Test the idea before you spend on it
Find out in a week, for almost nothing, whether people will pay for what you want to sell.
6 min read
The most expensive way to find out nobody wants your product is to open a shop first. Stock, rent deposit, fittings and a signboard are all spent before the first customer has said a word. This lesson is the cheaper order: find out whether people will pay, then spend.
The only signal that counts is money
When you describe your idea, friends and family will say it is a great idea. That costs them nothing, so it tells you nothing. Strangers who hand over money — or a deposit, or a firm order — are telling you something real.
So the goal of the first week is not to hear "nice idea". It is to get a small number of people to pay, or to promise to pay in a way that costs them something.
"Would you buy this?" is the wrong question. Almost everyone says yes. Ask what they bought last time they had this problem, from whom, and for how much. Past behaviour is a fact; a future promise is a guess.
Three questions, in this order
1. Who exactly buys?
Not "everyone" and not "families". Write down one kind of buyer you could find tomorrow: office workers within 2 km who eat lunch at their desk, boutiques in one market that need stitching done fast. If you cannot name where to find ten of them, the idea is not ready to test yet.
2. What do they use now, and what do they pay for it?
Every customer is already solving the problem somehow — a competitor, a neighbour, doing it themselves, or putting up with it. Visit or call three of the people they buy from now. Note the price, the wait, and what customers complain about. That complaint is where you start.
3. Will they pay you?
Before you buy stock in bulk, try to sell a small batch, take advance orders, or take a deposit. Ten real orders from strangers is a stronger result than a hundred likes.
A one-week test
| Day | What to do |
|---|---|
| 1–2 | Talk to ten people who match your buyer. Ask about what they did last time, not what they would do. |
| 3 | Visit or call three places they buy from now. Write down prices and complaints. |
| 4–6 | Offer a small batch, a sample, or advance booking at a real price. |
| 7 | Count: how many paid, at what price, and would they buy again? |
Check the money works, per sale
Once you have a price people paid, do one sum per sale:
price − what that one sale cost you to make or buy = what is left over
What is left over has to pay rent, wages, electricity and you. If it is small, more sales will not fix it — more sales of a loss-making product is a bigger loss. Change the price, the cost, or the idea.
An example, with made-up numbers: you sell a tiffin for ₹120 and the ingredients and packaging cost ₹70. ₹50 is left per tiffin. If rent and gas come to ₹15,000 a month, you need 300 tiffins a month — about ten a day — before you have paid yourself anything.
When the test says no
That is the test working. You lost a week, not your savings. Change one thing — the buyer, the price, or what you offer — and run it again.