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The $100 Startup
Fire Your Boss, Do What You Love and Work Better to Live More
The $100 Startup is a guide for people who want to leave their nine-to-five jobs to start their own business. Drawing from case studies of 50 entrepreneurs who have started microbusinesses with $100 or less, Guillebeau gives advice and tools on how to successfully define and sell a product, as well as how to grow your business from there.
- Anyone who has ever thought of starting their own company
- Anyone interested in successful small-business ideas
- Anyone who wants to grow their microbusiness and increase their income
Chris Guillebeau is an entrepreneur and a writer with a passion for travel. He has visited every country in the world, and is dedicated to self-employment and encouraging people to live fulfilling lives. His blog The Art of Non-Conformity has over 300,000 visitors a month.
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The $100 Startup
Fire Your Boss, Do What You Love and Work Better to Live More
- Read in 15 minutes
- Audio & text available
- Contains 9 key ideas
Synopsis
The $100 Startup is a guide for people who want to leave their nine-to-five jobs to start their own business. Drawing from case studies of 50 entrepreneurs who have started microbusinesses with $100 or less, Guillebeau gives advice and tools on how to successfully define and sell a product, as well as how to grow your business from there.
Key idea 1 of 9
Passion is not enough for business success; you also need customers and the right skills.
Most people dream of making a living from something they’re passionate about, such as traveling to exotic countries. But there’s a catch: unless someone is actually willing to pay for it, your passion “business” is just a hobby.
The true recipe for success is to find the sweet spot where your passions, your skills and the needs of others meet. But where do you start?
The most important part of any business is providing value to customers. Therefore you must focus relentlessly on how you can help other people.
Usually this means that you can’t turn your passion directly into a business but must work in an adjacent field where you help others follow that same passion. For example, one enthusiastic traveler, Gary Leff, started a microbusiness using his expertise to book the best possible trips for others with their bonus air miles, which many people struggle to find good use for.
But what if you lack the skills to pursue the business of your choice? Enter skill transformation. Though you may not have the specific skills needed to pursue an opportunity, you may have related ones. You use these as best as you can and pick up the rest as you go, thus transforming your skillset.
Kat Alder, for example, was a waitress in London with great people skills. She eventually went on to start her own public relations company, and though she had no experience in the field, her people skills helped her as she learned the basics of the business.
Not every passion can become a business. No matter how much you enjoy eating pizza, you can’t start a business out of it. But you may be able to start a pizzeria. With such opportunities, think hard about how you can provide value to people and what skills you have at your disposal.
Passion is not enough for business success; you also need customers and the right skills.
Key ideas in this title
- Passion is not enough for business success; you also need customers and the right skills.
- Understand your customers’ deepest needs and craft your offering accordingly.
- Get creative with your marketing, and focus on the benefits that your product provides.
- Successful launches rely on thorough preparation and instilling a sense of urgency.
- A business needs to make money, so stay focused on your costs and income.
- Get paid more than once, price your product ambitiously and use small tweaks to make a big impact in profits.
- Make your business as big as you want: stay small or grow by bringing in other people.
- Keep plans simple so you can focus on the action.
- Final summary
