The Exit Interview / The career file

Test a business idea without leaving medicine

Before you buy a logo, find out whether someone wants the thing you intend to sell.

By Sonny Saggar · Published November 14, 2026 · Practical exercise

A business idea can be a pleasant place to hide. You can spend an evening choosing a name, another comparing website fonts, and a third imagining the day you hand in your notice. None of that tells you whether a customer has a problem worth solving.

If you are a physician exploring work beyond clinical practice, start with a small experiment that fits the life you already have. Fourteen days is a suggested time limit for learning something, not a promise of a customer or an income. Keep your existing work in place while you investigate.

Days 1–2: choose one person with one problem

“I want to consult” describes your ambition. It does not describe what anyone buys. Try a narrower sentence: “I help a particular kind of customer fix a recurring problem, with a specific piece of work.”

For example, imagine a small service company whose jobs keep stalling because nobody knows who is waiting for whom. A possible first offer is to map the handoffs and produce a simple list of responsibilities. Treat this as a possible offer to investigate, not proof of demand.

Choose something you can competently deliver. If you cannot yet name the output, spend these two days getting more specific. One page, one process map, or one short workshop is easier to discuss than “transformation.”

Days 3–6: ask about the last time it happened

Speak with a few people who actually encounter the problem. Start with three conversations and ask for recent examples:

• When did this last happen?
• What did you do about it?
• What did it interrupt or delay?
• Who decides whether to pay for help?
• What have you already tried?

“That sounds interesting” is pleasant. A description of a messy Tuesday is more useful. Write down the problem in the customer's words. If people do not recognize it, change the question before building the answer.

Days 7–10: put a small, specific offer on paper

Describe the output, the deadline, what you need from the customer, and what is outside the scope. Set a maximum amount of your time. If money will change hands, agree the price and terms before doing the work. Do not make a financial commitment merely to prove you are serious.

Then ask for a concrete next step: a discussion with the decision-maker, permission to review a nonconfidential example, or agreement on a small pilot. A paid pilot is one possible signal of demand; it is not the only useful outcome of a short experiment.

Keep the first test within your actual skills and obligations. Do not use patient information or your employer's confidential material. If the idea raises a question about permission, scope or ownership, resolve it before using someone else's time or information.

Days 11–14: review what people actually did

Separate encouragement from action. Did anyone introduce a decision-maker, provide an example, agree a scope, or pay for a defined result? What objection appeared more than once? What would you need to learn to deliver well?

Choose one next step:

• Continue: there is a specific problem and a credible next conversation.
• Change: the problem matters, but the buyer or offer is wrong.
• Stop for now: the evidence does not justify more of your time.

Stopping a weak idea is a useful result. You have learned something before spending six months defending a website.