Rushing to launch a business idea without first confirming there is a real market for it is one of the most common reasons entrepreneurs fail, says Anton Ressel, senior consultant and mentor at Fetola Business Growth Professionals. Validating an idea before going to market avoids wasting time, money and effort on the wrong product.
Mistake 1: You don’t actually start
No one gets rich purely from an idea. It’s the successful implementation of an idea that produces results, so the first mistake is often simply never moving from thinking to doing.
Mistake 2: You’re not asking the right questions
Before building anything, get feedback from potential customers through a survey or even a social media competition, asking whether the product already exists, who your actual target market is, who your competitors are, and what it would genuinely take to penetrate the market.
Mistake 3: You skip the prototype
Build a working prototype or a minimum viable product before committing fully. Testing a real, if basic, version reveals problems a business plan alone never surfaces.
Mistake 4: You don’t ask for help
Highly technical products often need outside expertise. Aligning with a university, an industry body, former classmates or professional networks can supply the specialised knowledge needed to properly test an idea.
Mistake 5: You’re not making yourself visible
Generating genuine interest, and sometimes early investment, often requires actively putting yourself and the idea in front of potential customers and backers, whether through crowdfunding or other visibility-building efforts, rather than waiting to be discovered.
Frequently asked questions
Why do so many promising business ideas fail to take off?
Most commonly because the founder rushed to launch without validating there was a genuine market for the idea, wasting resources on a product nobody was actually waiting for.
Is a business plan enough to validate a new business idea?
No. A working prototype or minimum viable product, tested with real potential customers, reveals problems and gaps that a business plan alone will never surface.
Where can an entrepreneur get expert help testing a highly technical business idea?
Universities, relevant industry bodies, former classmates and professional networks are all realistic sources of the specialised input a technical idea often needs.
Validate before you build, not after
The entrepreneurs who succeed are the ones who test whether a genuine market exists before committing serious time and money, not after.
Further reading: Is My Business Funding Ready? | Department of Trade, Industry and Competition for official small business support information
Originally published in March 2019. Updated September 2026 to tighten this guidance from Fetola’s Anton Ressel on validating a business idea before launch. The underlying five mistakes remain the same ones entrepreneurs make most often.
