How to Evaluate a Business Idea

The biggest mistake any one of us can make is wasting time. While it is fun to dream up new businesses, we need some quick methods for business idea evaluation to make sure that demand for your product exists.

If demand already exists, you simply have to convert those customers or clients from the services or products of another business, or better yet – fill the need that does not currently exist in the market (no competition!).

If there is no demand, your business will have to find and educate your audience to teach them why they need your product. This costs money, or worse – time, typically neither are in great supply for grass roots startups.

But don’t worry! You’re here to learn how to evaluate a business idea, and I’ll show you some methods that are quick and easy. No month long market research surveys here!

Using Keyword Research to Evaluate Business Ideas

This might sound as though I’m jumping straight into internet marketing, but bear with me for a second.

One of the many benefits of the internet is the amount of data available to us for market research. At a high level, keyword research can tell you how many “exact match” searches happen for your business idea on average per month.

I use keyword research on a daily basis as part of my blog writing process to make sure I am positioning clients’ products/services in the right way and getting the best value out of each piece of content.

A well researched keyword to content map helps websites to be planned well, and is the foundation for success when using search engine optimization, but they aren’t only useful for marketing.

The huge benefit of using this or a similar method is that it condenses your big list of ideas into a much shorter list that actually has potential. It is not a thorough market analysis, rather a quick test that can help you to make a fast decision on whether or not your idea is worth pursuing.

Best of all, high level keyword research is 100% free. There is no need to pay for business idea evaluation tools at this very early stage.

What You Will Need:

• A list of ideas
• Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox
• To install then activate the free Keywords Everywhere for Chrome or Firefox
• Bonus round: a Google AdWords account (you can pause ads on set up and use it for free)

Quick Business Idea Evaluation: An Example

In this scenario, I am investigating becoming a distributor of a brand of aftermarket car wheels (XXR Wheels) in New Zealand, so I want to know how much demand (if any) there is for their product line in NZ.

1. Open Ubersuggest.
2. Select your Lanugage/Country from the drop down list.
3. Search for your product/service, being as unique/descriptive as you can while keeping it as short as you can (concise). I’m searching for “XXR”, as it doesn’t seem to have any other meanings.
4. You will see a list of keywords and a “monthly volume” – this is your demand. (See screenshot below)

Please note that this data is incredibly high level and is not limited to people in New Zealand. If however, it passes your initial evaluation test, follow the steps below to make sure it’s worth pursuing.

Bonus Round (Slightly More in Depth)

1. Click on the “View as text” button and copy your keywords into a text document. Head back to Ubersuggest with more keyword ideas, trying to think of all the possible ways that people might be searching for your products or services. Some good keywords from the example scenario might be:
   • aftermarket wheels
   • low offset wheels
   • drift wheels
   • concave wheels
2. Continue to copy your keyword lists into the text document.
3. If you are running out of ideas, try using Answer the People, Google Trends, Keyworddit or Keyword Sheeter, adding to your list of keywords.
4. Login to your Google AdWords account and visit the Keyword Planner under the Tools menu.
5. The keyword planner will ask “Where would you like to start?”. Select “Get search volume data and trends”.
6. Under “Option 1: Enter keywords”, paste in your keywords from the text document. Under “Targeting”, select the country you want to find volume for. I’m choosing New Zealand.
7. Click “Get Search Volume”.

This information can be helpful especially if you are selling seasonal products or services.

Business Idea Analysis

In my example, my keywords totaled an average of 780 exact match searches per month, translating to 780 opportunities to sell someone a set of wheels.

At a high level, I’ve validated my example idea to become a distributor of this product.

From here, you can dig much deeper, evaluating competition and performing analysis on your products and services in the market. Once you have validated your idea, you can then focus on the more important part – building a lifestyle business!