The $100 Start-Up - Chris Guillebeu

Brief Personal Take

This book is packed with lessons on how easy it is to start a business with very little capital nowadays and how that can lead to you to quit working for the “man”. It’s a book on how to design your own lifestyle cheaply by creating businesses you love from your hobbies, passions, and expertise both online and offline although it specializes more in the online space. As Chris puts it, this book is not about him and the businesses he has built himself but about the success stories of

other entrepreneurs whom he interviewed himself for the sake of writing the book.

Because this book contains a lot of stories, it was difficult for me to take notes. I couldn’t write down the stories (they are so many and sometimes long too), but I did write down the important lessons and other keynotes I could find throughout the book. I think it’s best you find the book and read the stories if you find the notes interesting enough.

Happy reading.

 

 

Notes

·        This book is different and it has 2 key themes: Freedom and Value.

·        Freedom is what we’re all looking for, and all value is the way to achieve it.

·        I did it differently - starting with a list of what I wanted to do and then figuring out how to make it happen.

·        I developed a career as a writer the same way I learned to do everything else out along the way.

·        Value is created when someone makes something useful and shares it with the world.

·        The more you understand how your skills and knowledge can be useful to others, the more your odds of success will go up.

·        What if you could achieve your life of freedom by bypassing everything you thought was a prerequisite? Instead of borrowing money, you start right now – without a lot of money. Instead of hiring employees, you just start a project by yourself, based on your specific combination of skill and passion.

·        3 lessons of micro-entrepreneurship emerge from the stories throughout this book.

 

Lesson 1 – Convergence

·        Convergence represents the intersection between something you like to do or are doing and what other people are interested in.

·        What you care about and what other people are willing to spend money on.

 

 

 Lesson 2 – Skill Transformation

·        The easiest way to understand skill transformation is to understand that you’re probably good at more than one thing.

·        For example, a great waitress who learned to apply similar “people skills” to publicizing her clients as a PR executive, creating a business that was more profitable, sustainable, and fun than working for someone else.

·        The world has plenty of better artists, smarter writers, funnier humorists, and more experienced business people. The rare part is that each of those modest skills is collected in one person. That’s how value is created.

·        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 useful to others and particularly about the combination of those skills.

 

Lesson 3 – The magic Formula

·        Passion or Skill + Usefulness = Success

·        Bring the two ideas together; here is the not-so-secret recipe for micro-business alchemy.

 

·        What you need are three things to have a business:

1.    Product or service – What you’re selling

2.    People willing to pay for it – Your customers

3.    A way to get paid – How you’ll exchange your product for money

 

·        Value means helping people.

·        You pursue freedom by providing value for others.

·        More than anything else, value relates to emotional needs.

·        Most businesses talk about features but much more powerful are benefits customers receive and these are emotional. For example, the Y6 ranch helps people “escape and be someone new”. That’s more powerful than just saying “we offer horse rides.”

·        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 are relative to emotional needs than physical needs.

·        Most people want more of some things and less of some things. Always focus on what you can add or take away to improve someone’s life ... then prepare to get paid.

 

·        (Passion + Skill) – (Problem +Marketplace) = Opportunity

 

·        We usually have more than we think and that applies to almost anything, whether it’s an idea or capital. The trick is that we need to be willing to think creatively.

·        There is usually more than one way to achieve a goal, are you willing to use your head. Put it to good use.

·        There is nothing wrong with a hobby, but if you’re operating a business, the primary goal is to make money.

·        “Moving on up” by increasing income is usually easier than initially starting the business.

·        Action beats planning, use the one-page business plan and other quick start guides to get underway without waiting.

·        The first $1.26 is the hardest, find a way to make the first sale as quickly as possible. Then work on improving what’s working and ignoring what isn’t.

·        It only gets better as you go along.

·        Advice is helpful, but you can just step out and make a big leap. Don’t wait for someone to give you permission.

·        More than competition and other external factors, the biggest battle is with our own fear and inertia. Thankfully that also means we are in complete control of managing it.

·        Don’t waste your time living someone else’s life.