What To Do When You Have A Great Tech Idea?
Have you ever had a brilliant tech idea of your own? We
come across many stories of tech innovators who came up with a great tech idea,
got the funds to build it out and ended up becoming billionaires. These cases
are rare, but worth thinking about.
Sometimes, you do not need to have a lot of experience in
the tech field to come up with a brilliant tech idea. For example, you could
have come up with an idea for
Zomato, without having full-fledged knowledge about building it
out or you could have come up with the idea for Tinder with just the
knowledge of how people would like to connect with each other.
So, if you come up with a revolutionary tech idea and
want to share it with the world, then you should take some steps to turn it
into reality in the future.
Points that need to be addressed
Even if you do not know how to code or are unfamiliar
with hardware and software basics, but your idea is strong enough and you have
good funding, then you can always hire a team of tech experts who will build
the product for you. However, you should keep in mind that solid ideas solely are
not enough to build a good business. For instance, if you build a free website
that many people visit, but are unable to host advertising or do other
monetizing stuff, then you may not be able to make a considerable profit out of
it.
Staying realistic and grounded
will give you a better idea about how your business will perform. Firstly, it
is important to realize that businesses are hard to start. It is a hefty
process and could take months or even years from start to finish. It also takes
a lot of working hours to grow a business from its start to its final form.
Creating a checklist of the steps necessary to start a business will help you
set realistic expectations. You should also be open to the possibility that
within the first five years of development, more than half of businesses tend
to fail.
Therefore, accepting and
embracing the realities of creating and developing a business will help you see
whether your business is truly feasible as a startup or not.
Analyze your competition
The first and foremost thing
for you to do is to run a competitive analysis to find out if someone else is
doing what you are thinking of doing. One of the greatest mistakes amateur
founders make is thinking that their idea is original and does not exist in the
market. Most of the times, you have to confront the fact that it already
exists. However, this should not decrease your morale. For instance, the
founder of Oyo decided to work on his idea despite the existence of
thousands of hotels in India. It is always better to differentiate your idea
from what already exists and come up with something new and innovative, so as
to give your business a leg-up.
It is always best to look at
the performance of other businesses in the same industry to get an idea about
how they operate and how much profit they rake in and where they can improve in
their business. When you reach this point, your tech idea will be less of an
innovation and more of a business model that is competitive.
Determine feasibility
If your idea is new, then
your job is to determine how feasible your idea is technically. It may sound
good on paper, but you have to know whether it can be created in a
cost-effective and reasonable way. This might perhaps be a difficult question to
solve if you lack hands-on experience in the technical field. Using a few
approaches, you can find out about the feasibility about your tech idea.
With adequate time
investment, you could find out the possible development options yourself and
learn about different technologies and the limitations you would face during
its development. It will always help you to talk to someone with sufficient
knowledge in the field. A software developer or engineer will be able to tell
you exactly how feasible your idea is to develop and may even point out your
greatest business flaws.
Determine the potential for making money
You should have a clear idea
whether your project has the potential to make money or not. It depends on what
kind of technology you are developing. For example, if you are developing
something for enterprises, then you can make them pay to use your tech either
on a per-product basis or a subscription model. Similarly, while creating
something for consumers, you can sell individual licenses for that software or
may even offer the service for free, while being partnered with other
businesses to showcase their advertisements.
Keeping all these things in
mind, you have to ensure to keep your expectations grounded with real data. Also,
have a clear idea whether your target audience will be willing to pay the price
you set for your tech product or service.
Become an expert at what you are starting
If you already have plenty
of knowledge in the field your start-up is in, then you will be well-versed in
the field beforehand. However, if you have little to no experience in the tech
field, then you need to work harder to be successful. It is paramount to absorb
as much knowledge about the field as you possibly can. You have to start
reading about the current trends in the market and also interact
with the people who are experts in the field. Thoroughly understand the
business models of both your start-up and your rivals’ as well. If your
technology involves coding, then spend some time learning about it through free
online coding resources. Things will seem difficult in the beginning, but in
the end, your effort will be worth it.
Recruit the best talent
Even if you are self-sufficient to do all the work by
yourself, it is very difficult to start a tech company single-handedly. After
you have had your business plan laid out, consider looking around for talent. Hiring
someone who has significant experience in technology and forming a development
team will help you in the long run. Your ultimate goal should be to associate
with the right partners and employees to help your company prosper to the
maximum. Building a network of contacts to hire such talent will come in handy.
Have significant initial funding
As we know by now, starting
a new tech start-up is no small feat. It would require you to pay people to
work on your product or start a marketing campaign, for which you will need
sufficient funds. The way you procure your funds depend on your goals where
angel investors and venture capitalists could be an option or you could even
take out a loan. The wisest thing to do at this time is to start a savings
account for your venture and save as much money as possible to give your
business the initial leg-up.
Conclusion
When you truly believe in
your tech idea and are willing to take the risk of starting your own business,
then you should definitely go for it. However, there are certain things that
you need to keep in mind before putting yourself out there. With that being
said, your sheer will, determination and perseverance will ultimately decide
how your tech start-up will do during the course of time.
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