You already have the skills you need—you just have to know where to look.
In this book Guillebeau explains that running a solo-business is not a new idea, it’s been done forever. However, the rate of increase in such type of business is increasing rapidly over the years. These days the process isn’t only faster, but also cheaper, and Guillebeau believes it can be done for $100.
For that he explains the most important lessons:
Convergence
Guillebeau explains that convergence is the point of overlap between something that you really enjoy doing, your passion (something that you’re hopefully good at) and something that other people also have an interest in (the usefulness). This point of overlap is where you should be aiming to establish your business because this is where success can cultivate and your business freedom can blossom.
Skill Transformation
The second lesson Guillebeau explains is skill transformation. He explains that in order to succeed, you have to identify what skills you already have and determine whether or not they could be useful to other people. Try to combine your skills so as to add more value to them.
The Magic Formula
The last stage of 3 lessons is bringing all together with the following magic formula.
”Passion or skill + usefulness = success”
If you can start with a basic product or service, you then need to find your audience, people who will pay for your product or service. And finally, you need to establish a payment method, how you are going to receive the money for your product/service.
Adding value
Anything you can pack and sell as a product or service can be considered valuable. And he stresses that ideas sometimes come out of nowhere, there’s no rule to finding your ‘million-dollar-idea’, it’s going to come when it comes. However, it’s important to keep your eye out for inspiration and opportunities as they are everywhere; you just have to start looking!
Here are a few ideas for areas to look at for inspiration:
-Any kind of inefficiency in any market. Something that could be done better or isn’t performing as well as it could.
-New technologies, these are constantly popping up.
-A changing space or platform.
Value
When considering starting your own business, if you start with focusing on helping people, the Guillebeau believes you are well on your way. If you make this the centre-point of your business, you’re destined for success.
Getting started immediately in 6 steps require:
1. Commit to a product or service.
2. Build a simple website
3. Come up with an offer
4. Establish a payment method
5. Let the world know what your offering (advertising, start on social media and go from there)
6. Repeat 1-5 over and over until you find success.
Guillebeau explains that you can establish yourself as a consultant if you follow a few simple rules. First, make sure you go for a specific specialty. Explain exactly what part of business you help with. Make sure your customers know what they are getting with you. Secondly, Guillebeau emphasizes the importance of pricing yourself and your service. Charging $15/hour may feel like a good idea to get a few clients under your belt, but the reality is that people won’t value someone who charges so little, they’ll question the quality of work you can provide. Consider charging $100/hour as a minimum, or something similar if you are going for fixed rates. Make sure your prices reflect your work.
Roaming Entrepreneurs
The internet has led to a new emergence of what Guillebeau calls ‘roaming entrepreneurs’. The idea that you can work from anywhere, there’s no need to be stuck in a high-rise in the centre of a busy city if you can do the same work from a beach side paradise. However, Guillebeau warns that just like passions, sometimes picking the lifestyle of a roaming entrepreneur isn’t ideal for your circumstances.
Customers
Generally, there are two different strategies Guillebeau suggests when it comes to figuring out what to sell. The first involves finding a popular hobby or craze, something that’s just getting started and tapping into that market. The second strategy involves simply figuring out what people are already buying and doing that. There may be plenty of opportunities you could potentially tap into and you may get overwhelmed. To try and avoid overwhelm of ideas, Guillebeau recommends writing down all of your ideas and coming up with a way to test ideas against each other.
Taking it to the streets
Test your market
1. You need to care about the problem you are going to solve, and there has to be a sizable number of other people who also care.
2. Make sure the market is big enough. Test the size by checking the number and relevancy of Google keywords—the same keywords you would use if you were trying to find your product.
3.The product should be capable to solve the existing market problem.
4. You should be able to reflect how your product would reduce the pain and satisfy the consumers.
5. Always ensure that your solution is different and better.
6. Ask ideas from your potential target market.
7. Create a framework for the subgroup of your community for feedback and confidentiality.
Mission Statements
Let’s break down the planning process into a very simple exercise: defining the mission statement for your business in 140 characters or less. It may help to think of the first two characteristics of any business: a product or service and the group of people who pay for it. Put the two together and you’ve got a mission statement
An Offer You Can’t Refuse
A guide for creating a good offer:
1. Understand that what we want and what we say we want is not always the same thing. Look for what people are really willing to pay for.
2. Propose compelling offers rather than pressurizing customers.
3. Provide a nudge.
Launch!
Launch your product not just to increase your influence but to preserve your relationship with other prospects per se.
Hustling: The Gentle Art of Self-Promotion
To actively and effectively recruit new prospects follow this time oriented guide.
-DAILY: Maintain a regular and meaningful presence on Social Networking Sites without being sidetracked.
-WEEKLY: Try to maintain regular communication with colleagues and customers.
-AT LEAST MONTHLY: Prepare yourself for an upcoming event, or product launch. Also, connect with existing customers to strengthen their faith.
Make Money
The primary goal is to make money. Businesses are improving their probability of success by opting various ventures to make money. You can do this with a variety of methods.
Leverage and next steps
Moving On Up
Various ways to improve income involves small changes that create a big impact.
1. Get more Traffic
2. Increase Conversion
3. Increase Average Sale Prices
4. Sell More to Existing Customers
5. Institute a New Up sell
6. Encourage Referrals
7. Hold a Contest
8. Introduce a Powerful Guarantee
How to Franchise Yourself
There are several ways to grow a business through the use of leverage. Franchising yourself isn’t just doing more; it’s about taking your skills, activities, and passions to a higher level to create better returns. The difference between franchising yourself and just doing more is that you take the time to be strategic.
One path to franchising yourself is to team up with a trusted partner but not at the cost of completely merging your business with that person.
Going Long
Finding a way to build systematization into the business, and deciding what role the business will play in the rest of their lives is the biggest challenge.
There’s more than one road to freedom, and some people find it through a combination of different working arrangements.
Focus more on your business by devoting time each single day. Check up on the others monthly or bimonthly. A business that is scalable is both teachable and valuable.