A business idea is the spark that starts the fire.  It's your starting point of all that is to come.  How we all come up with these ideas is generally unique, but some of the best that I've seen is a personal 'pain point' the founder has experienced or seen. So -- you have already come up with your idea and now you need to do some research to find out if it's feasible.  Entrepreneur.com has a great post on how to do so that I will reference, and try to add to. The basic analysis begins with four key points:

1. Company. Think of your idea in terms of its product/service features, the benefits to customers, the personality of your company, what key messages you'll be relaying and the core promises you'll be making to customers. 2. Customer. There are three different customers you'll need to think about in relation to your idea: purchasers (those who make the decision or write the check), influencers (the individual, organization or group of people who influence the purchasing decision), and the end users (the person or group of people who will directly interact with your product or service). 3. Competitor. Again, there are three different groups you'll need to keep in mind: primary, secondary and tertiary. Their placement within each level is based on how often your business would compete with them and how you would tailor your messages when competing with each of these groups. 4. Collaborators. Think of organizations and people who may have an interest in your success but aren't directly paid or rewarded for any success your business might realize, such as associations, the media and other organizations that sell to your customers.

This is a great list, but it does not really cover the how piece of the equation. My list of how, consists of:

1. Search - Search out your competitors and your market.  Search for any strengths, weaknesses, critical features, customer complaints, basically - anything you can find that will help give you a competitive advantage.
2. Evaluate - Sign up for your competitors services!  Usually a basic level plan is free and you will be able to get a good feel for their core set of features.  This is crucial in seeing where their strengths and weaknesses lye, and how you can compare your idea to their product and differentiate the two.
3. Reach Out - Reach out to your potential customers and source your idea.  Crowd sourcing can be the difference between building a mature product that directly meets customer needs and something in infancy that requires a lot of iteration to get there. If you use social networking sites, send out messages on Twitter, Facebook, and use the Answers feature in LinkedIn to search and/or post a question.  If not, you can hire a company to conduct focus groups which can be lucrative, but it can also be expensive.
4. Reach Out, part II - Reach out to your competitors customers (usually you can find at least a few from any of the aforementioned websites) to see what they like / dislike in the current solution.  This will possibly give you strategic direction in what features to add to your product from the start.

What would you add to this? Look forward to your comments! - Jeffrey Vocell