While successful entrepreneurs have a great business idea making them money, they likely had go through a run of bad ideas. Here are 3 questions you should ask yourself before wasting too much money or time on an idea:

1.  Is this idea providing a solution to a real problem?

Whenever I come across a conversation with a fellow entrepreneur or friend looking to start a business I ask, is there a need for your product? Is this opportunity real and what feedback have you gotten? You can validate the needs of your customer through prior experiences, using a survey, showing a demo, or shipping a prototype. Your goal should be to quickly hack together a reasonable solution and get feedback early and often.

2.  Who’s going to buy it?

Why should I use your product or service? Chances are you’re not the first person to think of it. Are you saving me time or money? What makes your product special? Do you have a patent? For you to have an actual business, you need to have someone willing to pay for your product or service and preferably not your mom or best friend.

3.  How big is the market opportunity?

You want to make sure the opportunity is big enough. Assess the number of potential customers. Focusing on a certain niche can be a good idea, but be careful not to choose too small of a niche.

Lastly, but not least, your idea shouldn’t be confusing. Ideally, you should be able to explain it in one sentence.

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