Will It Fly by Pat Flynn is a step-by-step guide to putting your business idea to the test, ensuring that your new enterprise reflects who you are, and ensuring that you don't waste time or money on something no one wants, so your company doesn't just run, but flies. Pat noticed that a small website he'd developed to offer his LEED architecture exam study materials was really attracting a lot of visitors after being laid off from his job at an architecture company during the financial crisis in 2008 – and began selling things on it. Over time, he created online business after online business, eventually establishing himself as a major authority on the subject. This book was released in 2016, and it covers a vital aspect of the structure that allows him to run successful businesses: evaluating your ideas.
To align your lifestyle with your business, do an interview with your future self. It's really easy to make a mistake here. I know how to do it since I've done it before. It's one thing to understand your own values, goals, and objectives; it's another to actually live them. Flynn recommends a terrific activity for ensuring that the lifestyle you'll get from your business matches what you want out of life: interviewing your future self. Just write down what comes to mind in each category as you imagine yourself five years from now. Even if you only write such goals down once and never look at them again, your brain will unconsciously guide your actions toward achieving them – and that is how you will ensure that your business reflects who you are.
Create a Customer P.L.A.N. to match your idea with your target clients. The planning part of attaining any objective, between the two aspects of attaining any objective, planning and executing, is what ensures that your execution produces results. Naturally, Flynn conducts extensive study prior to presenting a new concept to ensure that it would not fail miserably.
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P stands for problems, which is what you're trying to solve for others in exchange for money. You can learn about them by speaking with your friends and potential clients and asking them open-ended questions about their problems with your issue.
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L stands for language, and it implies paying attention to the particular words and phrases your audience uses to describe problems, feelings, and solutions.
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A is for anecdotes, which you should gather in order to connect with your customers and gain a sense of their experiences.
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N stands for needs, or the aspects of your customer's life that aren't working, and it allows you to be more explicit about the goods you should make to address them.
Never construct something without first proving its viability financially. Pre-sales should account for 10% of your total sales. This is the final, but most crucial, phase in any idea validation process, and it is useless without it. You need to get folks to pay you up front for the work you're going to do for them. Obtaining pre-sales for your company will take care of this. Flynn recommends doing this one-on-one whenever possible, whether in person, over the phone, over email, or by Facebook messaging. Show curiosity, describe your offer, solicit opinions, and, finally, request a sale.