Contrary to the cliche, it doesn’t always “it takes money to make money.”
There are so many things you have to consider when starting a business – Launching an excellent concept, registering a business, business planning, fundraising and more.
Having so many factors and trains of thought that cause action paralyses and stops most people from taking action…
… Money is a major one.
Anyone can start a money-making online business – anyone with a computer, that is.
You can start most businesses online with zero money like affiliate marketing etc. But what if you have an idea to start a Facebook ads business or an app? With no money.
You need to test your idea and see if people want to purchase what you are selling before spending time and money on the project.
That’s the tricky part…
… And where the MVP model comes in.
Note – I’m going to say product a lot, but it can also be a service. So I’m clarifying it here rather than saying product/service every time.
What is MVP?
It doesn’t mean most valuable player, MVP means minimum viable product.
Before spending all the time creating a product, you need to find out if its a good idea or not? And your opinion doesn’t count, neither does your family or friends.
Yes, it can be a starting point, but speaking to the people that will purchase your product. Before going all in, is just common sense.
However, most people don’t do this, and it ends in disaster.
Different ways to test your MVP idea
- Forums
- Typeform Survey
- Face-to-Face
- Landing Page
- Fundraising
- Wizard of OZ MVP
I know you’re excited for the Wizard of OZ MVP, but we’ll get to that. The whole goal of the MVP model is to create the bare minimum and see if the target audience is interested and will purchase.
Forums – Straight forward, go to forums where your audience will be and talk about your idea and see if anyone would be interested in the concept.
Surveys (Typeform) – I put Typeform because at the minute they are killing it. But I digress, with the survey put a Q&A of your product and email it to your audience.
Face-to-Face – Go to conferences and events where you can speak to people about your product and conduct Customer Interviews.
Landing Page – Starting a business with little-to-no capital and going by the MVP approach. Instead of creating a full website to test your idea, starting with a landing page before spending time and money.
Fundraising – Luckily in 2019, there are so many fundraising websites like Kickstarter, etc. Other than the obvious of gaining capital, the best part of this method is the ability to test your idea. Nothing says that your idea is a good idea than people pulling out their wallet and giving you money.
Wizard of OZ – The one you’ve been waiting for the wizard of OZ method. So OZ wasn’t a wizard he just made it look like he was a wizard. Zappos is a great example, the founder Nick Swinmurn, starting by putting photos of shoes from a shoe across the road on a website to gauge demand for an online store.
When someone ordered any shoes, he would go over the road and buy it — giving Zappos the answer if the market would accept their product. Before having to invest in infrastructure and inventory.
There are a few different ways to start a business with little-to-no money and test if your customer wants your product. Try implementing them with your idea and see what works.
People are doing the style of Wizard of OZ with amazon arbitrage, where you sell items on eBay and purchase them from Amazon.
There are countless ways to test and try ideas without spending money using the methods above.
So give one a go and see what happens.