Smart From Scratch
Part of the SPI Community course library. Learn how to find a winning business idea and land your first customer.
Will your business idea work?
These questions keep aspiring business owners up at night: “Will my idea work? Are there enough customers? How do I know there isn’t a better idea out there?”
Smart From Scratch® is a hands-on, comprehensive course that enables you to develop a business idea, validate it, and determine if that idea is viable to pursue. You’ll learn how to test whether or not there’s an audience for your business idea before you invest countless hours in it.
All business ideas need validation, even this online course. That’s why we launched Smart from Scratch® to a select number of founding students in late 2016. The founding students helped shape the course content with their amazing feedback. Now, thanks to them, Smart From Scratch® is tested, validated, and ready to help you find your business idea!
Learn the three steps to validating your idea
Stage 1
Idea and Market Visibility
Learn how to find an idea that works for you, even if you don’t know where to start. Then we’ll walk you through the process of determining whether or not there is a sufficient market to support your potential idea.
Stage 2
Adjust and Refine
You’ll expand upon your idea to make sure you have a very clear sense of what your idea is, who it’s for, and precisely what problem it solves. Then you’ll create a simple prototype that you can share with potential customers for feedback.
Stage 3
Testing
You’ll learn product validation, or how to collect pre-orders so that you can determine the viability of your idea. Then you’ll learn what to do if you do — or if you don’t — make any sales.
Meet your course instructor
Hi, I’m Pat Flynn.
I run several successful businesses, including Smart Passive Income, Switchpod, and Green Business Academy. Over the last decade, I’ve conceived of and developed dozens of products and new businesses. I’ve both succeeded and failed, and all the while I’ve charted my progress to find what works and what doesn’t. My interviews with hundreds of other business owners for The Smart Passive Income Podcast have also taught me valuable lessons about business longevity.
Aspiring entrepreneurs share the same struggles with me time and again: “I don’t know how to find a business idea,” “I don’t know if my idea will work,” or the biggest one, “I’m afraid I will fail.”
I want you to learn from my successes and failures. I’ve poured these experiences into the Smart From Scratch® course to give you insight into the business strategies that truly work from start to finish. I’m here to help you find your idea, figure out if it will work, and teach you how to fail early rather than down the road after investing countless hours in your idea. I’m here to help you — let’s get started!
Smart From Scratch Course Outline
Welcome, Students!
- Welcome! Watch This First
- Office Hours
- Course Downloads
Stage 1: Idea and Market Visibility
- Lesson 01: Setting Expectations
- Lesson 02: Focusing On Real Business
- Lesson 03: Figuring Out Your Top Idea
- Lesson 04: Discovering Your Niche
- Lesson 05: Researching Your Customers
- Lesson 06: Positioning Your Business Idea
- Lesson 07: Reaching Out for First Reaction
- Lesson 08: Reflecting on Your Plan
- Lesson 09: What’s Coming Up in Stage 2!
Stage 2: Adjust and Refine
- Lesson 01: Creating Goals
- Lesson 02: Building Your Mind Map
- Lesson 03: Making Sense of Your Mind Map
- Lesson 04: Prototyping Your Idea
- Lesson 05: Connecting for Feedback
- Lesson 06: Checking Your Excitement Levels
Stage 3: Testing
- Lesson 01: Finding Your Direction
- Lesson 02: Selling before You Build
- Lesson 03: Developing Your Pitch
- Lesson 04: Collecting Payments
- Lesson 05: The Fortune Is in the Follow-Up
- Lesson 06: Maintaining Your Smart Business
- What’s Next? How about a Free Course on Website Building!
We believe in community-driven courses
Save 16% with annual billing
Start
Do It Yourself
$49
/ month
Billed quarterly for $147
$41
/ month
Billed annually for $490
As a Start member, you’ll have access to:
- A network of like-minded entrepreneurs through direct messaging and active community discussion channels
- SPI’s entire library of pre-recorded courses
- Live and recorded workshops
- Mini-courses
- Guided pathways
Accelerate
Do It Together
$99
/ month
Billed quarterly for $297
$83
/ month
Billed annually for $990
Everything in Start, plus:
- Exclusive office hours with Pat Flynn twice a month
- Live cohort-based course accelerators
- Monthly post-based quests
- Early access to new courses
- Peer-led mastermind groups
Thrive
Vetted Entrepreneurs
$149
/ month
Billed quarterly for $447
$125
/ month
Billed annually for $1490
Everything in Accelerate, plus:
- Full-Time Entrepreneur Playbook — filled with essential tools and templates for running a successful business
- Quarterly Sprints
- Vetted mastermind groups led by trained peer facilitators
- Expert feedback during live Ask-Me-Anything events hosted by our Experts in Residence
- Advanced live office hours with Pat Flynn twice a month
The Thrive tier is an application-based membership with quarterly enrollment. Doors are closed until February 10th, 2025.