Don’t Rush
Will it Fly argues that trying to rush things can end up slowing you down. It’s better to think deeply about your plans. Start by finding out what you’re passionate about. It’s hard to stick to an idea you’re not passionate about in the long run. Make sure your business idea matches your personality type. There’s no sense in trying to mold your character completely out of shape to fit your idea. It’s a lot easier to find an idea to match you than to try and match yourself to an idea.
This might seem like common sense advice, but it’s often tempting to trick yourself into believing you can change who you are to fit your plans. Beware, you are not infinitely malleable. Don’t let overenthusiasm and a relentless attitude lead you straight to the abyss. Starting a successful business is hard enough, you don’t need to compound its difficulty by fighting against your nature.
Pat will give you an exercise to help you figure out if your plans are congruent with where you really want to be. What I found valuable about the book wasn’t so much the business advice, but the different exercises throughout the book that help you sharpen your focus on the prescient things you’ve mistakenly overlooked.
Do Your Research
Don’t protect your business idea from the world. It’s a silly thing to do. Instead, go out and ask questions. An impressive feature of Pat’s approach is his meticulous attention to detail. It’s one of the things Drucker writes about in Innovation and Entrepreneurship. To systematically look for opportunities, instead of blindly relying on your intuition. See my summary and review here.
Pat uses a system called PLAN when doing his market Research.
- P is for problems: Talk to people, get them to share their problems.
- L is for language: Pay attention to the specific words they use
- A is for anecdotes: Listen to their stories, they might contain invaluable insight.
- N is for needs: Find out what your customers are missing.
Write Freely
Set a countdown timer and let your thoughts flow. You’re find yourself deviating between rapid bursts and short pauses. Don’t be self-critical. Just write.
“Writing a first draft is shovelling sand so that can build castles later.” – Shanon Hale:
Start with trying to fit your idea into one page. And then reduce it into a paragraph. Finally, summarize everything in one sentence. Doing so in stages will help you clarify your thoughts in a practical, structured way. If you’re trying to write a book or start a business, and you’re not a hundred percent clear on the core purpose of what you’re trying to accomplish, this is a powerful exercise to try.
Organize Your Marketing
Create a document for places, people, and products.
Place: Find out where your target customer spends their time online/offline.
People: Who are your competitors, who are the influential people in your space?
Products: What are the products that are most similar to yours or perform the same function?
Validation
Find out how to pre-sell. Don’t build and wait till they come. Test your ideas before you build them. Find out if there’s demand before you decide that there is. Get people to pay for your product before it exists. Refund them. Your goal is to establish whether or not there’s a market for your idea.
Here’s how validation works:
- Step 1: Get in front of an audience
- Step 2: Hyper-target
- Step 3: Interact and share solution
- Step 4: Ask for Transaction
I listened to the audio-book for this one, and you know, there were some cool exercises and a couple of pieces of good advice. But there were too many words when you consider what Pat was trying to accomplish. He was simply sharing his methods for how he does his market research. Some parts of the book were valuable and insightful, other parts seemed to serve no purpose at all but make more noise. But Pat seems like a good person, and his tips can save you a lot of time. It’s a practical book for entrepreneurs with useful exercises, actionable steps, and solid marketing advice to help you take the right first steps to start a business.
If you’re an entrepreneur and you want a quick guide to know what to think about before launching you business, check out The Myth of Entrepreneurship.