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Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future

$100. What can you do with this amount of money? Probably not that much.

No way! It may sound like a fairytale, but Chris Guillebeau’s The $100 Startup tells you how to do exactly that.

Chris Guillebeau‘s book does exactly what it promises in the title – shows you how to build a startup with only 100 bucks. The prerequisite is pretty simple: discover your passion. Develop it. And then you’re just one step away from turning it into a real, and profitable, business.

SMART SMALL BUSINESS/ THE $100 STARTUP

“Spend as little money as possible and make as much money as you can.”

Business plans, marketing strategies, loads of employees, great financial investments, late hours in the office… all those are suddenly no longer valid once you’ve read Chris Guillebeau’s book.

The $100 Startup is an easy-to-use guide filled with plenty of inspirational business lessons and valuable information regarding other entrepreneur’s experiences.

You can start unchaining yourself from stereotypical approaches by checking out the summary below.

Who Should Read “The $100 Startup” and Why?

$100.

What can you do with this amount of money?

Probably not that much. Maybe treat yourself to some new jeans, pay for a month of premium access to a fancy marketing tool…. but starting a business?

No way!

It may sound like a fairytale, but Chris Guillebeau’s The $100 Startup tells you how to do precisely that.

About Chris Guillebeau

Chris Guillebeau is a bestselling author, a regular contributor to Business Week, CNN.com, and the Huffington Post, and an expert on international travel and creative self-employment.

He recently managed to accomplish his dream of visiting every country on the planet.

“The $100 Startup Summary”

Lately, all around the globe, more and more people are deciding to quit their office jobs and follow their passion by opening their own businesses.

These businesses, called microbusinesses, are typically one-person companies.

You may think that opening any kind of business is a hard job and requires many funds, but that might be just a misconception that has stopped you from doing it yourself.

People with any type of educational background open such businesses, which sometimes to their surprise grow into something much bigger than they have imagined.

To consider something a business it is important that it makes money.

So, how can you make sure that if you do decide to act on your passions, you make enough money to earn a living?

Well, in order to achieve success it is important that you find the point where your skills, passion and the customer needs meet.

The vital part of the equation is meeting the customer needs.

In other words, you need to become someone who provides value to other people, so study your target audience well.

Do not be lazy when it comes to your customers since they are the ones that will ultimately keep your business alive.

Find any way you can to help them and improve their lives, and create your business offerings around that knowledge.

When you have a target audience you already study, you will also know if they will be interested in the product you want to offer.

To get concrete answers, approach your potential clients either with a survey or informally and find out if they would pay and how much they would value their product.

Also, you can ask about other things they feel they can be helped with and that you can incorporate into the product or service you offer.

However, do not always take your customers’ words literally. Many times what they say they want is not something that they truly want.

Just think about airlines: customers say they want comfort, but when airlines offer more legroom or better service for a higher price, people back off from their wishes and opt for the normal option.

That said, the best way is to create a balance between what your customers say they want and what you find out, and “read” even the unspoken needs that they have.

There will be times when you feel you are passionate about something and you think it might work if you just had the right skills.

But the skills you have are not something you need to worry about.

Why?

Because maybe you do not have the specific skills you need, but you surely have some related ones, which you can use when you start, and which can cover for you while you are entering skill transformation and acquiring the exact skills you need.

In other words, skills are something you can transform, so they are within your full control.

Of course, have in mind that not every passion can become a passion, but you can always find something close to the passions that can earn you money.

To make sure that your business creates a profit, think about all things you can charge.

One way is to provide a subscription service which can make you insane amounts of money by just a small list of customers.

Furthermore, do not price your product based on the costs of production, but on the value you provide.

Also, think about periodically raising your prices, when you feel that you can do it. Many times customers will even encourage you if they are satisfied with your product.

Lastly, offer a few options to your customers, or what is known as a limited range of price.

Many people want “premium” editions so that you can make money from that as well.

Of course, once your business is running, you will need to make changes and fine-tune it for reaching optimum profitability.

But that comes later. First, you need to layout the groundwork.

Key Lessons from “The $100 Startup.”

1.      Passion is Not Enough For Starting a Business
2.      Try to Achieve Low Costs
3.      Keep Your Plans Simple

Passion is Not Enough For Starting a Business

You may be passionate about something, but that does not mean that you can instantly open a business.

The difference between a hobby and a business is that businesses make money, so turning your passion into something profitable, will also require you to have a specific skill set as well as a pool of potential customers.

Try to Achieve Low Costs

Having in mind the previous key lesson, you already know that your business needs to earn you a living.

And to do so, you have to look at what your business makes you, the expenses as well as the funding.

Thankfully, funding nowadays is very easy and opening a business is not costly at all.

However, you should put all the focus you can on your costs, and redistribute your investment wisely.

Keep Your Plans Simple

Complicated plans will not get you results.

However, action will.

That is why you need to keep your plans simple and make sure you follow them.

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“The $100 Startup” Quotes

Our Critical Review

Chris Guillebeau‘s book does exactly what it promises in the title – shows you how to build a startup with only 100 bucks.

Business plans, marketing strategies, loads of employees, great financial investments, late hours in the office… all those are suddenly no longer valid once you have read Chris Guillebeau’s book

The prerequisite is pretty simple: discover your passion. Develop it. And then you are just one step away from turning it into a real, and profitable, business.

You can start unchaining yourself from stereotypical approaches by checking out the quotes below – our favorite visual quotes from this book.

Emir Zecovic

Emir is the Head of Marketing at 12min. In his spare time, he loves to meditate and play soccer.