D
Deleted78083
Guest
Hello, it's me, monfii!
I read the book "will it fly" by Pat Flynn. It's about validating your idea and I recommend it. In fact, MJ went on the author's podcast some years ago apparently.
Since many people on the forum are asking if their ideas are good or not, I briefly summarized below the main ideas.
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How to validate your business idea:
Step 1: imagine the life you want to have in five years. Does your idea support your lifestyle? If yes, cool. If not, then find something else.
Step 2: make a mind map around your idea. Take a bunch of post-its, and write all of your ideas on them, then stick them to the wall. Now take a step back. Group your ideas together. Then take off the bad ones.
Ok, so now that what you want to do is more specific, go into the world and tell everyone about it, to gather feedback.
Step 3: now we will take care of your audience. "The riches are in the niches". Don't change the world. Change one person's life. Find a niche, then create a market map.
A market map is made out of 3 Ps:
- People
- Places
- Product
Create a Google sheet for each of them with three columns for name, notes, and website. Then start mapping your market.
Collect on your google sheet all of the people, places and product related to your business idea.
Now you can build your customer PLANE. It is the avatar of your target customer. Create another spreadsheet. The columns are:
Problem: write the problems you found out about while doing your market map.
Language: write the specific words people use for their problem
Anecdotes: write about the stories people tell related to your idea (I think this is a bit weird, but whatever)
Need: self-explanatory
Elixir: the elixir is the solution to the problem and the need.
Choose ONE idea to focus on solving ONE problem. Just one.
Step 4: sell
Ok, so by now, you probably became an expert in your niche and know your customer, and your idea, because you have identified problems people need solving. Whether that idea is your initial idea or not does not matter. What matters is an idea other people want to see being sold, not one you want to sell.
You still need to test your idea. Don't ask people if they like it, because yes, that t-shirt idea is excellent, but excellent ≠ sales. To prove the viability of your product, you need sales.
You have two options: go talk to your potential customers directly and sell them your idea. You will be able to build the product with the money.
Second option: build a landing page and sell your idea with targeting google ads or facebook ads.
If your idea doesn't sell, tweak it until you find a formula that makes $$$$.
Voila. If someone buys from you, go ahead and build. If they don't, go back to your spreadsheets to find other problems to solve.
The book is MUCH MORE specific than this executive summary. If you are afraid of failing, then I recommend you buy the book and go do each step as instructed. It's really about how to build a business and succeed at the first trial.
Honestly if you build a CENTS business whose idea is validated by the framework from this book, you significantly decrease your chances to fail.
Best,
Monfii
I read the book "will it fly" by Pat Flynn. It's about validating your idea and I recommend it. In fact, MJ went on the author's podcast some years ago apparently.
Since many people on the forum are asking if their ideas are good or not, I briefly summarized below the main ideas.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
How to validate your business idea:
Step 1: imagine the life you want to have in five years. Does your idea support your lifestyle? If yes, cool. If not, then find something else.
Step 2: make a mind map around your idea. Take a bunch of post-its, and write all of your ideas on them, then stick them to the wall. Now take a step back. Group your ideas together. Then take off the bad ones.
Ok, so now that what you want to do is more specific, go into the world and tell everyone about it, to gather feedback.
Step 3: now we will take care of your audience. "The riches are in the niches". Don't change the world. Change one person's life. Find a niche, then create a market map.
A market map is made out of 3 Ps:
- People
- Places
- Product
Create a Google sheet for each of them with three columns for name, notes, and website. Then start mapping your market.
Collect on your google sheet all of the people, places and product related to your business idea.
Now you can build your customer PLANE. It is the avatar of your target customer. Create another spreadsheet. The columns are:
Problem: write the problems you found out about while doing your market map.
Language: write the specific words people use for their problem
Anecdotes: write about the stories people tell related to your idea (I think this is a bit weird, but whatever)
Need: self-explanatory
Elixir: the elixir is the solution to the problem and the need.
Choose ONE idea to focus on solving ONE problem. Just one.
Step 4: sell
Ok, so by now, you probably became an expert in your niche and know your customer, and your idea, because you have identified problems people need solving. Whether that idea is your initial idea or not does not matter. What matters is an idea other people want to see being sold, not one you want to sell.
You still need to test your idea. Don't ask people if they like it, because yes, that t-shirt idea is excellent, but excellent ≠ sales. To prove the viability of your product, you need sales.
You have two options: go talk to your potential customers directly and sell them your idea. You will be able to build the product with the money.
Second option: build a landing page and sell your idea with targeting google ads or facebook ads.
If your idea doesn't sell, tweak it until you find a formula that makes $$$$.
Voila. If someone buys from you, go ahead and build. If they don't, go back to your spreadsheets to find other problems to solve.
The book is MUCH MORE specific than this executive summary. If you are afraid of failing, then I recommend you buy the book and go do each step as instructed. It's really about how to build a business and succeed at the first trial.
Honestly if you build a CENTS business whose idea is validated by the framework from this book, you significantly decrease your chances to fail.
Best,
Monfii
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