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Why conduct an Achievability Analysis before opening your business?

21 October 2017, 10:00 am by Samantha Garner

Many first-time entrepreneurs are so excited to start their new business that they want to open their doors right away. This sort of passion and excitement is an admirable and necessary quality for an entrepreneur. However, it’s just as important to subject your ideas to a comprehensive Achievability Analysis to see if it has any potential of succeeding as a viable, profitable business.

Why conduct an Achievability Analysis of your business idea?

Upfront research and analysis of new ideas is a major key to small business success. It’s like running your business on paper first to make sure you’ve planned it out properly, thought through your business model critically, answered fundamental questions ahead of time, and have a higher level of confidence about your chances for success.

Think about how much easier it would be to make changes to a business on paper than on a business that you’re paying rent for, bought merchandise for, or hired employees for. What if you have to increase the price of your clothing store’s purses after you’ve opened because you find your profitability too low? Or what if you find out that nobody is interested in the song-playing dog toys you’ve spent money to make? Or what if your biggest competitor responds swiftly when you arrive on the scene, dropping their prices and driving you out of the market?

Your customers won’t be your customers for very long — they’ll be someone else’s.

If you spend the time researching and planning now, you’ll know the likelihood of your success sooner and you’ll be able to make critical changes to your strategy before you open your doors. It takes time, patience and objectivity, and you may find out that there’s no way you could turn your idea into a profitable business. It sounds depressing, but it’s better to find that out now than $50,000 of personal investment later.

But it’s not all doom and gloom! Research may also show you that there’s a huge market and no competition for your product or service and that you should consider a more aggressive launch to secure a dominant position in the marketplace.

In any case, taking the time to research and analyze your business idea thoroughly will help improve your odds of success — and that’s never a bad thing!

Want more? Check out some of our posts about how to research before you open your business:

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