Will it Fly? How to Test Your Next Business Idea so You Don’t Waste Your Time and Money

Abstract

Pat Flynn Will it Fly? How to Test Your Next Business Idea so You Don't Waste Your Time and Money Flynn Industries, LLC (2016) $15.25 (paperback), 335 pagesWILL IT FLY? HOW TO Test Your Next Business Idea so You Don't Waste Your Time and Money, is an intriguing paperback think book for aspiring entrepreneurs. This book is widely accessible, using common language, rather than terminology familiar to business or entrepreneurship students, graduates, or researchers. The practical hands-on approach provides a manageable to-do list for the reader to vet their business idea(s) before making a substantial investment in a full business launch, whether via or money. The author, Pat Flynn, is the founder of Smart Passive Income, a website devoted to assisting others in building successful internet-based businesses. His work has been featured in Forbes and the New York Times. Additional information on the author can be found at http://smartpassiveincome.com/about.Organizationally, the book features 19 chapters organized into five parts. It also comes with an invitation to access the free online companion course, which is a series of short videos and supplementary content to complement the chapters of the book. The font size, line spacing, and use of screen shot images of websites or software programs, propel the reader quickly through the book and make it an easy read. However, it is likely that the read will go as quickly as the espoused 3½ hours mentioned in the Foreword for most readers, especially if the to complete the series of tests is included in the commitment calculation.The author uses flight analogies to guide the content of the book and engages the reader early on with a personal anecdote of teaching his son to make a paper airplane. Similar to the endeavor of building a flight-worthy paper airplane, the author explains the process of testing one's business idea(s) preflight. In that vein, the author subjects the reader to a series of which actually are tests, in terms of comprehension, but instead are thought activities that serve as a feasibility analysis.In Part one (Chapters 1 through 5), the author guides the reader to first use a variety of visioning exercises to determine what type of business would be most feasible for that individual to pursue. By building an awareness of the consideration of fit between the entrepreneur and the business endeavor itself, the author aims to steer the entrepreneur away from investing in a business that fails to align with an individual's passions or long-term life vision. In other words, the author first focuses the nascent entrepreneur on the question of, how well does this business idea align with my own personal goals and passions?Part two (Chapters 6 through 9) guide the nascent entrepreneur through a series of exercises aimed at developing a well-articulated business idea. The underlying assumption of this section is that the aspiring entrepreneur will waste time with pursuits of business name creation, building websites and branding before dealing with the transition of their seed idea to a detailed business which is not always fun, and definitely easy or fast (Flynn, 2016, p. 107). The goals of this section seem to align with the section of a business model or business plan that describes the product or service and can serve as the basis for an elevator pitch; however, it has yet been refined by any sort of industry or market analysis-considerations that come into play in Part three. …