The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future

by Chris Guillebeau

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.

What is your biggest problem with ______? • What is the number one question you have about _______? • What can I do to help you with _________?

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score them on a scale of 1 to 5,

Impact: Overall, how much of an impact will this project make on your business and customers? Effort: How much time and work will it take to create the project? (In this case, a lower score indicates more effort, so choose 1 for a project that requires a ton of work and 5 for a project that requires almost no work.) Profitability: Relative to the other ideas, how much money will the project bring in? Vision: How close of a fit is this project with your overall mission and vision?

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.”

Always think in terms of solutions. Make sure your solution is different and better.

Ask others about the idea but make sure the people you ask are your potential target market.

If you’ve never sold anything of your own before, you may wonder, What’s the big deal? He sold one $50 print. But I understood immediately: The first time you make a sale in a new business, no matter the amount, it’s a very big deal.

make sure there is sufficient demand for your product or service before spending your whole life working on it.

Let’s break down the planning process into a very simple exercise: defining the mission statement for your business (or your business idea) in 140 characters or less. That is the maximum amount of text for an update on Twitter and a good natural limit for narrowing down a concept. It may help to think of the first two characteristics of any business: a product or service and the group of people who pay for it. Put the two together and you’ve got a mission statement: We provide [product or service] for [customers]. As described in Chapter 2, it’s usually better to highlight a core benefit of your business instead of a descriptive feature. Accordingly, you can revise the statement a bit to read like this:

Understand that what we want and what we say we want are not always the same thing.

Most of us like to buy, but we don’t usually like to be sold.

Provide a nudge.

Frequently Asked Questions, AKA “What I Want You to Know”

How do I know this really works? • I don’t know if this is a good investment (and/or I’m not sure I have the money to spare). • I’m not sure I can trust you with my money. • What do other people think about this offer? • I wonder if I can find this information/get this product or service without paying. • I worry about sharing my information online (or another privacy concern).

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How do I know this really works? • I don’t know if this is a good investment (and/or I’m not sure I have the money to spare). • I’m not sure I can trust you with my money. • What do other people think about this offer? • I wonder if I can find this information/get this product or service without paying. • I worry about sharing my information online (or another privacy concern).

FAQ vragen om te beantwoorden

The Incredible Guarantee, AKA “Don’t Be Afraid”

Overdelivering, AKA “Wow, Look at All This Extra Stuff I Didn’t Expect”

most critical way to reinforce their decision is by giving them quick access to what they paid for. But to go further, you’ll want to overdeliver: give them more than they expected. You can do this by upgrading their purchase unexpectedly by sending a handwritten thank-you card in the mail or in whatever way makes the most sense for your business.

slowly build anticipation for what eventually will be available for purchase.

Thirty-Nine-Step Product Launch Checklist

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Note: Every product launch is different. Use these steps as a guideline to your own. Often by adding one or two steps you would otherwise leave out, you’ll get a significant increase in sales.

Ensure that your product or service has a clear value proposition.*1 What do customers receive when exchanging money for your offer?

Decide on bonuses, incentives, or rewards for early buyers. How will they be rewarded for taking action?

Have you made the launch fun somehow? (Remember to think about non-buyers as well as buyers. If people don’t want to buy, will they still enj...

If your launch is online, have you recorded a video or audio message to compl...

Have you built anticipation into the launch? Are prospects excited?

Have you built urgency—not the false kind but a real reason for timeliness—into the launch?

Publish the time and date of the launch in advance (if it’s online, some people will be camped out on the site an hour before, hitting ...

Proofread all sales materials multiple times…and get someone else to...

Check all Web links in your shopping cart or payment processor, and then double-check them from a different co...

If this is an online product, is it properly set up in your shopping cart or with PayPal?

Test every step of the order process repeatedly. Whenever you change any variable (price, order components, text, etc.), test it again.

Have you registered all the domains associated with your product? (Domains are cheap; you might as well get the .com, .net, .org, and...

Are all files uploaded and in the...

Review the order page carefully for errors or easy-to-make improvements. Print it out and share it with several friends for review, including a couple of people ...

Read important communications (launch message, order page, sales page) out loud. You’ll probably notice a mistake or a poorly phrased sentence y...

Have you or your designer created any custom graphics for the offer, including any needed ads...

Set a clear monetary goal for the launch. How many sales do you want to see, and how much net income? (In other words, what will success look like?)

Advise the merchant account or bank of incoming funds.

Create a backup plan for incoming funds if necessary (get an additional merchant account, plan to switch all payments to PayPal, etc.).

Can you add another payment option for anyone who has trouble placing an order?

For a high-priced product, can you offer a payment plan? (Note: It’s common to offer a slight discount for customers paying in full. This serves as an incentive for customers who prefer to pay all at once while prov...

Clear as much email as possible in addition to any other online tasks so you can focus on the big day tomorrow.