Test Before You Invest

Have you ever heard this phrase: test before you invest?

It’s one of my favorites for both experienced and budding entrepreneurs. Why spend a lot of time, energy, finances, brain power and other resources on an idea before testing it to see if it has value, or merit?

Often, entrepreneurs are so excited about their idea they jump into it with both feet. They waste no time setting up a website, ordering collateral, and starting the hustle to find clients. However, not all ideas pan out as well as we anticipate.

That’s one reason that so many start-ups fail. The entrepreneur doesn’t test before they invest.

It’s important to understand whether or not there’s a market, and if there is, what the market wants.

It’s also important to understand what works… and what doesn’t. 

Test before you invest.

Give yourself the best chances possible by testing your idea (or start-up) using inexpensive pay-per-click ads on Facebook. See who clicks and judge initial interest by how quickly our funds are used up.

Pro tip: Play with the demographics to distill your true demographics and split-test your ads to see what works best. 

Once you’ve proven initial interest, you should prove interest at a deeper level. To do this, create a landing page for your ad. This single page should have a call to action, such as “sign up to learn more”. This will show you if people are willing to give up something, like their contact information, in exchange for your offering.

Pro tip: Use this to build an email list of potential early adopters. 

Once you’ve proven your idea, get feedback from your potential early adopters. By involving them from the beginning, they will be more likely to share your product/service with their friends.