Great idea, great market opportunity, great potential.
It is easy to get carried away with your new business idea, the one that is going to change the world.
So how do you get to market with minimal if any funding?
Whether you are in business, or thinking of leaving your job to start up a business there are 7 critical stages you should take your idea through to validate and most importantly give your business every opportunity to succeed.
Here they are:
1) The idea
2) Develop the prototype no matter how basic
3) Pitch the idea to people you don't know .
4) Market validation, first round
5) Start to talk to a potential team
6) Re validation of market with team
7) Test customers
Numbers 4 through to 7 you must do yourself. That means for example demonstrating your product [even if it only exists in powerpoint at that stage] to your market. Write your own blog, Twitter regularly, sort out your Linked In profile.
Set yourself a strict budget of initial expense that you will not exceed.
If your idea is good, your plan well thought out, and you have powerful market validation you will be surprised at how many people will back you with their time and expertise before you have to raise even one dollar in funding.