Will It Fly?: How to Test Your Next Business Idea So You Don't Waste Your Time and Money

I'm loving the exercises that I've done so far - they're so practical and help you cut right to the heart of things. I especially love that you start with what matters to you - I don't think I've had this much success defining what I want before in such practical terms, and so simply too. I already feel much more hopeful that I can get clear on my next business idea, which is why I'm reading the book. I've known for a few years that I want to start something new, but I've been going in circles ever since. I'd really like to find something that's a good fit for me and my dreams and finally commit to making it work. I love the airport test exercise. The way it was framed helped me get around the resistance I normally have to doing exercises like this. I've never liked the "perfect day" exercise because it feels too limiting. But this way, and especially the part where you get to choose the four most important areas of your life, worked a treat. Having a list of "life areas" would have removed even more resistance to doing it, but thankfully I got past it by thinking about where we spend most of our money, and came up with some fantastic lists of the life I want to create. The history test also worked really well for me, because once I started listing out all of my past jobs, and what I did and didn't like about each of them, I really started to see some clear patterns. In fact, I had so much doing this exercise that I kept going, and did all of the jobs I could think of, and ended up with 10 in total. It also helped me to see why I'm enjoying the part-time job I currently have more than any job I've had before, and that my new business idea will definitely raise my satisfaction "grade" even higher. Although I did the Shark Bait exercise, and got some fantastic feedback from my friends, I found it a bit challenging to define their responses in concrete terms. I kind of know what they're trying to say, but I struggled to translate that into a unfair advantage. I found the "one sentence" exercise quite useful, especially because I didn't have to start by being concise, and I now have a bunch of sentence and paragraphs that help me describe what I do that I can repurpose as needed. I have a lot of resistance to having conversations with people about my idea, but I took the plunge and did it anyway, and as a result, refined my idea into something even better. I only ended up talking to three people, two of whom were roughly in my target audience, and I did it via instant messaging, but at least I did it, which was more than I have done before. I also did the market research PLAN process, but this is where I started to get a bit lost. I had so much information that I didn't know what to do with it all, or how to bring it back down to something specific. But I do have a much better sense of the marketplace as a result, and I have some great reference conversations for the language my audience uses around this topic. I haven't completed the final stage of the validation process, because honestly, it doesn't suit my personality. It might be the ideal way to make sure your idea will actually work, but I just can't bring myself to do it that way, so I'll have to keep looking for other ways to get the confirmation I need. I also loved having access to the online course as a complement to the book. It helped me understand even better what I was trying to do as I moved through the process. All in all, I loved the hands-on process laid out in "Will It Fly", especially the early exercises, and it was much more effective at helping me get clear on what it is that I want to offer to the world than many of the exercises I've done before. Working through as far as I did, even though I couldn't finish the entire process, brought me a fantastic amount of clarity, and I will go back to my answers any time I lose sight of my bigger vision for my life and my business. So if you want a really thorough, effective, practical way to figure out what matters to you, what you want to create in the world, and whether or not it will succeed, I recommend you give "Will It Fly" a go.

Ich gestehe, ich bin Pat Flynn Fan und die Podcasts SPI & AskPat gehören zu meinen Lieblingspodcasts. Als Pat verkündete, dass man das Buch vorbestellen könne, habe ich sofort 4 Exemplare bestellt (eines für mich die anderen zum Verschenken). Besonders gut gefällt mir Teil 1 in dem es darum geht, festzustellen, ob man mit seinem Projekt überhaupt selber "klar kommt". Was nutzt ein erfolgreiches Projekt, wenn sich dieses mit den anderen Zielen im Leben nicht verträgt? Neben dem Buch erhält man Zugang zu Bonus-Material welches Online zu finden ist. Kann man mögen - muss man aber nicht. Es empfiehlt sich aber auf jeden Fall sich das Onlinematerial auch anzusehen. Auf jeden Fall eine klare Kaufempfehlung für alle, die eigene Projekte beginnen wollen.

I've always been interested in starting a business. And it seems that these days, just about anyone can start an online business. Except that I have a young family, a Vancouver mortgage and a stable government job. I'd be crazy to start my own business. That's the conversation I've been having with myself for a long time. Thanks to Pat Flynn's new book, I can get that conversation, as well as the swirl of possible business ideas out of my head. I can run the ideas through a number of experiments, so I can know, before spending too much time or money, whether any of them could be profitable. This book will also help you refine your business idea(s) - after putting your idea(s) through the experiments in the book, you may come up with entirely different ideas to pursue. I also particularly liked that the very first thing the book takes you through is an exercise designed to determine what kind of life you want, so you only consider developing businesses that will actually make you happy (the book includes an email from an entrepreneur making $20k/month who says he isn't happy - hard to believe, but true :)). An easy and fun read - highly recommended!

I usually do not write any reviews, but the way Pat Flynn explains and goes through the whole process of creating and validating your business idea has made me aware of how important feedback is. So, here's my little piece of feedback of this book. WIF brings together a set of tools, techniques and processes that truly guide you through the process of creating and validating your business idea. I'm not done with the book yet, but so far it has provided me with clear and useful steps to start my business. Pat's style is so relatable that anyone will feel identified and encouraged to keep up the work and get ready for take-off. It's a great read!

It was truly useless.