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

by Chris Guillebeau

“pre-launch” for a big film many months in advance, often a whole season or even an entire year in advance for the right film. During this time they are showing previews at the beginning of other movies, building buzz through an Internet campaign, and working the PR angles far in advance of the movie actually coming out.

The pre-launch campaign is a success when people eagerly await the film, complaining about how long it takes to arrive, until the day—“finally”—it’s ready to be screened for the public. Then, the studio hopes, hundreds of thousands of filmgoers will pay their money and stream into the theater. Without an active pre-launch campaign, the movie may be great but the odds of commercial success are far lower.

Whether a Hollywood movie or the debut of your new sock-knitting class, launches are built primarily through a series of regular communications with prospects and existing customers. Just like the movie executives who release trailers over time (first a short one, then a longer one) and the press events that Apple built up over time with Steve Jobs at the helm (building anticipation...

An early look at the future. In the first mention of your upcoming launch, you don’t want to give all the details away; it’s usually better to start with a simple heads-up. You want to say something like this: “Hey, I’m working on something interesting. It’s going to be a big deal when it’s finished, but for now I’m just letting you know that it’s coming down the line.” The goal is to slowly build anticipation for what eventually will be available for purchase.

Why this project will matter. The most important early message about the launch (and one that has to be reinforced continually) is why your prospects and customers should care. In the blitz of communication that we all process every day, why should anyone stop and pay attention to this project? 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.”

The plan for the big debut. The previous two messages, as well as any others, have been about the project itself, not the actual launch. Here’s where you roll out some of the details for the launch itself. When will it be? How will it work? Will there be some kind of bonus fo...

Whoa, we’re almost ready! This communication happens right before the launch, sometimes as late as the day before. The message is: “This is the calm before the storm. We’re coming down to the wire and are really excited about this.” Any last-minute reminders or launch details are included here, and the goal is to convert anticipation into an actual dec...

OMG, HERE IT IS! The message is: “It’s finally here, everyone has been waiting, and now we’re ready to go.” This communication tends to be shorter than the others because if you’ve done your job right, many buyers are already prepared to purchase. Here’s where you open the gates to the hordes…or at least that’s what you hope will happen. In this message y...

If the launch is a week long, you’ll tend to see a strong response on the first and second days, followed by a significant downturn and then a big uptick right before the close. This further illustrates why you need a launch cycle: If you have no closing, you won’t see the uptick! If you just launch and move on, you’ll have no opportunity for growth. Now back to the story…

Any good launch has a closing period in which you bring the roller coaster to a stop, even if the offer will still be available in a different form. The message is, “It’s all over now. Thanks, everyone. Here’s what’s coming next.”

In all the messages you send (whether delivered via email or in another way), you’ll want to be mindful of several qualities. The first and most important is what we’ve mentioned already: the need to tell a good story.

The goal of a good launch is not just to convert as many prospects as possible; it’s also to preserve your relationship with other prospects and increase your influence. The reason this is important is because you don’t want to hammer people too hard; it’s better to build relationships over time.

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. But

THE BIG PICTURE 1.Ensure that your product or service has a clear value proposition.*1 What do customers receive when exchanging money for your offer? 2.Decide on bonuses, incentives, or rewards for early buyers. How will they be rewarded for taking action? 3.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 enjoy hearing or reading about the launch?) 4.If your launch is online, have you recorded a video or audio message to complement the written copy?

Have you built anticipation into the launch? Are prospects excited? 6.Have you built urgency—not the false kind but a real reason for timeliness—into the launch? 7.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 the refresh button every few minutes).

Proofread all sales materials multiple times…and get someone else to review them as well. 9.Check all Web links in your shopping cart or payment processor, and then double-check them from a different computer with a different browser.

NEXT STEPS 10.If this is an online product, is it properly set up in your shopping cart or with PayPal? 11.Test every step of the order process repeatedly. Whenever you change any variable (price, order components, text, etc.), test it again. 12.Have you registered all the domains associated with your product? (Domains are cheap; you might as well get the .com, .net,...

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 who don’t know anything about your business. 15.Read important communications (launch message, order page, sales page) out loud. You’ll probably notic...

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

MONEY MATTERS 17.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?) 18.Advise the merchant account or bank of incoming funds.*2 19.Create a backup plan for incoming funds if necessary (get an additional merchant account, plan to switch all payments to PayPal, etc.). 20.Can you add another payment option for anyone who has trouble placing an order? 21.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 providing an alternative for those who need to pay over time.)

THE NIGHT BEFORE 22.Clear as much email as possible in addition to any other online tasks so you can focus on the big day tomorrow. 23.Write a strong launch message to your lists of readers, customers, and/or affiliates.

Prepare a blog post and any needed social media posts (if applicable). 25.Set two alarm clocks to ensure that you’re wide awake and available at le...

THE BIG MORNING 26.Schedule your launch time to suit your audience, not you. All things being equal, it’s usually best to launch early in the morning, East Coast time. 27.Soft launch at least ten minutes early to make sure everything is working. It’s better for you to find the problems than to have your customers find them! 28.Write the first three to five buyers to say thanks and ask, “Did everything go OK in the order process?” (Side benefit: These buyers are probably your biggest fans anyway, so they’ll appreciate the personal check-in.) 29.As long as it’s possible, send a ...

PROMOTION (CAN BE DONE ON THE DAY OF LAUNCH OR BEFORE) 30.Most important: Ask for help spreading the word. Many readers, prospects, and acquaintances will help by telling their friends and followers, but you have to ask them. 31.Write to affiliates with a reminder about the new offering. 32.Write to journalists or media contacts, if appropriate. 33.Post on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and any other social networks you already participate in. (It’s not usually a good idea to join a new network just to promote something.) FOLLOW-UP (DO THIS IN ADVANCE) 34.Write the general thank-you message that all buyers will receive when purchasing. 35.If applicable, write the first messa...

GOING ABOVE AND BEYOND 37.How can you overdeliver and surprise your customers with this product? Can you include additional deliverables or some kind of unadvertised benefit? 38.Is there anything special you can do to thank your customers? (For a high-price launch, send postcards to e...

THE SECOND TO LAST STEP 39.Don’t forget to celebrate. It’s a big day that you’ve worked up to for a long time. Go out to your favorite restaurant, have a glass of wine, buy something you’ve had your eye on for a while, or...

THE VERY LAST STEP 40.Start thinking about the next launch. What can you build on from this one? What did you learn that can help you create something even better next time? Remember, many customers will support you for life as long as you keep providing them with great value. It’s much easier to sell to an existing customer than to a new one, so work hard to overdeliver and plan ahead for...

KEY POINTS • 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 re-create 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 ...

Use the Thirty-Nine-Step Product Launch Checklist as a model. Not every step may apply to you, and you may...

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. Make a list of at least fifty people and divide them into categories (colleagues from a former job, college friends, acquaintances, etc.). As soon as the project is good to go, at least in beta form, touch base by sending them a quick note.

Hi [name], I wanted to quickly let you know about a new project I’m working on. It’s called [name of business or project], and the goal is to [main benefit]. We hope to [big goal, improvement, or idea]. Don’t worry, I haven’t added you to any lists and I won’t be spamming you, but if you like the idea and would like to help out, here’s what you can do: [Action Point 1] [Action Point 2] Thanks again for your time.

We spent no money on advertising for the first five months we were open. Instead, we decided to allocate more than half of our opening costs to have a thirty-by-fifty-foot mural of a bright and colorful tree painted on the side of the stand-alone brick building we’re in. That speaks way louder than any ad we could ever place. —Karen Starr, Hazel Tree Interiors

When I launched my membership program, I decided to start with some beta testers. I invited a hundred of my top prospects to try it out for the first two months before I opened membership…but I didn’t send them an email invite. Instead, I sent a hostage letter in a brown paper bag—folded and taped. People really got a kick out of it, and it worked! The letter led to a sales page with a personal video invite from me. —Alyson Stanfield, Art Biz Coach

The more you focus your business on providing a valuable service and helping people, the more your business will grow. A number of the subjects of our case studies discussed how giving (often described in different ways but with the same meaning) has been a core value of their business.

“In the future, marketing will be like sex: Only the losers pay for it.”

There’s nothing wrong with having a hobby, but if you want to call it a business, you have to make money.

Many aspiring business owners make two common, related mistakes: thinking too much about where to get money to start their project and thinking too little about where the business income will come from. Fixing these problems (or avoiding them in the first place) requires a simple solution: Spend as little money as possible and make as much money as you can.

Lesson: Spend only on things that have a direct relationship to sales.

Price your product or service in relation to the benefit it provides, not the cost of producing it. 2.Offer customers a limited range of prices. 3.Get paid more than once for the same thing.

In Chapter 2, we looked at benefits versus features. Remember that 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”).

most of us have access to all kinds of financial and social capital that we don’t usually think about but could call upon easily if necessary.

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

Going into debt to start a business is completely optional. Every day, people open and operate successful ventures without any kind of outside investment or borrowing.

The average business can improve its odds of success greatly by getting paid in more than one way and at more than one time. You c...

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?

CREATE A HALL OF FAME. Shine a spotlight on your best customers; let them tell their own stories about how they’ve been helped through your business. It helps to provide a variety of stories, as people will relate to different perspectives and backgrounds. This provides “social proof” that your product or service works for all kinds of people.

INSTITUTE A NEW UPSELL. Adding a good upsell offer—or several—is probably the easiest and most powerful strategy you can use to ramp up your average order size. Some business owners are initially apprehensive about upsells, not wanting to apply a high-pressure or “sleazy” technique. But a good upsell isn’t sleazy at all; it’s contextually appropriate and inspires appreciation from customers. “Wow, thanks for the offer!” is a common response. Think about going to a restaurant where you hadn’t planned on eating dessert, but the waiter’s recommendation of the chocolate bread pudding is so compelling that you have to try it…and it’s delicious. You were successfully upsold, and you were happy about it.

ALTERNATIVELY, MAKE A BIG DEAL ABOUT OFFERING NO GUARANTEE. Instead of providing an incredible guarantee, provide no guarantee—and make a big deal about this fact. Note that this strategy usually works better for high-end products. It will likely decrease overall sales but increase the commitment level from those who do purchase.