Trust your gut, then verify

The risk-reduced way to start a business

When an idea grabs you, it’s not just random; it’s your brain’s pattern recognition at work, fuelled by experiences and your subconscious musings. This ‘gut feeling’ is a signal, sometimes unclear but always important. It's the nudge saying, “There's something here worth exploring.” You’ll know an idea is worth paying attention to when it sticks to you like gum to a shoe. And the only way to deal with it is to act on it. But that can be hard. Where do you start?

You build a landing page. The holy grail of product and business development. This isn’t just about putting an idea out there; it’s about forcing yourself to articulate its value. It’s about clarity. Who is it for? What problem does it solve? Can you convince someone to believe in an idea that doesn't yet exist? (Though you need to present it as if it does!) A landing page is more than a sales tool; it's a litmus test for your idea's clarity and appeal.

Now, the real test: do people buy it? The strongest validation for any idea isn't just nodding heads; it’s people parting with their credit card details. A sale is a hard signal that cuts through the noise. If your landing page converts, your idea has legs. If it doesn’t, that’s feedback too. Maybe the value isn't as clear as you thought, or perhaps the idea needs reworking. It's a tough pill to swallow, but it's the honest truth that entrepreneurial dreams are made of.

OK, one last piece of the puzzle. How do you get traffic to your landing page? This is where you need to commit some skin to the game. This where you need to pull out YOUR credit card and run some Facebook/Instagram ads. If you aren’t willing to spend a couple hundred bucks of your own money testing if your idea can sell, then you probably aren’t that serious.

This is what it takes for entrepreneurship. A constant journey of being 10ft out of comfort zone - a continuous loop of gut checks and reality checks. You start with a feeling, shape it into a clear, compelling proposition on a landing page, and then let the market decide.

If it fails, it's back to the drawing board – refining, tweaking, maybe even starting from scratch. But always guided by a mix of gut instinct and real-world feedback, finding that sweet spot where your vision aligns with what the world wants – or better yet, needs.

Just don’t be another failed startup who spent millions building a team - to build an idea no one wanted in the first place. (Yes, you can raise millions on a completely un-market-tested idea.)

Maybe that was useful, maybe not. Let me know.

- Charles Burdett