5. It isn’t scalable.

How big is the business you want to start? While some businesses are bigger than others, the most successful businesses start out small and grow over time.

“Launch small,” said Danny Halarewich, co-founder and CEO of LemonStand, a former e-commerce platform for online retailers. He went on to say that businesses need to start small to account for the inevitable tweaks that will have to be made as the business evolves. 

Brahm Kiran Singh, founder of Coach Pal, a tutoring service for engineering students in India, also emphasized the importance of scalability in assessing business ideas. 

“There should be a large number of target clients, and it should be easy to scale to them,” Singh said. “A restaurant business is not as scalable as a SaaS business.”

6. It doesn’t fill a market need.

Sure, you may have invented a new product or come up with a different solution to an age-old problem, but that doesn’t mean you should start a business. Businesses with staying power can’t just offer something new, they must offer something people actually need.

“Innovation has to be useful,” said Conrad Bayer, CEO and co-founder of Tellwise, a cloud-based sales and communication platform. “It’s an area where entrepreneurs often make mistakes. They confuse novelty and utility. Just because it’s new doesn’t make it useful.”

Marc Meyer, serial software entrepreneur and professor of entrepreneurship at Northeastern University’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business, said a good business idea is one that offers a “must-have” solution, not just something “nice to have.” Learning how to perform a market analysis can help solidify if your idea has staying power.

7. Your niche is too small.

Many successful businesses exploit a market within a particular industry. But if the niche you’ve chosen is too small, you might want to rethink it. Hipster boutiques and organic, gluten-free juice bars might be all the rage right now, but if your business idea is tied to passing trends, it could be a total flop. 

“If it is a niche product or service, it probably isn’t a good idea unless the niche market is substantial in size and test sales are tremendous,” said Andrew Zurbuch, broker and owner at Integrated Financial. 

Ruben Soto, CEO of e-commerce shapewear site Hourglass Angel, agreed with Zurbuch, explaining in an email that catering to a niche market can mean big sales growth, but only if done right.

“Make sure the market is large enough and that you and your team can serve those customers better than the alternative,” Soto said. 

8. It’s not generating buzz.

Many people test their business ideas in the biggest court of public opinion there is: the internet. To determine if your idea is worth pursuing, consider going the same route.

“The best way to judge a business idea, in my opinion, is to figure out how to test it with as large an audience as possible, on a budget that you’re comfortable with,” said Dustin Christensen, entrepreneur and digital marketing manager at Jackson White P.C., a law firm in Arizona. “The point is not to make money out of the gate, but to get a realistic idea of the demand of your idea.”

Christensen said he’s tried various strategies to test his business ideas on the web, including running a Craigslist ad and launching a simple website to see if it receives any attention. Many of the ideas he’s tested this way, he said, have been duds. But, as Christensen explained, it’s worth working through these bad ideas to find the ones that might actually gain traction. [Related content: Facebook Marketplace and Its Alternatives]

9. It’s confusing.

If no one, including you, can explain what your business idea is all about, it’s probably not worth pursuing. At least, that’s what Jeff Harmon, president of Brilliance Within Coaching & Consulting, tells his clients. 

Harmon said the top thing he looks for in a business idea is clarity. If a prospective business owner isn’t clear about their idea, chances are that business won’t be successful. 

Harmon added that to measure clarity, he uses a group of questions popularized by business management guru Patrick Lencioni.

If you want to know whether your business idea stinks or is actually worth pursuing, answer these questions for yourself:

• Why do we exist? (What is the purpose of your business?) 
  
• How do we behave? (What are the values of your business?) 
  
• What do you do? (What is the main function of your business?)
  
• How will you succeed? (How are you different from the competition?)
  
• What’s most important right now? (What are your priorities?) 
  
• Who does what? (What role does each person play in your business?) 

“If a business can answer these six questions simply and crisply, they have the beginnings of a successful business,” Harmon said.

Best ways to get feedback on your business ideas

It’s hard to know your business idea is a nonstarter without hearing it from others. It can also be hard to hear about your business from others at all. Fret not: Getting feedback on your business ideas is easy if you take these steps.

1. Ask the experts. Identify a few thought leaders or prominently successful people in your field. Reach out to these people with details of your business idea (though an introductory email before you go deep might be best). Not everyone will reply to you, but those who do may offer invaluable advice. And in some cases, the leaders in your field might be people you already know.
2. Test your niche. Establish an internet presence and see how people react to it to obtain feedback on your business ideas. Sure, you’ll need a budget for building a website, taking out ads and otherwise promoting your internet presence. But that small spend now is an order of magnitude lower than going all in on a bad business idea.
3. Seek alternative funding. Crowdfunding campaigns may fail when the idea you seek funding for isn’t compelling. Similarly, angel investors and venture capitalists might decline to fund your startup if your business idea is bad. If you seek funding from these sources and consistently fail, you might have a dud on your hands.