It’s easy to get excited about a new business idea, especially when your family and friends are rooting for you, but it’s a good idea to hit the brakes and take it easy for a while.
The reality is that not every business will succeed. According to the Small Business Administration, roughly half of all new small businesses in the United States fail within five years. It’s critical to test the viability of your business idea before investing your time and money—and certainly before quitting your day job.
When it comes to business decisions, you can’t just rely on the enthusiastic support of your friends. Consider these five sites to get feedback on new businesses if you’re looking for unbiased advice.
Startups.com and Clarity
Startups.com is a startup launch platform that assists new businesses in obtaining customers, funding, press, and mentors. The website is divided into sections that help new businesses with things like creating websites (Launchrock), getting access to crowdfunding (Fundable), and writing business plans (Bizplan).
Clarity is the marketplace on Startups.com that connects entrepreneurs with top advisors and industry experts. The experts assist new entrepreneurs in conducting market research, obtaining strategic business advice, and learning specialized skills that will assist them in growing their businesses. Members can ask specific questions in Clarity’s Q&A section. Over 30,000 verified experts from the world’s top cities contribute to those answers.
PickFu
PickFu is an online tool that allows you to get instant, unbiased, and insightful public feedback on any question you pose. This tool is used by entrepreneurs to validate business ideas while they are still in their infancy. Pickfu, on the other hand, is not free. It will cost you $50 for approximately 50 poll responses.
Pickfu selects and compensates these respondents, so they may or may not be representative of your target customer base. While the respondents may not be your exact customer base, they are neutral and genuinely want to help.
Reddit hosts online discussions on almost any subject imaginable. Redditors vote on which “stories” (potential business ideas) and discussions they believe are most important. The most popular stories rise to the top, while others fall.
Starting a Reddit thread is relatively simple, and you can certainly get some good, unbiased feedback on your ideas. There are numerous sections, or “subreddits,” so make sure you create your discussion in the correct one. Small Business and Entrepreneur are two popular subreddits for business ideas. There’s also a side project, where you can get constructive feedback on side projects and new businesses.
Upvotes are everything on Reddit, so you need to phrase your story in a way that piques the interest of users if you want to get the most out of this site.
GrowthHub
If you have a marketing niche or are looking for advice on how to build your initial customer base, GrowthHub is the place to be. GrowthHub, which was previously known as Inbound, describes itself as “a place where growth professionals (marketing, sales, and service) connect, collaborate, and learn.” They have over 100,000 members in the community who can help you validate your marketing or content business idea.
Before posting your requests for idea validation, start by contributing to other people’s conversations on GrowthHub. However, once you have established yourself as a valuable member of the community, you will most likely receive invaluable feedback from experienced and knowledgeable marketers.
Get Your (General) Ideas Out There
The significance of seeking objective feedback on your business ideas before devoting time to the creation phase cannot be overstated. A faulty assumption can quickly turn into a costly error.
Be mindful of how much detail you include when sharing your ideas. The last thing you want is for a knockoff version of your company to beat you to the market. There is a distinction to be made between pitching broad concepts and ideas and posting intimate details that others could easily replicate. To protect your best ideas, keep your pitches general.
GrowthHackers
GrowthHackers is a community dedicated to sharing ethical online marketing techniques that promote effective, scalable, and long-term growth. The emphasis here is on marketing-related products and technology start-ups, but it’s an excellent forum for getting feedback and ideas on how to get your first customers. It’s a place where marketers can share and discuss what’s most important to them in terms of driving long-term customer growth.
Finally, don’t enter this process if you have thin skin. Be prepared to hear some unflattering remarks.
Take nothing personally! Accept the criticism and either improve your business idea or move on to a new one if it appears to be valid. You should be relieved that you heard the criticism; you’ve avoided a potentially costly learning experience.
