Ask Yourself These Questions Before Setting a Start-Up The product message and what needs it is going to fulfill should be loud and clear.

Do you have a path breaking start-up idea?

Does the fact that nearly 80% of start-ups fail scare you?

Have you been brimming with a conflict of doubts in your mind?

If you feel, you have a revolutionary start-up idea and the goal of which resonates with your personal goals, you shouldn't hesitate to start right now. However you do have doubts if it would be successful in the long run. Obviously this is no trial round and you don't want it to fail. Read through the following questions and answer them well before putting a firm foot ahead. These questions will definitely help you gaze the success of your venture.

1. What is the prospective demand?

Before you begin to look for financial viability, assess the demand of the product. "The demand of the product has to be estimated to assess the growth and success of the start-up. What you are going to offer should solve the needs of the clients," says Mr. Arpit Jain, Director of Promatics Information Technology.

You can easily estimate the volume of sales and the market size by analyzing what volume of sales is done by the competitors. In case you feel it is a novel product, it will be wise to conduct a rocket launch of the product.

It is also feasible to search the online traffic search engines to get cues about the product requirements and demand. "Before offering any new courses, we have always relied on the search engine traffic, which has guided us to the viability of a new stream," suggests Mr. Perminder Singh Malik, CEO of Rapid Skillz.

2. What is the message your product is giving?

The most vital of all questions is what message the customer is getting. The product message and what needs it is going to fulfill should be loud and clear. The need of the product should be created well before it is launched. The customer should be realized the value the product offers.

"The customer (patient) has to be realized the significance of a particular vaccine to be done, which perhaps didn't exist a few years back. To keep up pace with the times and technology, new things are coming into picture. The client has to be explained the utility of latest medical treatments and vaccinations," says Dr. Rajdeep Singh Chhina, Co-founder of Medism.

3. Which marketing tools are the best?

Blindly putting in a lot of money in marketing would be futile. Instead focus on how your clients and prospective clients like to be communicated to. If it is knowledge based start-up, communicating through e-mails and engaging blogging content would be useful. If a consumer durable based start-up, the right channel would be advertisements and social media. You have to judiciously use the marketing channel so that initial sales and repeat sales happen through the channel of customer's ease and choice. Also you have to cautious of your marketing budget.

Mr. Rajat Bhatia, CEO of Geekay Bikes asserts, "To launch our new eco- friendly bikes, we needed extensive promotions all over the country. Social media channels like Facebook, Instagram and hiring social media marketer were all that we needed to elicit response and make people aware of the utility of the e-bike".

Think about it- You want to leave no stone unturned in taking your start-up to be a successful venture. Just study the relevant questions carefully, look for the right source of financing at the lowest cost, study the competitors and their strategies and offer the best value to the clients. Remember it is repeat sales which fetches business in the long run and marks the success. Turn the marketing and production strategies to retain the clients.