Will It Fly? How to Test Your Next Business Idea So You Don't Waste Your Time and Money Paperback – February 1, 2016

I have read a number of quality books on the issues to be probed, the question to asked, and the considerations to be made before starting a new venture, written for astute business people with experience. As such, they all lacked one element: empathy with first-time, would-be entrepreneurs. This book fills that lack, and as such is an important contribution.
The author, Pat Flynn is not another founder of a “Unicorn”, a company worth over a billion dollars, who is sharing his insights on how to start another Tesla, Facebook, or PayPal. Rather he is a young, married, father of two, who lost his job in the down-turn, and became an entrepreneur. His book is down-to-earth, his examples are folksy and his insights sound. He provides a step-by-step guide to ascertaining if the business you are thinking of starting “will fly.” There are exercises for every step, and they will provide important insight into your new business idea.
You will need to invest some time and effort in this preliminary process, but it certainly beats losing money, losing face, and losing credibility; those inevitably follows from not checking if your idea has potential.
The first section is the first step you should take as you think about your new business. This section is titled: Mission Design, and poses the starting question everyone should ask – will starting this business allow me to be the person I wish to be? This smacks of the question a counsellor might ask, that many would answer – I need money right now, and I will have plenty of time to worry about the quality of life when I cruise the Mediterranean on my yacht.
“If you don’t have a passion for what you are doing, your energy will eventually fizzle out. It always does,” Flynn notes.
Entrepreneurs’ earnings will be closely related to how much they care about the people they are serving, and the services they offer. Will it accord you the lifestyle you want, the relationships you value, and self-fulfilment that is lasting? Remember, you haven’t invested one cent in this business so far, and if it just isn’t you, then you are well advised to keep looking for something that is. After all, “a successful entrepreneur is one who is both successful in business and in life,” Flynn asserts.
The next step is “Flight Planning.” Besides knowing where you want to go to, pilots have to determine the best way to get there safely, comfortably, and on time. “NASA has never launched a mission just because it sounded like a good idea, and neither should you,” Flynn writes. This section is your market research and the exercises Flynn recommends, can easily be adapted to any market you wish to serve.
This will take you some time, but the tools and the guidance are all in the book. There really is no hurry to get started right away, as futurist Joel Barker says: “Speed is only useful if you’re running in the right direction.”
As part of your Flight Planning, you will want to uncover important information about your ideas, that you have not even thought about. In this phase you need to assess the current conditions of the market you are aiming at, see who is already there, and what and who you are up against. You will also be able to identify the part of the market you are best able to service, and the best way to target the market. (Hint: how are the successful in this market targeting it? How are the less successful targeting it?)
If there are already others in the arena you wish to enter, you have an advantage over everyone else who is already there. You have a live laboratory of what is missing, which is critical because it suggests opportunities that exist.
Flynn provides guidance through a few targeted exercises to identify the dissatisfaction and struggles your target customers experience. This will enable you to enter the market and serve it better than the incumbents. Focusing on a small market is a much under-estimated advantage – there are riches in the niches.
You need to keep this image in mind (and make the translation to your product or service.) If you are a musician with a thousand true fans, they will purchase anything and everything you can produce. “…they’ll drive hundreds of miles to watch your next gig. They read every post, watch every video, and listen to every word of your podcast because it’s a part of their daily ritual. They are the ones who have truly fallen in love with what you have to offer the world, and will always be there to support you.”
After you have completed the Flight Plan, it is time to enter the Flight Simulator. Here you can amalgamate what you have discovered in your research, and begin the process of validating and trying your ideas on a small, safe, segment of the market you are targeting. This activity of validating alone will distinguish you from most entrepreneurs, who never take the trouble to go through this stage with real customers. With Flynn to guide you, you will attempt to make your initial sales to this small, safe, segment of the market. Real validation! Going big and loud with the wrong offer has caused harm, that many entrepreneurs never recover from.
If you haven’t taken any meaningful action towards your new venture because you don’t know where to start, or what process you need to follow, you are not alone. No one wants to let themselves or others down. But as John F. Kennedy once said, “There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction.”
I like the light tone of this book, it is an easy read, neither preachy nor academic, and very practical. The exercises are easily accomplished, with less effort and more pleasure than you expect.

Readability Light +---- Serious
Insights High --+-- Low
Practical High +---- Low

Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on leadership and strategy

tl;dr
anyone looking to start an online business should buy this book, do the exercises in it, and save yourself a lot of wasted time, energy, and resources down the road.

the strength of this book is that it is very practical. it provides step-by-step exercises to help you brainstorm ideas, narrow them down, and validate them. it's not just the why and what, but the how as well. the exercises are terrific and extremely insightful. and i like that pat does them alongside us. it was helpful to see how he processed things.

the book reminds me of an "art lessons for non artists" class i took once where the instructor gave us simple steps (e.g., paint the top section blue, draw some dark vertical lines here, etc.) and the next thing you know i've got a couple walking through the forest in the rain. impressive for a guy whose previous specialty was stick figures.

what i like is that anybody (regardless of business experience) can walk away from the book confident they have a viable business idea people are willing to pay for.

who is this book for?

- you're a budding entrepreneur looking to start your first online business
- you have ten ideas in your head but don't now which to focus on
- you suffer from paralysis by analysis (like myself)
- you want to be confident people will pay for your idea

who is this book not for?

- you're not ready to do the work (certain exercises will require a lot of hustle on your part)
- you're well read in the "how to start an online business space" (while some of the exercises are unique, you'll probably have read most of what pat shares already)
- you're an experienced online entrepreneur with at least two successful businesses (this book is more for newbies)

i highly recommend any new entrepreneur read this book. you will find few online entrepreneurs with as much experience as pat flynn. if you're going to start an online business, there's no better person to learn from than pat.