🔎 Validate the Idea in One Week (Before You Build It)

Don't build. Ask.

The cheapest research tool in Jamaica is your WhatsApp status. Post: 'Thinking of making a [product] for [who] — would you pay J$X for it? Reply YES.' Count the YESes. Five real yeses from people who aren't your family = build it. Zero = change the product, not the price.

The pre-sale test

Stronger than a yes: a deposit. Offer the first 10 buyers a launch price with a bank transfer or card link and a delivery date. If three people pay before it exists, you've validated it AND funded it. If nobody pays, you saved a weekend.

Read the demand you already have

Search your niche on Google: 'CV template Jamaica', 'church programme template'. If the results are foreign or empty, that's a gap. Check TikTok comments in your niche — questions in the comments are products waiting to be made.

Set the number

Decide what 'working' means before launch: e.g. 20 sales at J$1,500 = J$30,000 in month one. Write it down. Products without a number become hobbies.

✅ Do this now — step by step

1. Write the offer in one WhatsApp-status sentence: 'Making a [product] for [who] — J$X. Reply YES if you'd buy it.'
2. Post it on status AND in two community groups; screenshot the replies (you will use them as testimonials later).
3. Count real YESes from people who are not family. Five = build. Two = change the product or the audience, not the price.
4. Offer a founders' price to the first 10 with a bank transfer link and a delivery date 7 days out — a deposit is a stronger yes than a reply.
5. Deliver on the date you promised, even if it's ugly. Ask the 10 for one-line feedback and one-line quotes.

⚠️ Mistakes to avoid

• Asking 'would you buy this?' to friends — they lie kindly; ask strangers, or ask for money.
• Waiting for 50 yeses; five paying strangers is validation, fifty free likes is noise.
• Changing the idea every time one person says no — collect ten answers before you decide anything.

🇯🇲 How it plays out in Jamaica