The $100 Startup  – Chris Guillebeau

The $100 Startup – Chris Guillebeau

This book is a guide for entrepreneurs and small business owners who are looking to start a business with a minimal investment. The book includes stories and examples of individuals who have successfully started businesses with little money, and provides practical advice for how to do the same.

The author encourages readers to find their unique value proposition and to focus on creating a business that is both profitable and fulfilling. It is a great resource for anyone looking to start a business on a tight budget.

Give People what they want, not what you think they should have!

Give people what they really want, not just what you think they should have. Give them the fish!



(Passion + skill) → (problem + marketplace) = opportunity

You just have to find the right passion, the right audience, and the right business model.

The first $1.26 or first sale is the hardest, so find a way to get your first sale as quickly as possible. Then work on improving the things that are working, while ignoring the things that aren’t.

How to put happiness in a box and sell it?

Strategy 1: Dig Deeper to Uncover Hidden Needs

Strategy 2: Make Your Customer a Hero

Strategy 3: Sell What People Buy

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.

Businesses that help their customers be happy are well-positioned to succeed.

Catch a man a fish, and you can sell it to him . Teach a man to fish, and you ruin a wonderful business opportunity

Substance And Style

Remember that most core needs are emotional: We want to be loved and affirmed. Relate your product or service to attractive benefits, not boring features.

Urgency

If you’re not sure where to spend your business development time, spend 50 percent on creating and 50 percent on connecting.

The difference between a good offer and a great offer is urgency (also known as timeliness): Why should people act now?

The message you want to communicate is: “This is why this project will be a game changer, here’s how people will benefit, and here’s why you should care.”

Questions Before A Startup

Growing Your Business

You can grow a business one of two ways:

  1. Horizontally, by going wide and creating different products to apply to different people. Horizontal expansion involves going broader by serving more customers with different (usually related) interests;
  2. Vertically, by going deeper and creating more levels of engagement with customers. Vertical expansion involves going deeper by serving the same customers with different levels of need.

Passion And Usefulness

But in the overlap between the two circles, where passion or skill meets usefulness, a business built on freedom and value can thrive.

Not-so-secret recipe for microbusiness alchemy: Passion or skill + usefulness = success

There’s no fail proof method; in fact, failure is often the best teacher.

To Start A Business

To start a business, you need three things:

Ask three questions for every idea:

The $100 Startup Model

Three Key Principles to Focus on Profit

Also, having a high-end version creates an “anchor price.” When we see a superhigh price, we tend to consider the lower price as much more reasonable … thus creating a fair bargain in our minds.

Small Changes = Big Impact

The not-so-secret to improving income in an existing business is through tweaks: small changes that create a big impact.

If you operate a service-based business, consider how you can introduce a “productized” version of the service.

Providing both a product and a service helps with your marketing as well.

To get an unfair advantage, provide remarkable service.

A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world.

Launch

In the battle between planning and action, action wins.

You need to show people how you can help remove or reduce pain.

Mission statement: We help [customers] do/achieve/other verb [primary benefit].

“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.

Make People Feel Good

The secret to a meaningful new career was directly related to making people feel good about themselves.

You can pursue freedom for yourself while providing value for others.

Value means “helping people.”

The more a business can focus on core benefits instead of boring features, the more customers will connect—and purchase.

Passion, though a bad regulator, is a powerful spring

An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory

Magic Formula

Magic formula: the right audience, the right promise, the right time = offer you can’t refuse.

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.

Features Vs Benefits

We tend to default to talking about features, but since most purchases are emotional decisions, it’s much more persuasive to talk about benefits.

Example: A feature is descriptive (“These clothes fit well and look nice”) and a benefit is the value someone receives from the item in question (“These clothes make you feel healthy and attractive”).

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