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

value is created when a person makes something useful and shares it with the world.

Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.

think more about what people really want than about what you think they need.

A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world.” —JOHN LE CARRÉ

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.

As you begin to think like an entrepreneur, you’ll notice that business ideas can come from anywhere.

The new reality is that working at a job may be the far riskier choice.

In the future, marketing will be like sex: Only the losers pay for it.

If you make your business about helping others, you’ll always have plenty of work.

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?

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 get paid more than once?

Find out what people want, and find a way to give it to them. Give them the fish!

it’s always better to start from where you are than to wait for everything to be perfect.

Scott Adams, the creator of the Dilbert comic series, explains his success this way: I succeeded as a cartoonist with negligible art talent, some basic writing skills, an ordinary sense of humor and a bit of experience in the business world. The “Dilbert” comic is a combination of all four skills. The world has plenty of better artists, smarter writers, funnier humorists and more experienced business people. The rare part is that each of those modest skills is collected in one person. That’s how value is created.

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.

For fifteen years, John and Barbara Varian were furniture builders, living on a ranch in Parkfield, California, a tiny town where the welcome sign reads “Population 18.” The idea for a side business came about by accident after a group of horseback riding enthusiasts asked if they could pay a fee to ride on the ranch. They would need to eat, too—could John and Barbara do something about that? Yes, they could. In the fall of 2006, a devastating fire burned down most of their inventory, causing them to reevaluate the whole operation. Instead of rebuilding the furniture business (no pun intended), they decided to change course. “We had always loved horses,” Barbara said, “so we decided to see about having more groups pay to come to the ranch.” They built a bunkhouse and upgraded other buildings, putting together specific packages for riding groups that included all meals and activities. John and Barbara reopened as the V6 Ranch, situated on 20,000 acres exactly halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Barbara’s story stood out to me because of something she said. I always ask business owners what they sell and why their customers buy from them, and the answers are often insightful in more ways than one. Many people answer the question directly—“We sell widgets, and people buy them because they need a widget”—but once in a while, I hear a more astute response. “We’re not selling horse rides,” Barbara said emphatically. “We’re offering freedom. Our work helps our guests escape, even if just for a moment in time, and be someone they may have never even considered before.” The difference is crucial. Most people who visit the V6 Ranch have day jobs and a limited number of vacation days. Why do they choose to visit a working ranch in a tiny town instead of jetting off to lie on a beach in Hawaii? The answer lies in the story and messaging behind John and Barbara’s offer. Helping their clients “escape and be someone else” is far more valuable than offering horse rides. Above all else, the V6 Ranch is selling happiness.

the merchants tend to pay very small commissions, leaving little for the affiliate who sent them the referral in the first place, and second, the affiliates tend to do no more than blindly pass over referrals. Big problems create big opportunities, so a good merchant can offer a better program by paying much higher commissions to start with but also expecting more from the affiliate.

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.

My product is x…how can I teach customers about y?” Then create a new version of your offering that includes consulting, coaching, a “jump-start” session, premium technical support, or something else. Make it clear that customers don’t need the service; they can get by on their own with just the product.

Was this a good purchase? Did I waste my money? You’ll want to get out in front of this feeling by making people feel good about the action they just took. The easiest and most critical way to reinforce their decision is by giving them quick access to what they paid for. But to go further, you’ll want to overdeliver: give them more than they expected.

What does the length of the report have to do with the price?” I remember thinking about that one complaint. “If I gave you a treasure map, would you complain that it was only one page long?” It turned out the joke was on me. All of us place a subjective value on goods or services that may not relate to what they “should” be.

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.

Sometimes you can have the right crowd at the wrong time; marathon runners are happy to eat donuts after the race, but not at mile 18.

Buy this coupon book, use it once, get your money back. Then you have more than a hundred other uses as a bonus.” Scott frames it like this: “Just do the math! Using a single one of the 130+ coupons in the book will save you more than the cost of the book itself.

Competition from other businesses is a problem for another day; the greater problem you face is inertia. Nick won the battle against inertia by getting his site up and running, and was rewarded with the sale.

I didn’t have time to call Dan on launch day, and perhaps I missed a good opportunity to learn from him. But I’m pretty sure it was the better decision to get back to work on my core market instead of spending time with one disgruntled customer who had already received a refund.