More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Read between
June 13 - July 9, 2020
It’s a microbusiness revolution—a way of earning a good living while crafting a life of independence and purpose.
Lesson 1: Convergence
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.
Lesson 2: Skill Transformation
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. Lesson 3: The Magic Formula Bringing the first two ideas together, here is the not-so-secret recipe for microbusiness alchemy: Passion or skill + usefulness = success
You just need a product or service, a group of people willing to pay for it, and a way to get paid. This can be broken down as follows: 1.Product or service: what you sell 2.People willing to pay for it: your customers 3.A way to get paid: how you’ll exchange a product or service for money
Build something that people want and give it to them.
If you’re good at one thing, you’re probably good at other things too. Many projects begin through a process of “skill transformation,” in which you apply your knowledge to a related topic. • Most important: merge your passion and skill with something that is useful to other people.
The hard way to start a business is to fumble along, uncertain whether your big idea will resonate with customers. The easy way is to find out what people want and then find a way to give it to them.
the secret to a meaningful new career was directly related to making people feel good about themselves.
Ask three questions for every idea: a.How would I get paid with this idea? b.How much would I get paid from this idea? c.Is there a way I could
Let’s stop for a moment and look at the concept of value, a word that is often used without much exploration.
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? Freedom and value have a direct relationship:
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.
Strategy 1: Dig Deeper to Uncover Hidden Needs
Strategy 2: Make Your Customer a Hero
Strategy 3: Sell What People Buy
In deciding what to sell, the best approach is to sell what people buy—in
Here are the six steps you need to take: 1.Decide on your product or service. 2.Set up a website, even a very basic one (you can get a free one from WordPress.org). 3.Develop an offer (an offer is distinct from a product or service; see Chapter 7 for help). 4.Ensure you have a way to get paid (get a free PayPal account to start). 5.Announce your offer to the world (see Chapter 9 for more on this). 6.Learn from steps 1 through 5, then repeat.
Friedrich Engels said: “An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.”
“If you make your business about helping others, you’ll always have plenty of work.”
As you build your escape plan, keep your eyes on the prize: creating real value by giving people what they really want.
The missing piece is that you usually don’t get paid for your hobby itself; you get paid for helping other people pursue the hobby or for something indirectly related to it.
The nuance comes from the idea that passion plus good business sense creates an actual business.
In addition to passion, you must develop a skill that provides
a solution to a problem. Only when passion merges with a skill that other people value can you truly follow your passion to the bank.
(Passion + skill) → (problem + marketplace) = opportunity
You just have to find the right passion, the right audience, and the right business model.
The Possibilities List and the Decision-Making Matrix
Two things: First, make sure you’re capturing all the ideas and writing them down, since you might want them later; second, find a way to evaluate competing ideas. Creating a “possibilities list” helps you retain ideas for when you have more time to implement them.
The decision-making matrix will help you evaluate a range of projects and separate the winners from the “maybe laters.”
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?
You can often follow a fad, craze, or trend by establishing yourself as an authority and simplifying something about the process for others hoping to benefit from it.
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.*
But for more ideas, check out “Seven Steps to Instant Market Testing.”
Always remember the lesson of convergence: the way your idea intersects with what other people value.
Being different isn’t enough; differentiation that makes you better is what’s required.
create a persona: the one person who would benefit the most from your idea.
“Plan as you go” to respond to the changing needs of your customers but launch your business as soon as possible, with a bias toward action.
A good offer has to be what people actually want and are willing to pay for.
Most of us like to buy, but we don’t usually like to be sold.
Offer Construction Project MAGIC FORMULA: THE RIGHT AUDIENCE, THE RIGHT PROMISE, THE RIGHT TIME = OFFER YOU CAN’T REFUSE
EXAMPLE 2: THE INEFFICIENT BUSINESS MODEL (MARKET INEFFICIENCY = BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY)
Compelling Offer Tool Kit: FAQ, Guarantee, and Overdelivery
A well-designed FAQ page also has another, extremely important purpose. You could
call it “operation objection busting”: The additional purpose of a FAQ is to provide reassurance to potential buyers and overcome objections.
we’ll call a “rough awesome format.” It works like this: Point 1: This thing is so awesome! [primary benefit] Point 2: Seriously, it’s really awesome. [secondary benefit]
Point 3: By the way, you don’t need to worry about anything. [response to concerns] Point 4: See, it’s really awesome. What are you waiting for? [take action]
