How To Vet A Good Business Idea
The Amplified Impact Podcast
May 29th, 2023
So, you’ve been listening for a while and you’re all pumped up about starting your own business.
But here’s the thing…you’re kinda freaking out because you’re not sure if your ideas are any good.
Will they actually work? Will they be a waste of time?
Trust me, I’ve been there too.
Here’s the deal: a lot of people get stuck in this phase of overthinking.
Here’s the secret sauce: any idea can be great if you execute it well. But you gotta pick one and go all-in.
Entrepreneurship is tough, and the odds of success are low. But guess what? Failure is part of the game.
My first few businesses? Total disasters. But those failures taught me valuable lessons that eventually led to success.
The only way to know if your idea rocks is by getting out there and finding customers.
If people are willing to pay for what you’re offering, then you’re onto something.
So ditch the perfect business plan and fancy branding. The customer is what matters.
TWEETABLE QUOTE:
“The only thing that keeps a business in business are customers.”- Anthony Vicino
LEAVE A REVIEW if you liked this episode!!
Let’s Connect On Social Media!
instagram.com/theanthonyvicino
Join an exclusive community of peak performers at Beyond the Apex University learning how to build a business, invest in real estate, and develop hyperfocus.
Learn More About Investing With Anthony
Invictus Capital: www.invictusmultifamily.com
Multifamily Investing Made Simple Podcast
Passive Investing Made Simple Book: www.thepassiveinvestingbook.com
Episode Transcript:
Anthony Vicino [00:00:00]:
Alright, so you’ve been listening to this podcast for a while and you’re psyched on the idea of starting your own business. However, you’re a little bit nervous because you have these ideas for a different, for your, for your potential businesses. However, how do you know it’s actually gonna work? How do you actually know that this idea is worth pursuing and not just gonna be a complete waste of time, right? Like you want to know before you invest time and energy and before you take the plunge and you leave your w. Two, you want to know that the likelihood of success in this business venture is high right? Now, here’s the problem. The reason why most people never actually make the leap into entrepreneurship is because they get hung up at this phase of the equation, worrying about is this actually a good business idea? Or maybe they have multiple business ideas. Maybe they have three or four or five to choose from and they’re like, I could go this way, I could go that way. And now they’re like, I want to pick the one that has the highest probability of success. But because I haven’t started yet and I don’t know, there’s really no objective data yet to point to to say this is better than that.
Anthony Vicino [00:01:02]:
And so what some people, what many people do is they will start side hustles around all three or four or five of those things and what they say to themselves is, you know what, I’m going to give all these a try and we’re going to see which one rises to the top. We’re going to see which one takes off and then that’s the one that we’re gonna go all in on. And this is the worst, this is the worst idea out there and yet it’s the one that so many of us have fallen prey to. I personally have done this in the past. I totally understand it. But the thing is, any idea could potentially be a great idea. And I’m a firm believer that there is no such thing as a million dollar idea. There’s just million dollar execution.
Anthony Vicino [00:01:43]:
So any idea executed well can make you a ton of money. But there’s a lot of hubris to think. Like you can launch three or four or five different ideas simultaneously and that somehow one of them is actually going to take off in that equation. Truth is, you’re much better just picking a direction and doubling down into that thing. And that focus that you apply to that avenue is likely to pay dividends in some meaningful way. So all this to say is, if you have ideas for your business, do not jump into multiple at the same time. Especially if you’re new and you don’t have like the muscle or the resources yet to even fathom something like that. You got to pick one.
Anthony Vicino [00:02:21]:
You have to pick one idea to pursue relentlessly and that’s going to maximize your odds of success, which here’s the truth, guys, is that your odds of succeeding in this game of entrepreneurship are very low. One of the things I maybe have done a poor job of in the past talking about my story is how I went from being $80,000 in debt to very successful monetarily, at least within a very short period of time. But so much of that was due to the fact that I just got really lucky on that first business. I just found the right business model that fit my skills and I executed it really well. But it could have gone a different way entirely. And the truth is, most people’s 1st, 2nd, 3rd businesses are going to be absolute failures. Does that mean it’s not worth pursuing? Absolutely not. Because the things that you learn in launching that first, that second, that third idea, even if they go to zero, the things that you learn in that are setting you up to maybe succeed on the fourth, 5th, or 6th opportunity.
Anthony Vicino [00:03:18]:
And that success in the moment when you’re failing and you’re having these opportunities just like crater one after another, it can be very demoralizing. Like, what’s the point of all this? Well, the point is when you finally do get to that successful opportunity, you’re going to look back and be like, holy crap, I could never have gotten here if it hadn’t been for this cemetery of failures behind it. And also the success makes all those failures worth it. Okay, so those are two things I had to think about. Okay? Now the reason I bring this up is because I have a friend who DMed me the other day on LinkedIn and he said something that I think a lot of us think about when it comes to launching a new idea. And I believe it’s completely the wrong way to think about launching these ideas. And I hope this can bring you some value even if you’ve already started your business or you’re starting to think about maybe making a pivot to another opportunity. Because at some point in your entrepreneurial journey, you’re probably going to have doubts about what you’re doing.
Anthony Vicino [00:04:17]:
Like, should you keep on the path or should you pivot or if you’re brand new to it, you’re like, how do I know that this is the right idea? And so this is what he said. He said that he’s currently showing this start. Well, he’s debating between two paths. He’s like, I don’t know if I should just get a job or keep doing my own thing. And currently he is showing a startup idea to a dozen or so people to validate whether it’s worth pursuing at all. And he’s like, I’d be happy to show it to you if you’re interested. Okay, so this is what I see people doing all the time is because they’re not sure if the idea is actually worth pursuing. If it has a viable marketplace, they’re like, I’m going to go poll twelve of my friends and see what they think.
Anthony Vicino [00:04:59]:
Do you think this is a viable business option? And the reason that this is a really bad idea is one, your friends don’t know jack shit. Your friends don’t know what a good idea is unless your friends are all twelve of them like successful business people with decades of launching different opportunities left and right, their feedback is less than useful because I’m guessing most of those people are working w two jobs. They haven’t started any businesses. So what do they know about? Is that viable or not? That’s just right there off the bat. Not a group of people that you should be taking advice from because what do they know? And if it’s an idea that’s like tangential to anything that those people are even doing, what do they know? You could tell me the idea for your app. And I’m like, that sounds like a pretty damn cool idea. But I don’t know. I’m not even the person you should be asking for that advice from.
Anthony Vicino [00:05:53]:
The only way to know whether a business idea is good or not and here’s the shitty truth, guys. The only way to know if a business idea is good or not is to start the business and start building. To go out there and get your first customer. That’s the important part of that equation. It’s not just to go out there and get your LLC. It’s not just to go register with the state and get your tax ID, or to get your business card or work on your branding and your logo and your website. Fuck all that. It’s not about that.
Anthony Vicino [00:06:24]:
The most important way, the only way really to vet whether an idea is good or not is to go out and get a customer. Go get somebody to pay for the thing. And if you can get somebody to pay for the thing, ideally before you even made the thing, then you know you have the potential for a business there. But people get so hung up in the business plan and how they’re going to monetize and all the things that go around building a business, all the websites and the logo, the branding, all that stuff, they get so hung up in that that they forget the only reason, the only thing that keeps a business in business are customers. And so if you want to know will this idea float your boat or not? Go out there and try and find a customer. And you can find customers far easier than you think, right? I can’t remember who it was, but it was some startup guy. He’s like, if you can’t sell me on your product before you’ve made the product, you have no chance of selling me after you’ve made the product. Now, there’s a lot of ways that you could go about this.
Anthony Vicino [00:07:28]:
It doesn’t necessarily have to be that your customer even knows that you haven’t made the product yet, right? Like Kickstarter and these projects where they’re like, hey, once we get this funding, we’ll go to market and we’ll manufacture this thing. They don’t have the product yet, but they’re testing to see, is there a market, are there customers who actually want to buy this thing? This is even easier when you’re doing services. Not just a product, but you’re like, hey, I want to mow lawns. I want to paint walls. If you can’t find a customer before you’ve done all the pretty infrastructure stuff of the website and whatnot, then you’re never going to succeed after you do those things. So in the beginning, if you have this great idea, to my friend, I tell you this. You don’t need to tell me your idea because my opinion does not matter. You do not need to tell your twelve friends because in the time that you’re taking to get all that feedback, you could have created a minimum viable product and gone to market and tried to find customers.
Anthony Vicino [00:08:21]:
And I tell you, the first dollar in the door is going to tell you more or it’s going to tell you nothing. If you don’t get that dollar, it’s going to tell you more than you would ever get from just pulling your friends. Your friends don’t know. The only person who matters in this equation is the customer. And so if you’re trying to figure out will this business idea float, go find a customer. I’m telling you, that’s the way to start this thing. Once you get the customer, once you get the sale, you can wait, list them. If you don’t have the product done, you could say, oh, you know what, actually we’re sold out.
Anthony Vicino [00:08:53]:
Like, I’ll get back to you when the thing is ready. If it’s a service based business and you just figure out how to service them and you go service them, but first go get the customer. And once you’ve done that, once you’ve vetted the idea through that lens of, okay, people are actually willing to give me money for this thing, then you can start scaling and worrying about all the other frilly things that go into building a business. So hope this brought you guys a little bit of value. As always, I am so psyched to see you, to have you here. You guys rock. Seriously, you make my day. Every time you leave a comment, you shoot me a DM.
Anthony Vicino [00:09:23]:
Like it just brightens my day a ton. It truly makes all the time that I spend in my office here talking to myself worth it. So thank you guys as always. Love and adore each and every one of you. Can’t wait to see you back here tomorrow morrow. But until then, stay hyper focused. My friend.
This Week On YouTube
These 3 Daily Habits Made Me A Millionaire in 3 Years
Whenever you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you:
1. Unleash your hyperfocused mind to dominate life, business, and everything in between? Here’s how:
→ The Hyperfocused Masterclass: the exact system I used to overcome ADHD, write 12 books, build 4 businesses, and acquire $70M of real estate.
There are a handful of spaces left in The Hyperfocus Masterclass for those who want to snag the early bird preorder special discount of $49.
Email anthony@anthonyvicino.com to let me know you want on the waitlist.
2. Learn to passively invest in commercial real estate with better returns, less risk, and zeo hassle.
→ Invictus Capital: my real estate private equity firm.
→ Multifamily Investing Made Simple: Top Apple Podcast.
→ Passive Investing Made Simple: Amazon Best Selling Book with 100 5 star reviews.
3. Want more like this? Check out these 3 popular articles from the vault:
