.

If one fails, you don't have a business. You have a nice idea.

Step 1: talk about the problem, not your idea

When you talk about your idea, people are polite. When you talk about their problem, people are honest.

Ask things like:

  • How do you deal with this today?
  • How much time or money does it cost you?
  • What have you already tried?

If nobody has tried anything to fix it, maybe it doesn't hurt that much.

Step 2: look for the pattern

One person with a problem is an anecdote. Ten people with the same problem are a market.

My rule is simple: if I solve something twice for different clients, it's probably a product. Validating is looking for that "twice".

Step 3: ask for a commitment

This is where almost everyone stops. And it's where real validation lives.

Ask for something that costs them: a booking, an upfront payment, a paid trial, a signature. Anything that shows it isn't just good manners.

"I love it" is worth nothing. "When do we start?" is worth everything.

Step 4: do it by hand before you automate it

You don't need to build the product to validate it.

You can offer the result as a service. You do by hand what the software will one day do. If people pay for the result, you know there's a business. And you've learned exactly what the product needs to do.

Step 5: decide before you see the results

Before you start, write down which result would make you continue and which would make you stop.

For example: "If three out of twenty conversations commit to paying, I keep going."

If you decide afterwards, you'll always find a reason to continue. Because you're in love with your idea. It happens to all of us.

The advantage of client work

If you already run a service business, you have a validation machine.

Every client who asks you for something is telling you which problems exist. Every project that repeats is an idea validated with money.

You don't need to look outside for what you're already being paid for inside.

P.S. The exact moment an idea gets validated: the second club.

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