How do I test the market without giving my idea away?

Dear Aunty B,

When developing a model which you feel is “new” how do you test your market without giving the game away? How much do I charge? How big would the interest be?

I don’t know how to test without giving away to my target customer (home builders) an idea they may not have thought of themselves. As a dad with a steady job, a three year old and three week old and a beautiful wife, I need to know this idea has a market before I plunge money into development. Build it and (hope) they will come? Hoping you have better advice than that… hope you smart people can help.

DL

Dear DL,

Oh, we do. Stick to your day job. Why? Not just because you have a beautiful wife and gorgeous young children. But because your idea does not seem very well thought out. If the idea is so easy for builders to copy then there are very low barriers to entry. In that case anyone can quickly copy the idea.

If that is not the case, then you can talk about it until you are blue in the face. But builders won’t steal the idea because they are too busy building.

I often find that people with new ideas are over paranoid. Remember everyone has ideas and the readers of our publication have more ideas than most. It is the doing of the idea that matters. Most people on the planet never get past the idea in the shower stage and patting themselves on the back for being an undiscovered genius.

If I was you I would get together a group of blokes you trust, ask them to keep it confidential and just sound out the idea.

But remember that is only the very beginning of the journey. If they like it, good. You then you need to work out how big the market for the product is, how much you can charge, what the competitors are doing, how do you market it, what is the cost of sale and most importantly when can you break even and then make a profit?

And then you need to find the money!

Good luck!
Your Aunty B

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