The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau

• Freedom is what we're all looking for, and value is the way to achieve it.
• There's no rehab program for being addicted to freedom. Once you've seen what it's like on the other side, good luck trying to follow someone else's rules ever again.
• Value is created when a person makes something useful and shares it with the world.
• Often, the combination of freedom and value comes about when someone takes action on something on something he or she loves to do anyway: a hobby, skill, or passion that that person ends up transforming into a business model.
• Small businesses aren't new, but never before have so many possibilities come together in the right place at the right time.
• The more you understand how your skills and knowledge can be useful to others, the more your odds of success will go up.
• Perhaps most important, the vital career question of what is risky and what is safe has changed permanently. The old choice was to work at a job or take a big risk going out on your own. The new reality is that working at a job may be the far riskier choice. Instead, take the safe road and go out on your own.
• The goal isn't to get rich quickly but to build something that other people will value enough to pay for.
• You already have the skills you need--you just have to know where to look.
• The building process is much faster and cheaper today than it has ever been. Going from idea to startup can now take less than a month and cost less than $100.
• In other studies, books, and media coverage, two kinds of business models get the most attention. Business model number one is old-school: An inventor gets an idea and persuades the bank to lend her money for a growing operation, or a company spins off a division to create another company. Most corporations traded on the stock market fit into this category. Business model number two is the investment driven start-up, which is typically focused on venture capital, buyouts, advertising, and market share. The business is initiated by a founder or a small group of partners, but often run by a management team, reporting to a board of directors who seek to increase the business's valuation with the goal of "going public" or being acquired.
• Are customer's buying? If the answer is yes, good. If no, what can we do differently?
• Convergence represents the intersection between something you especially like to do or are good at doing (preferably both) and what other people are also interested in.
• The easiest way to understand convergence is to think of it as the overlapping space between what you care about and what other people are willing to spend money on.
• Not everything that you are passionate about or skilled in is interesting to the rest of the world, and not everything is marketable.
• In the overlap between the two circles, where passion meets usefulness, a micro business built on freedom and value can thrive.
• The easiest way to understand skill transformation is to realize that you're probably good at more than one thing.
• Contrary to conventional wisdom, success in entrepreneurship isn't necessarily related to being the best at any particular activity.
• To succeed in a business project, especially one you're excited about, it helps to think carefully about all the skills you have that could be helpful to others and particularly about the combination of those skills.
• Here is the not-so-secret recipe for micro business alchemy: passion or skill + usefulness = success
• The basics of starting a business are very simple; you don't need an MBA, venture capital, or even a detailed plan. You just need a product or service, a group of people willing to pay for it, and a way to get paid. This can be broken down as follows:
• Product or service: what you sell.
• People willing to pay for it: your customers.
• A way to get paid: how you'll exchange a product or service for money.
• If you have a group of interested people but nothing to sell, you don't have a business. If you have something to sell but no one willing to buy it, you don't have a business.
• It helps to have an offer: a combination or product or service plus the messaging that makes a case to potential buyers.
• There's no fail proof method; in fact, failure is often the best teacher.
• Micro businesses aren't new; they've been around since the beginning of commerce. What's changed, however, is the ability to test, launch, and scale your project quickly and on the cheap.
• To start a business you need three things: a product or service, a group of people willing to pay for it, and a way to get paid. Everything else is completely optional.
• If you're good at one thing, you're probably good at other things too. Many projects begin through a process of "skill transformation", in which you apply your knowledge to a related topic.
• Most important: merge your passion and skill with something that is useful to other people.
• The hard way to start a business is to fumble along, uncertain whether your big idea will resonate with customers. The easy way is to find out what people want and then find a way to give it to them.
• Value is something desirable and of worth, created through exchange or effort.
• Value means helping people.
• A business ultimately succeeds  because of the value it provides its end users, customers, or clients.
• More than anything else, value relates to emotional needs. Many business owners talk about their work in terms of the features it offers, but it's much more powerful to talk about the benefits customers receive. A feature is descriptive; a benefit is emotional.
• Dig deeper to uncover hidden needs.
• Make your customer a hero.
• Sell what people buy.
• In deciding what to sell, the best approach is to sell what people buy--in other words, think more about what people really want than about what you think they need.
• Six steps to getting started right now:
• Decide on your product or service.
• Set up a website, even a very basic one.
• Develop an offer.
• Ensure you have a way to get paid.
• Announce your offer to the world.
• Learn from the above steps, then repeat.
• If you have an existing business and are thinking about how to apply the concepts from this book, focus on either getting money in the bank or developing new products or services. These are the most important tasks of your business--not administration, maintenance, or anything else that takes time without creating wealth or value.
• But one way or another...just do something. Friedrich Engels said: "An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory." Choose the ounce of action today.
• Simply put, we want more of some things and less of others. In the "More" column are things such as love, money, acceptance, and free time. In the "Less" column are the undesirables: things such as stress, long commutes, and bad relationships. If your business focuses on giving people more of what they want or taking away something they don't want (or both), you're on the right track.
• If you make your business about helping others, you'll always have plenty of work.
• What do people really, really want? At the end of the day, they want to be happy, and businesses that help their customers be happy are well-positioned to succeed.
• As you build your escape plan, keep your eyes on the prize: creating real value by giving people what they really want.
• Value means "helping people. Our unexpected entrepreneurs discovered that when they focused on providing value above all else, their businesses were successful.
• Give people what they really want, not just what you think they should have.
• The more you can market a core benefit instead of a list of features, the easier it will be to profit from your idea. Core benefits usually relate to emotional needs more than physical needs.
• Most people want more of some things (money, love, attention) and less of other things (stress, anxiety, debt). Always focus on what you can add or take away to improve some one's life...and then prepare to get paid.
• Get paid to do what you love by making sure it connects to what other people want.
• Instant Consulting Biz:
• Pick something specific as opposed to something general. Don't be a "business consultant" or a "life coach"--get specific get specific about what you can really do for someone.
• No one values a $15-an-hour consultant, so do not under price your service. Since you probably won't have forty hours of billable work every week, charge at least $100 an hour or a comparable fixed rate for the benefit you provide.
• You can't pursue just any passion--there are plenty of things you may be passionate about that no one will pay you for.
• You must focus continually on how your project can help other people, and why they'll care about what you're offering in the first place.
• You usually won't get paid for your hobby itself; you get paid for helping other people pursue the hobby or for something indirectly related to it.
• You may just not want to combine your hobby with your work. If the hobby or passion serves as an important stress reliever from your day job or other commitments, are you sure you want to assume full-time responsibility for your hobby? Some people find that it's better to keep their passion separate from their work.
• Only when passion merges with a skill that other people value can you truly follow your passion to the bank.
• Good businesses provide solutions to problems.
• Many follow-your-passion businesses are built on something indirectly related, not the passion or hobby itself.
• Not every passion or hobby is worth building into a business, and not everyone will want to have a business that is biased on a passion or hobby.
• You can establish a specialized consulting business in one day--the more specific the better.
• It's usually easier to operate a business while roaming the world than it is to start one. Be sure to spend plenty of time getting set up before you hit the road.
• Become Your Own Publisher:
• Find a topic that people will pay to learn about. It helps if you are an expert in the topic, but if not, that's what research is for.
• Capture the information in one of three ways:
• Write it down
• Record audio or video
• Produce some combination of the above.
• Combine your materials into a product: an e-book or digital package that can be downloaded by buyers.
• Create an offer. What exactly are you selling, and why should people take action on it?
• Decide on a fair, value-based price for your offer.
• Find a way to get paid.
• Publish an offer and get the word out.
• Cash in and head to the beach.
• Latch on to a popular hobby, passion, or craze.
• Sell what people buy (and ask them if you're not sure).
• Most of us like to buy, but we don't like to be sold. Old-school marketing is based on persuasion; new marketing is based on invitation.
• When you're brainstorming different ideas and aren't sure which one is best, one of the most effective ways to figure it out is simply to ask your prospects, your current customers (if you have them), or anyone you think might be a good fit for your idea.
• Generally speaking, it's good to keep surveys to less than ten questions or so. To get more overall responses, ask fewer questions. To get more detailed responses (but from fewer people), ask more questions. It's up to you, but make sure that whatever you ask is something you actually need to know about.
• The customer is often wrong.
• What should you do when you have more ideas than time to pursue them? Two things: First, make sure you're capturing all the ideas and writing them down, since you might want them later; second, find a way to evaluate competing ideas.
• Who are your people? You don't necessarily have to think of them in categories such as age, race, and gender. Instead, you can think of them in terms of shared beliefs and values.
• You can often follow a fad, craze, or trend by establishing yourself as an authority and simplifying something about the process for others hoping to benefit from it.
• Use surveys to understand customers and prospects. The more specific, the better. Ask: "What is the number one thing I can do for you?"
• Use a decision matrix to evaluate multiple ideas against one another.
• If your mission statement is much longer than this sentence, it could be too long.
• There's nothing wrong with planning, but you can spend a lifetime making a plan that never turns into action. In the battle between planning and action, action wins.
• A marketable idea doesn't have to be a big, groundbreaking idea; it just has to provide a solution to a problem or be useful enough that other people are willing to pay for it.
• Don't think innovation; think usefulness.
• Seven Steps to Instant Market Testing:
• You need to care about the problem you are going to solve, and there has to be a sizable number of other people who also care.
• Make sure the market is big enough.
• Focus on eliminating "blatant admitted pain".
• Almost everything that is being sold is either for a deep pain or a deep desire.
• Always think in terms of solutions.
• Ask others about your idea but make sure the people you ask are your potential target market.
• Create an outline for what you are doing and show it to a subgroup of your community.
• Being different isn't enough; differentiation that makes you better is what's required.
• Keep costs low.
• Get the first sale as soon as possible.
• Market before manufacturing.
• It's good to know if people want what you have to offer before you put a lot of work into making it.
• Respond to initial results.
• "Plan as you go" to respond to the changing needs of your customers but launch your business as soon as possible, with a bias toward action.
• As soon as possible, find a way to get your first sale.
• Follow the seven steps to instant market testing to gauge the initial response.
• Use the One-Page Business Plan to outline your business ideas quickly.
• To avoid over complicating things, explain your business with a 140-character mission statement.
• Understand that what we want and what we say we want are not always the same thing.
• A good offer has to be what people actually want and are willing to pay for.
• Most of us like to buy, but we don't usually like to be sold.
• Magic Formula: the right audience, the right promise, the right time = offer you can't refuse.
• The very best offers create a "You must have this right now!" feeling among customers, but many other offers can succeed by creating a less immediate sense of urgency.
• Providing a gentle nudge to encourage immediate action separates a decent offer from a high-performing one.
• Whenever something is more complicated than it should be or any time you spot an inefficiency in the market, you can also find a good business idea.
• You can also derive a powerful business model from traditional systems that lack transparency.
• The way we make purchasing decisions isn't always rational.
• Your mission is to identify the main objections your buyers will have when considering your offer and carefully respond to the min advance.
• Generally, you should offer an incredible guarantee or no guarantee at all. A weak guarantee, or one that is unclear, can work against your credibility instead of helping it.
• As much as possible, connect your offer to the direct benefits customers will receive.
• What people want and what they say they want are not always the same thing; your job is to figure out the difference.
• When developing an offer, think carefully about the objections and then respond to them in advance.
• Provide a nudge to customers by getting them to make a decision. The difference between a good offer and a great offer is urgency (also known as timeliness): Why should people act now?
• Offer reassurance and acknowledgement immediately after someone buys something or hires you. Then find a small but meaningful way to go above and beyond their expectations.
• Launches are built primarily through a series of regular communications with prospects and existing customers.
• As with everything else in life, it's important to keep your word with launches.
• If you admit to a flaw, weakness, or limitation in your product, this will probably help instead of harm you.
• Some people will always complain whenever you sell anything at any price. There's nothing you can do about that attitude, so just accept it and don't cater to those people.
• Always return to the all-important value question: How can you help people more?
• A good launch is like a Hollywood movie: you first hear about it far in advance, then you hear more about it before the debut, then you watch as crowds of people anxiously queue up for the opening.
• A good launch blends strategy with tactics. Strategy refers to "why" questions such as story, offer, and long-term plan. Tactics refers to "how" questions such as timing, price, and specific pitch.
• A series of regular communications with prospects before the launch will help you recreate the Hollywood experience with an audience of any size.
• Tell a good story and be sure to consider the question of timeliness: Why should people care about your offer now?
• A charlatan is all talk with nothing to back up their claims. A martyr is all action with with plenty of good work to talk about, but remains unable or unwilling to do the talking. A hustler represents the ideal combination: work and talk fused together.
• Being willing to promote in an authentic, non-sleazy manner is a core attribute of micro business success.
• Another way to look at it is:
• style without substance = flash
• substance without style = unknown
• style with substance = impact
• First things first: Take the time to make something worth talking about--don't be a charlatan. But then start with everyone you know and ask for their help.
• Freely give, freely receive: It works. The more you focus your business on providing a valuable service and helping people, the more your business will grow.
• Strategic giving is about being genuinely, truly helpful without the thought of a potential payback.
• Getting to know people, helping them, and asking for help yourself can take you far.
• If you're not sure where to spend your business development time, spend 50 percent on creating and 50 percent on connecting. The most powerful channel for getting the word out usually starts with people you already know.
• If you build it, they might come...but you'll probably need to let them know what you've built and how to get there.
• When you're first getting started, say yes to every reasonable request. Become more selective (consider the "Hell Yeah" test) as you become more established.
• Use the One-Page Promotion Plan to maintain a regular schedule of connecting with people as you also spend time building other parts of your business.
• Borrowing [money] is no longer essential.
• It's completely possible to start on a very low budget without hindering the odds of success.
• Base prices on benefits, not costs.
• When you base your pricing on the benefits you provide, be prepared to stand your ground, because some people will always complain about the price being too high no matter what it is.
• Offer a (limited) range of prices.
• Get paid more than once.
• There's nothing wrong with having a hobby, but if you're operating operating a business, the primary goal is to make money.
• Going into debt to start a business is completely optional.
• The average business can improve it's odds of success greatly by getting paid in more than one way and at more than one time.
• Whether it's money, access to help, or anything else, you probably have more than you think. How can you get creative about finding what you need?
• The not-so-secret to improving income in an existing business is through tweaks: small changes that create a big impact.
• Increase traffic.
• Increase conversion.
• Increase average sales price.
• Sell more to existing customers.
• Always be experimenting. Try new things and see what happens.
• There's no point pursuing growth for growth's sake; you should scale a business only if you really want to.
• You can grow a business one of two ways: horizontally, by going wide and creating different products to apply to different people, or vertically, by going deep and creating more levels of engagement with customers.
• "Moving on up" by increasing income in an existing business is usually easier than initially starting a business.
• By making careful choices, you can often grow the business without dramatically increasing the workload, allowing you to scale without hiring more people.
• Easy growth options include adding a service to a product-based business (or vice-versa), deploying a creative series of up-sells and cross-sells, and making a few key tweaks.
• Horizontal expansion involves going broader by serving more customers with different (usually related) interests; vertical expansion involves going deeper by serving the same customers with different levels of needs.
• By leveraging skills and contacts, you can be in more than one place at the same time. Strategies to do this include outsourcing, affiliate recruitment, and partnerships.
• Use the hub-and-spoke model of maintaining one home base while using other outposts to diversify yourself.
• When it comes to outsourcing, decide for yourself what's best. The decision will probably come down to two things: the kind of business you're building and your personality.
• Carefully chosen partnerships can create leverage; just make sure that's what you want to do. Use the One-Page Partnership Agreement for simple arrangements.
• Become as big as you want to be (and no bigger).
• Entrepreneurs are not necessarily risk takers; it's just that they define risk and security differently from the way other people do.
• Every morning, set aside forty-five minutes without Internet access. Devote this time exclusively to activities that improve your business--nothing that merely maintains the business. Think forward motion...What can you do to keep things moving ahead?
• A scalable business is built on something that is both teachable and valuable.
• There's more than one road to freedom, and some people find it through a combination of different working arrangements.
• "Going long" by pursuing growth and deciding to stay small are both acceptable options, and you can split the difference by "going medium". It all depends on what kind of freedom you'd like to achieve.
• Work "on" your business by devoting time every day to activities specifically related to improvement, not just by responding to everything else that is happening.
• Regularly monitor one or two key metrics that are the lifeblood of your business. Check up on the others monthly or bimonthly.
• A business that is scalable is both teachable and valuable. If you ever want to sell your business, you'll need to build teams and reduce owner dependency.
• You don't need anyone to give you permission to pursue a dream.
• While usually well-meaning, unsolicited advice from people who think they know better can be unnecessary and distracting.
• Borrowing money to start a business, or going into debt at all, is now completely optional.
• You can start your own micro business for $100 or less.
• Focus relentlessly on the point of convergence between what you love to do and what other people are willing to pay for.
• Remember that most core needs are emotional: We want to be loved and affirmed.
• If you're good at one thing, you're probably good at something else.
• Find out what people want, and find a way to give it to them.
• Action beats planning.
• Creating an offer, hustling, and producing a launch event will generate much greater results than simply releasing your product or service to the world with no fanfare.
• Advice can be helpful, but you can also just step out and take a big leap. Don't wait for someone to give you permission.
• More than competition or other external factors, the biggest battle is against our own fear and inertia. Thankfully, this also means we are in complete control of managing it.
• When you have a success or "moment you know" story, hold on to it; these experiences are powerful and will help you later if times get hard.
• The most important lesson in this whole book: Don't waste your time living someone else's life.