From generating ideas to gaining your first paying customers. This is the bootstrapper's bible for launching your next product. 1. Why validation isn't the answer 2. How to evaluate your business idea 3. How to choose a business name fast 4. How to build a website in 1 day for under $100 5. 10 proven ways to market a business quickly
Content Machine outlines a strategy for using content marketing to build a 7-figure business with zero advertising. Whether you are a blogger, content marketer, entrepreneur or marketing manager, Content Machine will help you see the return you deserve from your content marketing efforts.
The practical guide to learning the essentials of starting your own business in just one week Thinking about starting a business? Then Learn Small Business Startup in 7 Days is the book for you. Guiding you through the key aspects of getting a new business up and running, from a self assessment about whether you are really prepared, through to finance, marketing, and legal issues, highly sought-after small business commentator Heather Smith covers it all. Carefully explaining everything you need to know to efficiently and effectively start a business, the book comprehensively covers the basics in 7 chapters, one for every day it will take you to get ready to leave the rat race and live your small business dream. Covers everything you need to know to start and prosper as a small business owner Helps you gauge whether running a small business is right for you Offers expert advice from a highly-respected small-business specialist While running a small business allows you to turn your passion into your livelihood, it is also often very demanding on your time, your cash reserves, and your sanity. With this book in hand, you have everything you need to lay a solid foundation for small business success.
Start strong with essential early-stage guidance from the VC perspective Startup Opportunities is the go-to guide for anyone with a great business idea. Whether it's your first business or your fifth, realistic assessment from the outset can save you a lot of time and money; why pour your heart and soul into a venture that is doomed to fail? Instead, position yourself to win from the very beginning. In this book, accomplished venture capitalists share their insight on startups and entrepreneurs: who will fail, who will succeed and why, and what you should do to give your business the very best shot at becoming a global success story. You'll learn how to evaluate your business with a critical eye, and how early customer development can be key in turning a good idea into a great opportunity. If you're serious about building a business that lasts, this book provides invaluable guidance that you really cannot miss. More than five million people will launch a business this year, and many of them will be great ideas—yet few will be around in five years, and even fewer in ten years. A great idea is not enough to build a successful business. You need to fortify your idea with the proper foundation, and a scaffolding of good planning and early action. This book shows you how. Assess your business's viability using the 10x Rule Learn when you can quit your day job—or not Take the key steps to making your business succeed Discover the opportunities worth selling everything for This expert author team has witnessed more than 30,000 pitches over two decades, and have participated in over 500 startup launches. Startup Opportunities gives you the benefit of their experience to help you start strong and stay strong.
Most startups fail. But many of those failures are preventable. The Lean Startup is a new approach being adopted across the globe, changing the way companies are built and new products are launched. Eric Ries defines a startup as an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty. This is just as true for one person in a garage or a group of seasoned professionals in a Fortune 500 boardroom. What they have in common is a mission to penetrate that fog of uncertainty to discover a successful path to a sustainable business. The Lean Startup approach fosters companies that are both more capital efficient and that leverage human creativity more effectively. Inspired by lessons from lean manufacturing, it relies on “validated learning,” rapid scientific experimentation, as well as a number of counter-intuitive practices that shorten product development cycles, measure actual progress without resorting to vanity metrics, and learn what customers really want. It enables a company to shift directions with agility, altering plans inch by inch, minute by minute. Rather than wasting time creating elaborate business plans, The Lean Startup offers entrepreneurs—in companies of all sizes—a way to test their vision continuously, to adapt and adjust before it’s too late. Ries provides a scientific approach to creating and managing successful startups in a age when companies need to innovate more than ever.
Best-selling author Chris Guillebeau presents a full-color ideabook featuring 100 stories of regular people launching successful side businesses that almost anyone can do. This unique guide features the startup stories of regular people launching side businesses that almost anyone can do: an urban tour guide, an artist inspired by maps, a travel site founder, an ice pop maker, a confetti photographer, a group of friends who sell hammocks to support local economies, and many more. In 100 Side Hustles, best-selling author of The $100 Startup Chris Guillebeau presents a colorful "idea book" filled with inspiration for your next big idea. Distilled from Guillebeau's popular Side Hustle School podcast, these case studies feature teachers, artists, coders, and even entire families who've found ways to create new sources of income. With insights, takeaways, and photography that reveals the human element behind the hustles, this playbook covers every important step of launching a side hustle, from identifying underserved markets to crafting unique products and services that spring from your passions. Soon you'll find yourself joining the ranks of these innovative entrepreneurs--making money on the side while living your best life.
Most of us have always wanted to make something, but for any number of reasons haven't. We are all creative - there is a creator in you. But there is also a force called Hate, which will work against your creativity and stop you from making things. Hate can be controlled, and overpowered and your creative side can be nurtured and grown.
Lead a life of adventure, meaning and purpose—and earn a good living. “Thoughtful, funny, and compulsively readable, this guide shows how ordinary people can build solid livings, with independence and purpose, on their own terms.”—Gretchen Rubin, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Happiness Project Still in his early thirties, Chris Guillebeau completed a tour of every country on earth and yet he’s never held a “real job” or earned a regular paycheck. Rather, he has a special genius for turning ideas into income, and he uses what he earns both to support his life of adventure and to give back. Chris identified 1,500 individuals who have built businesses earning $50,000 or more from a modest investment (in many cases, $100 or less), and focused on the 50 most intriguing case studies. In nearly all cases, people with no special skills discovered aspects of their personal passions that could be monetized, and were able to restructure their lives in ways that gave them greater freedom and fulfillment. Here, finally, distilled into one easy-to-use guide, are the most valuable lessons from those who’ve learned how to turn what they do into a gateway to self-fulfillment. It’s all about finding the intersection between your “expertise”—even if you don’t consider it such—and what other people will pay for. You don’t need an MBA, a business plan or even employees. All you need is a product or service that springs from what you love to do anyway, people willing to pay, and a way to get paid. Not content to talk in generalities, Chris tells you exactly how many dollars his group of unexpected entrepreneurs required to get their projects up and running; what these individuals did in the first weeks and months to generate significant cash; some of the key mistakes they made along the way, and the crucial insights that made the business stick. Among Chris’s key principles: If you’re good at one thing, you’re probably good at something else; never teach a man to fish—sell him the fish instead; and in the battle between planning and action, action wins. In ancient times, people who were dissatisfied with their lives dreamed of finding magic lamps, buried treasure, or streets paved with gold. Today, we know that it’s up to us to change our lives. And the best part is, if we change our own life, we can help others change theirs. This remarkable book will start you on your way.
24 Steps to Success! Disciplined Entrepreneurship will change the way you think about starting a company. Many believe that entrepreneurship cannot be taught, but great entrepreneurs aren’t born with something special – they simply make great products. This book will show you how to create a successful startup through developing an innovative product. It breaks down the necessary processes into an integrated, comprehensive, and proven 24-step framework that any industrious person can learn and apply. You will learn: Why the “F” word – focus – is crucial to a startup’s success Common obstacles that entrepreneurs face – and how to overcome them How to use innovation to stand out in the crowd – it’s not just about technology Whether you’re a first-time or repeat entrepreneur, Disciplined Entrepreneurship gives you the tools you need to improve your odds of making a product people want. Author Bill Aulet is the managing director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship as well as a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management. For more please visit http://disciplinedentrepreneurship.com/
A note from Dan. I'm now in my 15th year as an entrepreneur, and over those years my ideas around what an entrepreneur is, and how to build a business, have changed a lot. My university lessons in Marketing didn't serve me too well, but even as a business owner for many years, I continued this habit of looking for someone to give me the answer. Seeking permission. It didn't work, but what did work was spending years piecing together a new way of marketing through trial, error and some chance encounters with generous people. Compound Marketing provides a framework for thinking about how to market a solid long term business without short term strategies. It looks at the 4 most important things that I think entrepreneurs can do if they want to take an approach to marketing that will give them ongoing compounding growth as opposed to quick wins. Compound Marking is the way I have built all of my businesses, some 6 figures, some 7 and some 8, with a far below average spend on marketing and advertising. Compound Marketing tells the stories of my businesses and many others and provides practical advice for entrepreneurs on using the 4 key compounding marketing strategies of Brand, Storytelling, Content and Community to build a modern business with an unfair growth advantage.