Idea Vetting Criteria

If I have a business idea, what criteria should I run it against to see if its worth pursuing?

• Customers
• What is the value proposition to customers? 
• Dollar savings (wages, expenses)
• Time savings
• Increased revenues 
• Increased customers satisfaction
• Increased employee satisfaction
• How many potential customers have you talked to? 
• What did they say? 
• How many are willing to pay?
• How much are they willing to pay?
• What enhancements do they want?
• Who else can be your customers? Can you use this product in other industries?
• How will you categorize your customers? Paying/non-paying, silver/gold/platinum, etc
• Profitability
• When will it become profitable?
• What the projected revenues in the next 1yr, 2yrs, 3yrs and so on.
• What are the upfront costs and ongoing expenses?
• People
• Hardware/software
• Overhead
• How much can the sales, profit grow year over year?
• What will the profit margin?
• Technology
• Is the technology available to make it work?
• Ease of use/operating for the customer
• Ease of install
• Ease of upgrade
• How soon can you roll out beta version?
• How much will it cost to roll out beta version?
• Suppliers
• Who are your suppliers?
• Do you need license any technology?
• What are your hardware and software costs?
• How do you keep current with all the upgrades to the tools used?
• Competition
• Has any one already done it? If so, why should the customers choose your product?
• Who are the future competitors? 
• What are barriers to entry?
• Sales, Marketing, Business Development, Growth
• Where will you advertise? How much will it cost? Adwords, cold calling, etc
• Whom can you partner with to increase your revenues?
• What trade shows, conferences can you attend to promote?
• At what point would you consider selling partially or fully to investors?
• Can the Angels/VCs add any value? Provide contacts, etc
• Constraints
• Location
• Hours
• What are your dependencies? Key skills needed, capital required, etc 
• Contrarian view
• Where could you go wrong?
• How can this fail?
• How much are you willing to risk if this flops? Time, energy and money
• What costs can you cut?
• What can you improve?