Did you do the homework from last week? So far for our “Will it Fly” series (focusing on testing any business ideas you might have), we’ve had 2 homework assignments. Looking ahead into our future and looking at our past.

If you look at the result of your homework from last week, you’ll start to piece together what kind of work you like to do and more importantly, what motivates you. Lay out each of your experiences in chronological order so you can look at them all together. Do you notice any patterns? Does anything pop out at you? To help you analyze it even better, try to answer these three questions about what you see:

• What 1-2 things seem to motivate you the most about the work that you do?
• How much is the answer that you just gave reflected in what you do now?
• How can your future business be shaped into one that allows you to enjoy your work and continue to stay motivated?

So, here’s the thing. Before we start diving into your business idea and see if it will work, I think it’s important to know if the business will work for YOU. Does your idea fit into the kind of work that you like to do? Because the reality is: building a business is going to be one of the hardest things you ever do. There’s gonna be the lowest of the low and there’s gonna be the highest of the high…are you ready to stick it out and not give up? Determine if there are any red flags. It’s better to address it now. You want to avoid extreme misalignments between the kind of person you are vs the type of business you’re looking to enter.

Are you getting excited as we start laying out the foundation for your future? Me too.

Before we start diving into the market research to see if your idea will “fly,” we have one more homework assignment. This is crucial to know and will help you solidify your plan. Answer this question: “What are your unfair advantages?” Huh? Let me explain.

According to Lain Ehmann on this Podcast episode (How to Monetize a Hobby Niche), she describes an unfair advantage as a “skill or asset that you have that no one else has, or very few others might have in a specific niche. This is your competitive edge, and whatever that edge may be, it’s your job to use it to your advantage as much as possible as you shape and create your business.”

So, two things for next week:

• Answer this question, “what are your unfair advantages,” or better yet, “what makes you so special?”
• If nothing jumps out at you, don’t worry. It can take a while to self-examine or self-reflect on your own gifts, and it doesn’t hurt to ask others. If you need some additional input, here’s the second assignment for next week (this one is optional) – send this email to 10 of your friends/family/colleagues:
  • “Yo, I have a challenge this week to discover a unique trait or skill that I am good at – to find a sort of “superpower” that I possess that can be used to my advantage while building a business. Can you take a minute to reply to this email with what you believe my “superpower” to be? It could be any traits/characteristics that you think are unique to me… that would really help me out. Thanks a bunch.”

Keep me posted on what you’re learning and what you hear back from your friends!

Also, don’t forget to check out the book Will it Fly by Pat Flynn and sign up for your very own companion course for free which I am using for this series.

Hope you’re ready to fly!

Related posts:

Questions To Ask During Your Interview And Why Who Should I Hire? So, Tell Me about Yourself Will It Fly?