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July 14, 2020 - February 7, 2022
Imagine handing a letter to your boss that reads, “Dear Boss, I’m writing to let you know that your services are no longer required. Thanks for everything, but I’ll be doing things my own way now.”
If I needed money, I learned to think in terms of how I could get what I needed by making something and selling it, not by cutting costs elsewhere or working for someone else. This distinction was critical, because most budgets start by looking at income and then defining the available choices. I did it differently—starting with a list of what I wanted to do, and then figuring out how to make it happen.
value is created when a person makes something useful and shares it with the world.
Perhaps most important, the vital career question of what is risky and what is safe has changed permanently. The old choice was to work at a job or take a big risk going out on your own. The new reality is that working at a job may be the far riskier choice. Instead, take the safe road and go out on your own.
This blueprint does not involve secrets, shortcuts, or gimmicks. There are no visualization exercises here. If you think you can manifest your way to money simply by thinking about it, put this book down and spend your time doing that.
The baseline test was, “Could you explain what you do to your grandmother, and would you be willing to?”
convergence represents the intersection between something you especially like to do or are good at doing (preferably both) and what other people are also interested in.
Many of the projects we’ll examine were started by people with related skills, not necessarily the skill most used in the project. For example, teachers are usually good at more than just teaching; they’re also good at things such as communication, adaptability, crowd control, lesson planning, and coordinating among different interest groups (children, parents, administrators, colleagues).
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 helpful to others and particularly about the combination of those skills.
Jeremy Brown attended two years of technical school but left without graduating. After he founded a successful company, the school invited him back to speak to students as a “success story,” not realizing that his success had come from leaving the program to go out on his own. “The speech was a little awkward,” he says, “but the students liked it.”
Here’s the problem: Many businesses are modeled on the idea that customers should come back to the kitchen and make their own dinner. Instead of giving people what they really want, the business owners have the idea that it’s better to involve customers behind the scenes…because that’s what they think customers want.
An inefficiency in the marketplace. Ever notice when something isn’t run the way it should be, or you find yourself looking for something that doesn’t exist? Chances are, you’re not the only one frustrated, and you’re not the only one who wants that nonexistent thing. Make what you want to buy yourself, and other people will probably want it too.
Meanwhile, even though Kelly makes less money (at least for now) in her new career, her health is better and she does work she enjoys—a trade-off she was happy to make.
Value means helping people. If you’re trying to build a microbusiness and you begin your efforts by helping people, you’re on the right track. When you get stuck, ask yourself: How can I give more value? Or more simply: How can I help my customers more?
More than anything else, value relates to emotional needs. Many business owners talk about their work in terms of the features it offers, but it’s much more powerful to talk about the benefits customers receive. A feature is descriptive; a benefit is emotional.
Partly as a result of the allure of working from anywhere, many aspiring entrepreneurs focus much more on the “anywhere” part than they do the “work” part.
Find the convergence between what you love and what other people are willing to buy, remember that you’re probably good at more than one thing, and combine passion and usefulness to build a real business—no matter where you end up living.
In the early days, she tried to sell something that her clients weren’t ready for. She fixed the problem by changing two things: what she offered and to whom she offered it.
You’ve probably heard the expression “The customer is always right,” but most small business owners quickly discover this is not true. Yes, you want to focus on meeting people’s needs and going above and beyond them whenever you can, but any single customer does not always know what’s best for your whole business. These customers may not be the right ones for your business, and there’s nothing wrong with saying farewell to them so you can focus on serving other people.
“Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.” —PETER F. DRUCKER
Always think in terms of solutions. Make sure your solution is different and better. (Note that it doesn’t need to be cheaper—competing on price is usually a losing proposition.)
but I also felt that $50 was too much to pay for such a brief service. As I drove away, I realized that I secretly wanted him to take longer in getting to me, even though that would have delayed me further. I wanted him to struggle with unlocking my car as part of a major effort, even though that made no sense whatsoever. The locksmith met my need and provided a quick, comprehensive solution to my problem. I was unhappy about our exchange for no good reason.
Generally, you should offer an incredible guarantee or no guarantee at all. A weak guarantee, or one that is unclear, can work against your credibility instead of helping it.
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.)
“Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.” —WOODY ALLEN
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.
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. The internal thinking goes like this: “Wow, $2 million for the latest MacBook is a lot, but hey, the $240,000 model is almost as good.”
The key to this strategy is to offer a limited range of prices: not so many as to create confusion but enough to provide buyers with a legitimate choice. Notice the important distinction that naturally happens when you offer a choice: Instead of asking them whether they’d like to buy your widget, you’re asking which widget they would like to buy.
If you grow your traffic a little and also increase your conversion rate a little while also increasing the average sales price a little…your business grows a lot.
(When your clients complain about the price being too low, you should listen.)
Despite the diverse backgrounds and regions, I heard the same story over and over: “Before my price increase, I was worried that no one would hire me again. After the price increase, I realized how easy it was, and I wish I had done it sooner.” In most cases, the change was anticlimactic. Clients said, “OK, sure,” and moved on.
When asked about any bad days or negative experiences in the business, Tom said something I’ve been thinking about ever since: “All the bad days have two things in common: You know the right thing to do, but you let somebody talk you out of doing it.”
“The fact is that the majority of people don’t own their own businesses. And a certain percentage of that majority will not be happy or supportive about your exiting the nine-to-five world.”
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.
“Be careful of letting clients take your business in a direction that makes you hate your job,”
“I used to be afraid to fail. I wanted concrete numbers telling me that we weren’t going to lose before I took the leap. But if nobody was going to die, even in the absolute worst-case scenario, then what the hell was I so afraid of? I’ve never looked back.”
