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YOUR ROADMAP FROM CONCEPT TO CASHFLOW

IDEATION: Finding and Validating Your Business Idea

Feb 1113 min read

Updated: Feb 14

GUEST AUTHOR: TrustDavid

IN THIS ARTICLE (click to expand)

Woman placing sticky notes on an ideas board

If you’re reading this article, the chances are good the entrepreneurial bug has already bitten and you have a handful of developing ideas you’d love to turn into profit. You might even be building your company and are just looking for a refresher for your next opportunity.


Either way, this article will cover all the fundamentals you’ll need to:

  1. Generate new ideas

  2. Refine your heap into one or two strong ideas

  3. Identify your best idea and build a working prototype.


If you’re already working with one or two good ideas and just need to test or refine them, feel free to skip to part 3 on validating your idea.


Sound good? Let’s dive in.


A quick reminder that if you haven’t read the previous two articles in this series, you can find them here:



The process of finding and evaluating business ideas

Almost all ideation processes go through three or four phases. These typically happen sequentially, but you may also find it helpful to loop back through steps two through four a few times.


  1. Inspiration, where the goal is to generate as many viable ideas as possible.

  2. Refining, where you will use the PAY ME profile to discard as many of your initial ideas as possible, ending up with five or fewer options.

  3. Refining, where you will do a more thorough evaluation of the remaining ideas to narrow the pool down to the strongest one (or two, if you’re able to test multiple ideas properly).

  4. Validating, where you’ll implement several strategies, frameworks and models to stress-test your idea and ensure that it is worth investing time and money in.

  5. Testing, where you’ll build a minimum viable product to test with a small subset of your ideal customer base and iterate from there.


While this article focuses on potential business ideas, you can use the tools below for most business-related products, services or any other innovative concept, so keep this bookmarked if you’re constantly innovating and want a more structured way to approach it.


Before we get into the details of the process, however, there is one key thing to keep in mind throughout this process:



Allow your brain to work for you

Boredom is one of your most valuable tools during any ideation process because that is when your brain does a lot of heavy lifting without your interference.


Your subconscious is your secret weapon if you’re willing to listen to it.

While you are busy with the rest of your life — especially when engaged in boring, mundane things like showering, walking or tidying your house — your brain is processing what you fed it, creating links and picking away at the problem. This is known as incubation and is a well-documented phenomenon that some of the best innovators use intentionally.


Keep your favourite note-taker handy throughout this process — especially just after you get out of the shower.


This is especially true of the questions that will pop up seemingly out of nowhere. If you can’t answer them immediately, don’t discard them; write them down and reflect on them later.


Never waste a question.

Focusing on your customers’ problems, rather than just selling a product, helps you stay focused on what is important and opens up opportunities to offer tailored solutions. 



  1. The inspiration phase

Whether you’re looking for a new idea to scratch your entrepreneurial itch or just want some help refining the options you already have, there are many ways to approach this step in the process. 


For the sake of brevity, we’re not going to detail every approach, but we will list several tools below, with links for further reading if you want a deeper dive. Our focus here will be to help you identify which tool will best fit your current context.


GATHERING IDEAS

When you’re looking for ideas, the place to start is with total freedom.


The only rule here is that no idea is a bad idea; capture everything without judgment.

A few great tools for this process are:


  • Brainstorming: Just come up with as many ideas as possible. That’s it. Here are a few approaches to try: 

    • Write down every single possible business idea you’re even remotely interested in.

    • List every niche you have even a passing connection to. Consider your hobbies, your interests, your skills, your current work, things you love. You’ll need some passion to sustain you when you face challenges, as you inevitably will.

    • Describe your ideal client or work partner. Be as descriptive as possible; what are they like? Where do they shop? How old are they? Are they rich? Young? Is it an existing business?

    • What problem do you wish you could solve? Think of things that frustrate you in your own life, things that people around you grumble about that you resonate with, or things that you see a lot of others complaining about that don’t bother you because you’ve already figured out a solution. 

    • What impossible technologies, tools, products or solutions do you wish existed?


  • Mind mapping: Take a central idea and branch it out. Again, don’t limit yourself in this phase — just write every single thing that relates to something else.


  • The SCAMPER method: (Read more on this here) This technique is ideally suited when you already have something or have identified a niche in a market you’d like to investigate and are looking for ideas. For each letter, how can taking action (e.g. Adapting) in the context of a current idea, product or setting create something new, improved or better suited to your PAY ME profile (more on that later)?

    • Substitute

    • Combine

    • Adapt

    • Modify

    • Put to another use

    • Eliminate

    • Reverse


  • Speak to people who know you: Ask friends, family members or colleagues who know you well the following questions:

    • “What are my best qualities?”

    • “I want to start a business. What do you think I would do well at?”

    • “If we only spoke again in five years and I told you I was crushing it in X industry, what would the most obvious thing be in your opinion?”


TAKE A BREAK

You should now have a heap of ideas to work from. Before you get started on this step, it is a great idea to step back entirely for a few days to allow your mind to work in the background. Keep your notebook handy and capture any significant revelations, thoughts, new ideas or questions you have. 



  1. The refining phase

Once you’ve taken a short break, use the PAY ME profile to strip that pile of ideas down to a handful of viable business prospects. Even if there are a few strong standout ideas, it is still a good practice to put all the ideas through this process.


THE PAY ME PROFILE

This tool is a great starting point to eliminate as many ideas as you can. For each potential business idea on your list, consider each of the following points on a scale of 1 - 10:

  1. Pain: What existing frustration or pain point are you addressing? Is it defined? Is it a minor thing or does it cause major frustration? If you aren’t solving a problem for people, no one is going to buy what you’re selling.

  2. Assets: What assets, connections and resources do you have at your disposal? How well placed are you to tackle this problem?

  3. You: What are you passionate about, good at and willing to do? What are you not willing to do? Does the idea of working on this for the next decade excite you?

  4. Market: Is the ideal market for this product or service clear? How equipped are you to sell to them?

  5. External: Are there any factors out of your control that limit or empower you such as legislation, access to key resources or tools or the local environment?


As you build your PAY ME profile, you’ll start identifying ideas that are strong and others that are weak. This is where you should get aggressive with the Tippex and discard any weak ideas. 


As a rule of thumb, anything that scores lower than a 5 in any one area or less than 40 in total should be ditched. Don’t spend massive amounts of time here — the next phase is where you go into detail. Assign a value that makes the most sense to you and move on.


Here is an example of a PAY ME profile for someone interested in starting something related to food. You can grab the PAY ME profile template and printables at the bottom of this article.


By the end of this process, you should be left with a one or two ideas that you can take to the next phase. If you still have more than two ideas, run them through the process again and look at each factor in more detail until you only have two strong options that you can take to the next phase.



  1. The validation phase

This is where you’ll tackle detailed processes that give you a clear picture of your product within the market, your market and your potential competitors. Because these processes have been covered extensively in many business courses, we’ll give you an overview of each process, a link for you to read further and an online course if you want to deepen your understanding.


Please note that the order in which you explore these processes is important.

Spend the most time on steps one and two, because a poor product-market fit is one of the most common pitfalls that block startups from succeeding or thriving.


Step 1. Confirm a market exists

Your priority is to confirm that there is a genuine need in the market to avoid wasting time and money on an idea that has little likelihood of selling.


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Step 2. Understand your prospective market

Once you’re confident you’re addressing a genuine market need, you’ll move on to understanding your competitive market to ensure: 

  1. You’re not unintentionally reinventing a product that already exists (this is not the same as intentionally entering as a competitor because you believe you’ll do it better)

  2. You’re not trying to enter a massively competitive market with low margins dominated by big players


⬇️


Step 3. Identify your threats and opportunities

Once you're certain you have a market and understand how to sell to it, you can use various strategic frameworks to start identifying threats and opportunities that will help you refine your offering and the steps you might need to take to ensure that your business thrives.


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Step 4. Refine the feasibility of your offer

Finally, you can use different tools to ensure that your value proposition is clear and your product is as attractive to your intended target market as possible.


Following this process sequentially helps you make more informed decisions at each step, minimising guesswork and assumptions that could sink your business and cost you a great deal.


MARKET RESEARCH & CUSTOMER PERSONAS

Purpose: Confirm a real demand for your product or service and understand your potential customers’ behaviours, needs, and pain points.


Common steps & tools:

  • Initial desk research: Start by reviewing industry reports, news articles, and reputable online databases (e.g. Statista, government trade data) to gauge market size, trends, and growth potential.

  • Surveys & interviews: Use survey tools (e.g. SurveyMonkey, Google Forms) and conduct one-on-one interviews to gather qualitative and quantitative data.

  • Create customer personas: Consolidate your findings into 2-4 detailed buyer personas, highlighting demographics, values, buying motivations, and key frustrations. Tools like HubSpot’s Buyer Persona Templates or Xtensio can help structure these insights.


Approximate timeframe: 2-4 weeks

  • The initial desk research can take anywhere from a few days to a week or two.

  • Surveys, interviews, and persona creation usually require another 1-4 weeks, depending on how quickly you can recruit participants and compile results.



COMPETITOR & INDUSTRY ANALYSIS

Purpose: Identify existing players and substitutes in your market, understand their strengths and weaknesses, and pinpoint opportunities to differentiate your offering.


Common steps & tools:

  • Competitor identification: Compile a list of direct and indirect competitors through keyword searches, industry forums, and social media platforms.

  • Competitive benchmarking: Compare offerings, pricing, brand positioning, customer reviews, and marketing strategies. Tools like SimilarWeb or SEMrush can help you analyse their online presence.

  • Gap analysis: Identify what’s missing or underserved in the current market landscape (e.g. better customer service, improved product quality, local adaptation).


Approximate timeframe: 2-3 weeks

  • 1 week for identifying and profiling competitors.

  • 1-2 weeks to complete a detailed benchmarking report and highlight opportunities.



STRATEGIC FRAMEWORKS & EXTERNAL FACTORS

Purpose: Gain a holistic understanding of your internal strengths and weaknesses, and the external environmental factors that could influence your success. Use this to refine your strategy and position your business effectively.


Common steps & tools:

  • SWOT Analysis:

  • PESTEL Analysis:

  • Porter’s Five Forces:

    • Steps: Assess industry factors like supplier and buyer power, threats of new entrants and substitutes, and rivalry among existing competitors.

    • Read on: Porter’s Five Forces Model


Approximate timeframe: 1-2 weeks

  • Each framework can often be completed within a few days, but spending up to 2 weeks ensures you gather enough data to make meaningful conclusions.



FEASIBILITY STUDIES & VALUE PROPOSITION REFINEMENT

Purpose: Confirm the operational and financial viability of your idea, and ensure that your core offering resonates clearly with your identified market segment. You should also make sure you cover any necessary licensing and regulatory requirements here.


Common steps & tools:


Approximate timeframe: 2-3 weeks

  • 1-2 weeks to complete a basic feasibility study.

  • 1 week to refine the value proposition, often iterating based on informal feedback and internal reviews.




  1. The testing phase

Phew, that was a lot. However, you’ve done enough research to confirm there’s a genuine need for your product, have assessed the competition, and used strategic frameworks to refine your approach. It’s time to put all that groundwork to the test by building a minimum viable product (MVP) and gathering real-world feedback. 


BUILDING YOUR MVP

Develop core functionality first

The goal of an MVP is to present the most critical features or services your business will offer — no bells and whistles yet. Ask yourself: “What is the simplest version of my solution that still solves the core problem?” This helps keep costs down and speeds up development.


Iterate quickly

At this stage, done is better than perfect. Don’t agonise over minor features or design details. The purpose is to show potential customers something tangible they can use or interact with, so you can glean valuable feedback as early as possible.


Cost-effective solutions

If you’re launching a product, consider low-cost prototyping methods (3D printing, basic mock-ups, or small-batch manufacturing). For service-based or digital businesses, create a simple pilot program or a landing page explaining your offer, then track interest through sign-ups or direct customer inquiries.


TESTING WITH REAL USERS

Beta test groups

Once you have an MVP, invite a select group of potential customers (or early adopters) to try it. These can be people in your network or volunteers who fit your customer persona. Keep the group small — just enough to gather diverse insights without overwhelming your capacity to respond.


Gather actionable feedback

Use short surveys, direct interviews, or even quick polls on social media to gather feedback on usability, design, pricing, and whether your product truly addresses their pain points. What do they love? What is confusing? What do they wish your product did differently?


Look for patterns

Individual comments are helpful, but patterns are crucial. If multiple testers struggle with the same issue, that’s a strong signal to revisit or refine that aspect of your MVP.


REFINING AND IMPROVING

Analyse, prioritise, adjust

Once feedback is in, group it into categories (e.g., technical glitches, design flaws, feature requests). Prioritise the changes that have the biggest impact on user satisfaction or functionality. It’s rarely feasible to fix everything at once, so focus on the changes that will move the needle most.


Build a feedback loop

Testing isn’t a once-off step; it’s an ongoing process. Each cycle of collecting feedback and refining gives you deeper insights into what your market wants. Over time, your MVP will evolve into a more robust product that resonates strongly with your customers.


Validate demand

Beyond the qualitative feedback, keep an eye on quantitative signals. Are beta users consistently returning to use your product or service? Did a social media poll show strong interest in pre-orders? If you see strong demand, it’s time to consider ramping up development or seeking additional funding.


PREPARING FOR LAUNCH (OR PIVOT)

Make the call

Once you’ve refined your MVP based on testing feedback, you’re in a stronger position to decide: Is this product or service launch-ready? Or do you need another iteration round before going to market? If you’re happy, it’s go time!


Pivot if needed

If your testing reveals that your idea isn’t hitting the mark, consider a pivot. Perhaps the market is hungry for a slightly different solution, or you’ve identified a more profitable niche. Early feedback is your friend here — better to pivot now than to spend big on a product that doesn’t resonate.


With sufficient testing, you’ll not only refine your product but also gather concrete evidence that you’re onto something with genuine market potential. That kind of proof can be invaluable if you’re approaching investors or pitching to larger clients.



In closing (+ download the resources)

Validating and testing your business idea is all about reducing risk and maximising your chances of success. The journey may feel lengthy — research, feasibility, building an MVP, gathering user feedback — but each step helps you avoid costly mistakes and refine an offering that genuinely meets people’s needs.








Until next time.


The Concessus team

 


THE ROADMAP

Oh, you’re still here? Neat.


This section will be at the bottom of every article, in case you want to review something we’ve already covered or want to see what is coming up later.


  1. How To Start A Business, From Concept To Cashflow (introduction)

  2. The 4 Principles Every Entrepreneur Needs to Navigate Their Journey

  3. Ideation: Finding and Validating Your Business Idea (YOU ARE HERE)

  4. Branding: Your most valuable asset

  5. Business Planning: Crafting a solid business plan

  6. Legal Foundations: Setting up your business structure

  7. Staying Tax-Compliant in South Africa

  8. Funding Your Startup: Navigating financing options

  9. Cash Flow Management: Ensuring financial health

  10. Product Development: From prototype to market

  11. Marketing and Branding: Making your business known

  12. Sales Strategies: Turning leads into customers

  13. Building Your Team: Recruiting and managing talent

  14. Scaling Your Business: Growth strategies

  15. Navigating Challenges: Overcoming common obstacles

  16. Sustainability and Social Responsibility: Building a future-proof business

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