The Bad Idea Detector

How the Bad Idea Detector works

You tell us the idea, then answer one question for each of the eight patterns below. Every answer scores from 0, which is clear, to 3, which is a red flag. The total becomes a score from 0 to 100. Higher is worse.

Your biggest flag is the pattern with the worst answer. When two patterns tie, the one that sinks businesses fastest wins: nobody paying comes first, then the numbers, then how customers find you.

The questions are the same whether it is your own idea, a franchise you are looking at or a friend’s plan you want to poke holes in.

1. Annoyingly solid · 0 to 20We went looking for a punchline and didn’t find one. Go open it.
2. Fixable · 21 to 45There’s a business in here. A couple of things will hurt if you ignore them.
3. Proceed with a helmet · 46 to 70This can work. Right now it mostly works in your head.
4. Future episode · 71 to 100We’d like to feature this one. That isn’t a compliment.

The eight ways a new business dies, and the first fix for each

These are the patterns we see again and again in businesses that closed. Most failed businesses had more than one. Each comes with the question we ask and the cheapest test that would have caught it.

1. Nobody asked for thisHas anyone paid for this yet?First fix. Sell ten before you build anything. Pre-orders, deposits, or a waitlist with a card on file.
2. The math ain’t mathingDo you know what it costs to win one customer, and what that customer is worth?First fix. Run one small paid test. Spend a few hundred dollars, count the buyers, do the division.
3. If you build it, they won’t comeHow do the first 100 customers find you?First fix. Pick one channel and one offer. Run it for 30 days before you sign a lease.
4. One and doneHow often does the same customer pay you again?First fix. Add a plan, a membership or a maintenance visit. Give people a reason to come back on a schedule.
5. You are the businessYou’re gone for two weeks. What happens?First fix. Write the first three checklists. Hire for the task you do most often, not the one you like least.
6. Runway to nowhereHow long can you go before the business has to pay you?First fix. Keep the job longer, start smaller, or pick a model that costs less to open.
7. First rodeoWho has run this exact kind of business before?First fix. Work inside one for 90 days, or buy the playbook from someone who already wrote it.
8. Same thing, but mineWhy would a customer leave what they use now and pick you?First fix. Ask ten customers of the current option what annoys them. Build the answer to the top complaint.

Questions