How To Get Feedback About A Business Idea

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We all know that we need to get feedback when we are trying to figure out whether our business ideas are good or not.  But many of us make the same, very common mistakes when it comes to getting feedback about a business idea. In this article, I will cover some common mistakes people make when trying to get feedback on their business ideas, and suggest some things you can do which will help you in the process of getting feedback.

Common Mistakes When Getting Feedback On Business Ideas

The most common mistake people make is that they don’t actually get enough feedback. I realize that sounds basic, but that truly is the biggest mistakes. Everyone realizes this, but just about everyone makes this mistake anyway. Part of the problem is that people are very private about their business ideas and want to protect those ideas, which makes sharing the idea difficult. If you are private about your business ideas, here is a video that may be helpful.

Even if you are not protective about your business idea, getting feedback is quite a bit of work. You have to do lots of outreach to people, then meet with them. The entire process can take weeks in order to get a good amount of feedback. What happens most of the time is that people just get a few pieces of feedback and stop there. Usually, the first people you talk to will be people whom you know, and most likely they will sugar coat the feedback. But because you may want to believe the positive feedback, you may take that as very positive feedback and stop there. But that would be a mistake because that feedback was nowhere near in quality and objectivity of where it needed to be.

Another mistake people make is that they get feedback almost exclusively from friends and family because those are the people who are easy to reach. Of course, savvy industry experts are busy, and you probably do not know them personally. So the majority of options most of us have at our disposal is to ask our friends and family. But our friends and family will give positive feedback. So our job as entrepreneurs is to really seek out feedback that is outside of our comfort area.

Often, just talking to people is not enough because the entire conversation is very theoretical. If it is simple or cheap for you to create a prototype of your product, try to create that prototype first, so that when you do get feedback, the feedback can be about that real physical prototype and not just a theoretical concept.

Clearly Explaining Your Business Idea

It is very important that when you get feedback about your business ideas, that you explain it clearly so that people understand what exactly your business ideas is. Here is a tutorial on how to create a business pitch.

Course & Book About Business Ideas

If you are interested in business ideas, I wrote a book on how to go from a business idea to an actual viable business. And if you prefer to have video-based instruction instead of reading a book, I created a video-based course that also teaches you how to go from business ideas to starting a business. Here is the business idea book on Amazon. And here is the course on Udemy on going from business ideas to starting a business where you can browse the curriculum of the course and see whether the course covers topics that interest you.

Dealing With Negative Feedback

Sometimes you will get negative feedback, and sometimes you will get extremely negative feedback that may partially border on insulting you and your business. If you discuss your business with enough people, statistically, this is inevitable.

Extremely negative feedback can be quite shocking. The most important thing is not to get angry, or insulted by it. Take a deep breath and step back. Always be polite and try to understand what exactly is causing such vitriol for that person. Maybe they are just having a bad day, or maybe they didn’t quite understand some of the nuances of why your product is built in the way it is built.

If the person remains angry. Give them some space, and approach them in a few days in order to give them a chance to get over their anger. Then you may have a calmer conversation, and will have a chance to turn that person into a fan by showing that you really do care.

For issues such as negative feedback and similar psychological aspects of being an entrepreneur, take a look at our business psychology tutorial.

Experts Don’t Always Know

Additionally, if you do get to talk to experts in your field, and they give you negative feedback about your idea, while that may be something to certainly think about, their word isn’t the final word. Certainly think about what they have to say, but keep in mind that it is up to you to make this business idea happen. So if you believe in it, you can try to prove them wrong. History is littered with cases where experts have said that something can’t work, and then that thing worked.

Summing Up

There is a theme in this article. Get a lot of feedback, think about it all, don’t overreact to any of it, definitely absorb it and synthesize it in your mind, and eventually make your own decision. That is how you go through the process of getting feedback for your business ideas.

Further Business Resources

For more business-starting resources, please take a look at our business planning mobile apps. Here is the iOS business plan app and here is the Android business plan app. And please check out and subscribe to my YouTube channel where we cover many marketing topics.

Author: Alex Genadinik

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