Will It Fly

Will It Fly is a step-by-step guide to testing your business idea, making sure your new venture matches who you are, and not wasting time or money on something people won’t want, so your business won’t just run, but fly.

It’s so easy to screw this up. Trust me, I’ve done it. Even if you know your own values, goals and priorities, it’s another thing to truly live them.

For example, if you know you’re a huge people person, very extroverted, and love talking to people, well, then direct sales, cold calls and networking events should probably be a huge part of your marketing strategy for business. If you’re an introvert like me, and much prefer typing away on your laptop, then writing books and creating online content might be a better idea.

In order to make sure the lifestyle you’ll acquire from your business matches what you want out of life, Pat suggests a great exercise: interviewing your future self.

Divide a piece of paper into four quadrants, and add the areas of your life to them, which are most important to you (for example health, wealth, love and happiness). Then, imagine yourself five years from now, and just write down what comes to mind in each category.

For example, you might write down “In five years, I’ve paid off all of my debt, saved $20,000 and sent my kids to language school over the summer.”

Even just writing such goals down once and never looking at them again helps your brain to subconsciously steer your actions towards reaching them – and that’s how you’ll make sure your business matches who you are.

Between the two parts of achieving any goal, planning and executing, the planning part is what makes sure that your execution actually gets results. Naturally, Pat always does a ton of research, before launching a new idea, so he can be guaranteed it won’t fall flat on its face. One way, in which he does this, is by creating a specific customer profile for each idea, which he calls his Customer P.L.A.N. Here’s what that acronym means: P stands for problems, the thing you’re trying to solve for people and get paid for. You can find these out by talking directly to your friends and potential customers and asking them open-ended questions about their struggles with your topic. L stands for language, which means paying attention to the exact words and phrases your audience uses when describing problems, feelings and solutions. A stands for anecdotes, which you should collect to relate to your customers and get a feel for their experiences. N stands for needs, the things in your customer’s life that aren’t working, with which…