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July 4 - July 29, 2022
People follow you (or your business) because that’s what they’re interested in—you.
What should you talk about online? It’s simple: Talk about yourself and your business. Really. If people don’t like what you do or say, they can unfollow you, but chances are that you’ll gain far more followers than you lose. Finally, remember that online social networks are merely reflections of what’s happening elsewhere. Want more Twitter followers? Then do something interesting…away from Twitter.
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 the 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 upsells 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 need.
joint venture: • How will the money be divided? (Common splits include an even 50-50, 60-40 with the higher share going to the partner who does more work, and 45-45 with 10 percent reserved for administrative costs.) • What are the responsibilities of each partner? • What kind of information is shared between partners? • How will the project be jointly marketed? • How long will our agreement be in place? • How often will we touch base to discuss the partnership? Check
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 online 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...
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Carefully chosen partnerships can create leverage; just make sure that’s what you want to do. Use the One-Page Partnership...
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BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT. This is work that grows the business. What new products or services are in the works? Are there any partnerships or joint ventures you’re pursuing?
OFFER DEVELOPMENT. This kind of work involves using existing resources in a new way. Can you create a sale, launch event, or new offer to generate attention and income?
FIXING LONG-STANDING PROBLEMS. In every business, there are problems that creep up that you learn to work around instead of addressing directly. Instead of perpetually ignoring these issues, use your non-...
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PRICING REVIEW. As discussed in Chapter 11, you should review your prices regularly to determine whether a price increase is in order. In addition, consider adding appropriate upsells, cross-sells, or other income-generating tools to your arsenal.
Sales per day: How much money is coming in? Visitors or leads per day: How many people are stopping by to take a look or signing up for more information? Average order price: How much are people spending when they order? Sales conversion rate: What percentage of visitors or leads become customers? Net promoter score: What percentage of customers would refer your business to someone else?
Once or twice a month it’s good to take a deeper look at the business and record some metrics that should be improving over time. The kinds of things you’ll probably be interested in are more detailed sales figures, site traffic and social media, and the growth of the business. You can get a free spreadsheet to help with this process in the online resources for this book at 100startup.com.
The $100 Startup model is more about transitioning to a business or independent career that is based on something you love to do—in other words, something intrinsically related to the owner’s skill or passion.
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 t...
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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. If you’ve been waiting to begin your own $100 startup (or anything else), stop waiting and begin.
People who know less about the business than me do not get to make decisions about it. I value input, but now I seek it out from people who have unique perspectives about how I can improve.
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 knew” story, hold on to it; these experiences are powerful and will help you later if times get hard.
The most important lesson in the whole book: Don’t waste your time living someone else’s life.
While creating freedom for yourself, how can you be part of a global revolution to increase opportunity for everyone? If you’re not sure, you can join the $100 Startup community in our campaign for clean water in Ethiopia by visiting charitywater.org/aonc. You can also sign up with groups, such as Kiva.org and AcumenFund.org, that provide loans (usually very small ones) to help people start microbusinesses in their own communities.
