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

by Chris Guillebeau

In the rough awesome format, point 1 is the main benefit, point 2 is a reinforcement of the main benefit or an important side benefit, point 3 is where you deal with the objections, and point 4 is where you bring ...

The difference between a good offer and a great offer is urgency (also known as timeliness): Why should people act now?

The worst thing you could do for a launch is to open your movie without letting anyone know. A much better thing is to tell a story. The story unfolds like this… 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.

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.

Whoa, we’re almost ready! This communication happens right before the launch,

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.

Use the Thirty-Nine-Step Product Launch Checklist as a model.

Any analysis of “launch marketing” should give credit to the classic book Influence by Robert Cialdini,

Jeff Walker, an entrepreneur and educator, is also well known for his work on product launches.

Being willing to promote in an authentic, non-sleazy manner is a core attribute of microbusiness success.

Strategic giving is about being genuinely, truly helpful without the thought of a potential payback. Building Relationships Is a Strategy, Not a Tactic

Give Something Away and Watch People Jump

There’s nothing like a contest or giveaway to get people engaged.

The difference between a contest and a giveaway is fairly simple: A contest involves some kind of competition or judging, whereas a giveaway is a straight-up free offer provided to winners through random entries.

If you’re not sure where to spend your business development time, spend 50 percent on creating and 50 percent on connecting. The most powerful channel for getting the word out usually starts with people you already know. • If you build it, they might come…but you’ll probably need to let them know what you’ve built and how to get there. • When you’re first getting started, say yes to every reasonable request. Become more selective (consider the “hell yeah” test) as you become more established. • Use the One-Page Promotion Plan to maintain a regular schedule of connecting with people as you also spend time building other parts of your business.

Naomi opened a consulting

company called IttyBiz. Tag line: “Marketing for businesses without marketing departments.” Later she would add products, courses, and referrals to other professionals, but Naomi started with a single consulting service: the service of brainstorming. Over the course of an hour and for an initial fee of $250, she would evaluate marketing ideas and provide feedback on ways to improve them. Nothing more, nothing less.

Remember that the goal of business is profit. It’s not being liked, or having a huge social media presence, or having amazing products that nobody buys. It is not having a beautiful website, or perfectly crafted email newsletters, or an incredibly popular

blog.

On any given day, there are all kinds of things you can do that have nothing to do with making money—but you should be careful about those distractions, because without the money, there is no business.

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.

Make More Money (Three Key Principles to Focus on Profit)

In short, they are as follows: 1.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.

Principle 1: Base Prices on Benefits, Not Costs

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”). We tend to default to talking about features, but since most purchases are emotional decisions, it’s much more persuasive to talk about benefits.

INCREASE TRAFFIC.

Traffic means attention.

INCREASE CONVERSION. Once you have a stable base of attention (whether measured in site traffic or another way), you’ll want to look closely at the conversion rate: the percentage of prospects who become customers.

Traffic → A/B test → compare results

INCREASE AVERAGE SALES PRICE. If you can increase the average sales price per order, this will increase your bottom line, just as increasing traffic or conversion will.

SELL MORE TO EXISTING CUSTOMERS. Your existing customers are likely to respond to sales, promotions, or additional offers

the key is balance: Your customers want to hear from you.

“The most important thing is to keep taking action.”

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.

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.

ENCOURAGE REFERRALS. Most people know that word of mouth is the greatest source of new business,

HOLD A CONTEST.

Find a way to give away a prize and invite people to compete. The bigger the prize or the more unique the contest, the better.

INTRODUCE THE MOST POWERFUL GUARANTEE YOU CAN THINK OF.

ALTERNATIVELY, MAKE A BIG DEAL ABOUT OFFERING NO GUARANTEE.

The key lesson in all these ideas is to always be experimenting. Try new things and see what happens.

Another easy thing many existing businesses can do to add a new revenue source quickly is to create a service from a product-based business or create a product from a service-based business.

create a new version of your offering that includes consulting, coaching, a “jump-start” session, premium technical support, or something else.

(Lesson: To get an unfair advantage, provide remarkable service.) Love for customers. Every order sent by mail includes a personalized thank-you note from an employee, encouraging customers to call if they need help with a pattern, plus free samples of other products.

Customers pay for what you deliver, not how long you spend at lunch.

People follow you (or your business) because that’s what they’re interested in—you.

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.