This week I’ll be in Milwaukee and Columbus, then flying over to London for the first international stop of the new tour.

I hope to see many of you on the road! Dates and schedule here.

***

Previous Updates in this Series:

Convergence
Skill Transformation
Report from the Road

Today I want to share the most important lesson of The $100 Startup.

The central message of the book is that the skills (and the money) you already have are all you need. You don’t need an MBA. You don’t need to beg the bank for money. You don’t need to write a 60-page business plan that no one will ever read.

To start a business, you just need a product or service, a group of people willing to buy it, and a way to get paid. That’s it! Focus on these three things exclusively.

As quickly as possible, get the first sale. Aim to do this within 30 days of conceiving of your idea. Then, pursue a process of continuous improvement to tweak your way to the bank (more on this later).

There is no consulting school. If you want to help people with a specific problem, go ahead and set up shop. (See the Instant Consultant Plan.)

We become comfortable with change by taking action to change. (See this article and a lesson on bulldozers for more.)

One of my favorite stories from the book comes from Lexington, South Carolina. On my first book tour, 18 months ago, I stopped by the Jamestown Coffee Shop. It was a great place and reminded me a lot of some of my favorite shops in the Pacific Northwest…. which wasn’t surprising once I heard the story. Here’s some background on how Jamestown Coffee came to be:

From his home base in Seattle, James Kirk used to build and manage computer data centers around the country. But in an act of conviction that took less than six months from idea to execution, he packed up a 2006 Mustang and left Seattle for South Carolina, on a mission to start an authentic coffee shop in the land of biscuits and iced tea. Once he made the decision, he says, all other options were closed:

“There was one moment very early on where I realized, this is what I want to do, and this is what I am going to do. And that was that. Decision made. I’ll figure the rest out.”

As we’ll see, James later got serious about making a real plan, but the more important step was the decision to proceed. Ready or not, he was heading for a major change, and it couldn’t come soon enough. A few short months later, Jamestown Coffee opened for business in Lexington, South Carolina. James and his new staff had worked ten-hour days for several weeks to prepare for the opening. But there it was—a ribbon to be cut, the mayor on hand to welcome the business to the community, and a line of customers eager to sample the wares. The day had come at last, and there was no looking back.

Later in the book I discuss more about the coffee shop. Along the way, James made numerous adjustments. He did in fact do a fair amount of planning. But as noted, the most important thing was to go. Decision made.

Let James Kirk’s story serve as a reminder to you. It all begins with an active decision, followed by action. Will you make your own decision to act?

Lastly, a Note on Urgency

I write a lot about legacy projects, and what I believe is a core need to focus on what we’ll make with the our lives. The related theme to this is urgency, the need to seize the day and make our time count for something.

I’m on the road again now, meeting with fun people every night and hearing good stories of change.

It challenges me. I don’t get every talk right, and I’m tweaking as I go. There are a few things I wished I had done differently in setting up the tour.

But I made the decision, and I’m moving forward. Another day, another city. In the down time I work on other projects, always making a little progress at a time and thinking about the next thing. It’s fun, it’s worth it, and what else would I do? That’s right, nothing.

What decision to act can you make right now?

Tell us here.

###

*It’s official: The $100 Startup is an Instant National Bestseller. Thanks for your support!

The Kindle version is now available in the U.S. and Canada, and the UK/Commonwealth version launches on Thursday, May 24.

This week: Chapel Hill, Atlanta, Miami, Houston, and Denver.

Tour dates and cities here.

And have I mentioned… THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT! I’m extremely grateful.

***

Continuing the theme of lessons learned, today let’s talk about skills.

In short, no matter what you think, you have them. Not only do you have general skills, you have skills that are marketable. You are good at something that can be parlayed into a business model.

The thing is, these skills may be different than you first realize. They may need to be reworked or repositioned somehow. But the central premise is:

If you’re good at one thing, you’re good at something else. Often the “something else” is where you’ll find the business model.

For example…

In London, Kat Alder was a waitress with good communication skills—her customers were always complimenting her and giving her good tips. She was good at providing recommendations and gently upselling them in a way they were happy about. Then someone said, “You know, you’d be really good at P.R.”

Kat was originally from Germany and wasn’t even sure that P.R. stood for Public Relations. After she was let go from another temporary job at the BBC, she thought back on the conversation. She still didn’t know much about the P.R. industry, but she landed her first client within a month and figured it out. Four years later, her firm employs five people and operates in London, Berlin, New York, and China.

If you’re a teacher, you’re also good at crowd control and discipline. You’re good at lesson planning (teachers don’t have much time to prepare) and you’re good at staying on track. You’re probably also good at seeing the long-term, since the best teachers incorporate an arc in their teaching; what you learn now is related to broader principles that you learn over time.

Similarly, if you’re an engineer, you’re a good problem solver. You’re good at analytical thinking and creating solutions. Brandon Pearce built a multiple six-figure business providing a solution to music teachers who were busy teaching and not as good at running their business.

The point is that sometimes you have to look beyond the obvious—but you already have the skills.

I also wrote about this last month in a post that wasn’t sent by email. Here’s how Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic strip, puts it:

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.

***

One more thing: if you aren’t sure what skills you have that could be marketable, focus on the questions people ask you. Everyone’s an expert at something, and you may discover your specific skills by understanding what other people already see in you.

That’s it for today… I’m now back on the road to Chapel Hill and beyond.

Wherever you are, have a great week!

###

The $100 Startup is just $14 at Amazon.com. You can also pick up or request the book at your favorite local bookstore.

Lots of people are asking about the Kindle version. It’s been experiencing a glitch that causes it to disappear from the listing, but should be back soon.

Image: James

The book is out, and I’m on the road!

The launch party in New York was extremely fun. Last night I was in Boston at the Harvard Coop, and tonight I’m heading down to Washington, DC.

We’re hitting a new city almost every day for the next four weeks. Tour dates here.

And by the way… THANKS FOR YOUR HELP! It’s going very well so far, and we hope to keep it going for a long time.

Order Here on Amazon
Order Here on BN.com
Order from Your Local Bookstore

***

Over the next month, I’ll be sharing some of the lessons I learned in spending time with all the “unexpected entrepreneurs” profiled in the book. These won’t be promotional posts; I’ll be sharing real lessons and helpful information you can use in your own pursuit of freedom.

One of the first things I looked at was the question of the follow-your-passion model.

Many people talked about building a business based on a hobby or passion. However, others cautioned that “follow your passion” is more complicated than it first appears.

The key is that you can’t be passionate about just anything; instead you need to be passionate about something that other people are willing to spend money on. Here’s how I described it in the book:

As we’ll examine it, convergence represents the intersection between something you especially like to do or are good at doing (preferably both), and what other people are also interested in. The easiest way to understand convergence is: the overlapping space between what you care about and what other people are willing to spend money on.

Not everything that you are passionate about or skilled in is interesting to the rest of the world—and not everything is marketable. I can be very passionate about eating pizza, but no one is going to pay me to do it. Likewise, any particular person won’t be able to provide a solution to every problem or be interesting to everyone. But in the overlap between the two circles, where passion or skill meets usefulness, a microbusiness built on freedom and value can thrive.

***

The lesson of convergence can be seen in almost every case study in the book, and indeed, in almost every successful business. In Reno, Nevada, Mignon Fogarty created the QD Network, best known for her signature show Grammar Girl. The show was a huge hit almost from the beginning, spawning a line of books, related programs, and non-stop media attention.

But before she was Grammar Girl, Mignon pursued a similar idea in an unsuccessful attempt to build popularity through podcasting. Here’s how she tells the story:

“Before I launched the successful Grammar Girl podcast, I was the host of a science podcast called Absolute Science. I loved doing that show and I was passionate about it. I actually put more effort into promoting that show than I did for the Grammar Girl podcast, and although Absolute Science was well-received, after doing it for nearly a year it was clear that the show was never going to make enough money to make it worth the time required to produce it.”

Mignon changed course, trading science for grammar. The answer wasn’t to abandon her passion altogether, but rather to make sure she connected the right passion with the right audience.

“Absolute Science”: Passion… but not enough audience

“Grammar Girl”: Passion… and a substantial audience

In India, Purna Duggirala found a way to create spreadsheet tools (It’s now a six-figure business).

In Kansas City, Marianne Cascone co-founded Bon Bon Cupcakes, a children’s clothing firm.

In the U.K., Jonathan Pincas founded the Tapas Lunch Company, based on importing food from his partner’s native Spain. They later relocated to Spain and run the business back and forth between the two countries. A love for Spanish food and culture combined with a desire from the marketplace in Britain to get more authentic goods.

The examples go on and on, and the key point is: find convergence! This is the first and most important predictor of success in any business or freedom plan.

The link between passion and value is how you’ll change the world.

Question: Have you found convergence? How are you looking for it?

Tell us here.

###

Image: Tera!

It took a ton of work, but we have now pared down a few highlights from the interview into a two-minute trailer that you can see below or directly on YouTube.

In this video…

Emily Cavalier left a six-figure job in New York to run Mouth of the Border and Midnight Brunch.

Michael Hanna was unemployed and started an unconventional mattress store that offers delivery by bicycle.

Sarah Young founded a yarn shop at the height of the recession. She now employs seven people. In the video she talks about calling her dad after having her first $1,000 day. Last month, she had her first $10,000 day.

James Kirk packed up everything he owned and drove from Seattle to South Carolina to start a coffee bar in the land of biscuits and sweet tea.

Note: the book is fully international, with case studies from all over the world—but despite repeated requests from Wes, I did not fly him to the beaches of Croatia and Tahiti to film people there. You’ll have to get the book to read those stories.

My favorite part of the whole project, from writing the book to reviewing this footage, was hearing the stories of people who have created freedom for themselves by making something valuable for the world. Most of them aren’t professional bloggers. None of them went to business school. They are ordinary people from all walks of life who now work full-time doing something they enjoy.

A Note on Killing the Dream

I’ve been reading a lot of blog posts lately that serve as reality checks on the concept of “quit your job and do what you love.” I always have mixed feelings about these things. Yes, it’s true that self-employment requires a lot of work and isn’t always what employed people perceive it to be.

In fact, in the book itself I tried to be fairly specific about the “follow-your-passion to the bank” thing. (More on this later. The short version is: sometimes you can do that and other times you can’t.)

But I also think it’s pretty important to be clear that working for yourself is awesome. In researching and writing The $100 Startup, I heard from hundreds of people who are all living the dream. Therefore, my message is “Don’t kill the dream! Don’t reality-check your life.”

As I said about failure recently, who says you’re going to fail? Success is better, and there’s no reason you won’t succeed.

Thanks again to Wes for his great work! We’ll be sharing more of these stories over the next few months.

###

*Our friends at Only72.com are kicking off another epic sale today… and this one benefits the book! Check it out starting at 12pm EST today and lasting until… 72 hours later.

One week from tomorrow, it all begins! I’ll be visiting 22 cities to meet readers on The $100 Startup tour! Everything is frantic over here, but I’m also super excited about kicking things off.

A long time ago, I was a jazz musician. I listened to Thelonious Monk and Bill Evans. I loved what they had done for the jazz world, and for the joy of music in general.

If only I practiced or memorized enough, I thought, I might not be an original, but I could at least reproduce what they had done. (At least in this case, I decided, individuality is overrated. If I could be like one of them, I’d be happy.)

But no matter how much I practiced, I could never be Monk. There was something about the technique, the choice of notes, phrases, and syncopation that couldn’t be imitated. I got the feeling that even if the imitation was perfect—mine certainly wasn’t—something would be missing.

***

A good artist, regardless of their profession, does something that is useful, enjoyable, or otherwise beneficial to other people. Sometimes we think we have to be very good at one thing—and indeed, that’s often how ends up… eventually.

But value is a combination of skills and deliverables that make your work unique. A quote from Scott Adams illustrates this principle well:

It’s unlikely that any average student can develop a world-class skill in one particular area. But it’s easy to learn how to do several different things fairly well.

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.

Like Adams, I feel the same way in my current career—many people do each aspect of my work better than I do. I learned early on that I’m not a good travel writer, so I left that for other people. I don’t want to hire people or outsource undesired tasks. I also don’t offer coaching or consulting at all. I try to do a good job on the projects I pursue, but there are many left by the wayside as I move to other things.

The times when I’ve tried to improve various undeveloped skills usually result in only modest gains—like trying to be Thelonious Monk. In fact, more often than not it results in frustration as I force myself to attempt something for which I have no talent or aptitude.

It’s funny, if you make a list of all the things you don’t do well, you may wonder how you’ve even made it this far. But those things don’t matter—as Adams says, you can be average or even mediocre in many ways as long as you craft everything together in a way that gives other people something to care about.

The danger of imitation is not that you’ll completely fail; it’s that you’ll succeed a little. You’ll get by and do OK—but getting by and doing OK does not produce real value. Even if it were possible to be a perfect imitation, the combination of skills that results in your own contribution is so much better.

There’s only one Monk, only one Scott Adams, only one of you and me.

###

Image: Exquisitur

Are you happy in your job?

This fun resource—a one-page, “career cheat sheet”—from Sarah K. Peck can help you think through the question in a structured way.

Sarah published this chart last month and has received a strong reaction. Here’s what she had to say about it:

I’ve spent time with a wide range of folks – people in start-ups, people in recently established businesses, people in small companies, and people in large companies. This question comes up a lot, yet you can’t seem to figure out whether or not to stay or go. Whether to try something new. If it’s possible to fix something that’s an existing problem.

The response I’m getting from 40- and 50- year olds is especially interesting. My parents’ generation really responded so well. My dad, for example, said: You know, I really didn’t love my job for a while, but after reviewing this sheet I realized how thankful and grateful I am for my job, and how much my job challenges me and intrigues me. Sure, I’m tired on a daily basis, but I’m not bored.

I love that a reflection sheet like this can actually help us remember how much we like what we already have. It’s not necessarily about finding out that you hate your job, but that you might find out that you like your job after all!

Also, it’s nice to have a rubric to bounce ideas off of. It’s hard to just answer the question “Should I quit?” because you don’t have any frame from which to guide the argument. It’s easier to have a list of questions to provoke you and help you think through what might be important or what matters to you.

I’m heading to Austin this weekend, and then out to see the world on my final big trip before I go on the road for book tour #2. Before leaving, I asked Sarah a few questions about the career cheat sheet.

Q. How did the cheat sheet come about?

On a particularly frustrating day about two years ago, I sat down and asked myself, “What, exactly, am I not liking about this current situation?” I ended up with a long list of things that I hated about my job, from the fact that I was sitting all day, to not having enough interaction with others, to not being challenged on the projects that I was working on. I struggle a lot with figuring out whether or I’m doing work that’s right for me and how to make the most of my current situation. There are a lot of times when I’m not content with what I’m doing, and I’m itching to figure out how to make it better.

Once I made this list, I realized that about half of the things on it were things I could fix myself within a relatively short time frame (from a day to a few weeks). I set a timer and went on a walk every two hours. I made a habit of talking to people. I asked for harder projects, even though it seemed counter-intuitive. I was honest with my boss. Turns out he didn’t want me to be bored and unhappy as much as I didn’t want to be bored and unhappy!

I shared the list with a few close friends and family, and ended up having several honest, open conversations—it turned out that they were struggling, too. One of my friends didn’t know whether or not to leave his job. We asked ourselves, “What is most important about staying–or leaving–your current job? What is it that you need to get from your job?”

I scratched out a diagram that I pinned up on my wall at home—the one that you see in the worksheet.

Today, when I’m going through particularly frustrating weeks, I can use this as a check-in to see if what I’m experiencing is endemic to the job, or more a current symptom of the specific project I’m working on. It helps me touch base with what’s most important about the work that I’m doing.

Q. How can people change if they are unhappy?

I think people need to take a lot more responsibility for their own happiness. I have a few quotes in my (infamous) notebooks to remind me of this. First, it’s okay to be happy. Second, happy takes a lot of work. People sometimes think that a state of happiness is something to be achieved, reached, or is somehow something that will be handed to them. I am guilty of this all the time! I have to remind myself, “Sarah, if today didn’t work out so well, you’re going to have to try something new tomorrow and see if you can get different results.” Most everyone I know that is successful or has a joy for living has done some serious work on themselves, on their relationships, on their jobs.

So what does this mean? Start asking the hard questions. Be specific. What is it that you don’t like? What would it take to change that aspect? Sometimes it’s really hard, and I get it. Some of us have to spend a few years working our asses off to pay off debts, or to dig ourselves out of a whole, or struggle to learn a new skill, or go through a process to change. None of this is easy.

But who said happy is easy. Those are two entirely different words. What’s worth doing is not always what’s the most appealing thing to do in the present, but it’s worth it. People need to be courageous and brave. It’s not easy to say what we’re thinking and feeling. It’s not easy to admit where we are struggling. But if you don’t take the effort and courage to change your situation, blaming your job or external factors won’t help.

I also think people need to be gracious and gentle and kind to themselves. Recognize that things change over time if you put in the work. Realize that today is not indicative of all days. Reward yourself for the small changes. When you go to work and say, “I’m going to take a long lunch break and go for a run, even though I’m worried what other people will think of me, I’m going to commit to myself and my happiness and do it anyways,” — be really joyful in the fact that you did it. It’s a lot harder than it sounds.

Sometimes, just by speaking up, you can surprise yourself. After running several times during the middle of the day, I had several colleagues come up to me and say “I really want to do that, too.” We’re now looking at building showers in our building so that more people can do this. And to think I was afraid of what people would think!

Q. Are you better suited as an employee or independent worker?

A. You know, I’m really excited that I can answer yes to that question. It’s an evolving answer, one that changes as my goals expand and grow. I feel like I’ve gotten to a place where I’m really excited about what I’m doing, and how I’m doing it. I think the projects I’m working on are valuable and meaningful, and I’m learning a tremendous amount in a compressed time frame because I asked for more and more responsibility repeatedly and created several hard, challenging projects to tackle in the last year. Was I terrified? Absolutely. Did I have huge, momentous weeks of self-doubt and fear? Of course. Those moments weren’t necessarily my happiest, not by any stretch. But happiness isn’t an island that you arrive at, sipping margaritas indefinitely for the rest of your life. To me, it’s about building a set of skills, tools, relationships, projects and a body of work that you can grow over time Sort of like an investment–you have to build up the elements that make you happy over time. For me, I’ve learned that the rewards of engaging, challenging work and growth, and my loyal and committed relationships are what make me very happy.

In terms of work: I think one of my biggest challenges is that I am fiercely independent, and the idea of sitting at a desk and doing the same thing day in and day out sounds dreadful to me. I am lucky to have struck a balance and found a firm that is willing to entertain my way of doing things, and my need to run and move and roam in the world. I often slip out, run for two hours, return, and work late in the office in the evenings when I’m more settled. When I’m itching to move, telling me to sit at a desk is like asking a puppy not to play. I can’t do it.

My friend Shane says it well: “it’s really just a game. Learn how to play it.” Sometimes we take our current situation so seriously. I think we should be more playful about how we work. I like to test all of the boundaries of what is considered “normal” and see what I can get away with (Can I work on top of a mountain for 8 hours? Let’s try it!). Each time, I’m not trying to fit into someone’s ‘how” mode of operation; rather, I’m trying to accomplish an objective and do great work. Sometimes, I discover better ways of working, and end up doing even better work over time.

I don’t know what the future holds for my work life, and where my projects will take me. But I do know that I enjoy trying new things and figuring it out along the way.

***

My thanks to Sarah for sharing this fun resource and answering the questions. You can also download a big JPEG of the cheat sheet for your own use.

And here’s a question for you –>

Question: What do you like and dislike about your current job?

Feel free to share your answer with the rest of our group.

###

*Thanks for all the input on the tour for The $100 Startup! For those in Austin, I’ll be debuting the book at the SXSW Interactive Festival on Monday at 5:00pm. Drop by Convention Center Ballroom G if you’re around.

Greetings Friends, Readers, and Awesome People of AONC,

Today I’m excited to announce the upcoming launch of my new book, THE $100 STARTUP. This has been a labor of love for a long time, and I’m looking forward to having it out in the world starting May 8, 2012.

What It’s All About

The goal of the book is to provide a blueprint for your own escape plan. What if today was your final day of working for someone other than yourself? What if all of your time was spent on things that mattered to you? What if you prepared for this lifestyle not in some distant future but RIGHT NOW?

That’s what THE $100 STARTUP is all about. It’s a comprehensive plan for freedom.

THE $100 STARTUP is the final report of a multi-year study that began with the Empire Building Kit and continued through hundreds of interviews and thousands of pages of data. Yes, I finally put my questionable college education to good use in designing a study and interviewing unexpected entrepreneurs of all kinds.

Early Pre-Order Bonus

We’re putting together a big campaign for rollout as we get closer to May, but for now, here’s a quick and easy pre-order bonus.

The book is now available at Amazon.com and your favorite local bookstore. If you pre-order two copies (one for yourself and one for a friend) on or before Tuesday, March 13th, we’ll give you a $25 gift certificate for anything in the Unconventional Guides store. The book is already being discounted heavily, so with the free bonus you may pay almost nothing for it.

Update: this bonus is now over. Next month we’ll have at least two other promotions to support all bookstores, including independents. Yes, there will be Kindle and iBooks versions available too.

And hey – I’m Going On Tour!

When the first book came out, I announced that I was going to visit every state in the U.S. and province in Canada. The tour was an incredible experience. I’m a natural introvert, but I loved meeting readers all over North America, many of whom traveled long distances themselves to come to events.

Naturally, we’re doing it again… but this time, it’s going global on the world’s first 7-continent book tour. Two weeks after the book goes out in North America, it will launch in the U.K. and most commonwealth countries (Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, etc.). Deals are already in progress for foreign versions in Germany, Brazil, Indonesia, and China, with many more to come.

I’ll be planning the overseas stops shortly, but first we’re doing 25 cities across the U.S. and Canada. Here is the tentative schedule for Week 1 –>

May 8: New York City
May 9: Philadelphia
May 10: Boston
May 11: Arlington
May 12: Washington, D.C.
May 14: Raleigh/Durham
May 15: Atlanta

Note: We’re still working on various details, and these dates may change. A tour site where you can sign up for your preferred city will be available soon.

But that’s not all!

I won’t be going to all 50 states this time (apologies to West Virginia), but I definitely plan to make more stops than just the initial cities listed above. It’s a 7-continent book tour, and yes, we WILL be going to Antarctica at some point.

My question to you—I’m arranging some of the initial events with my publishers, but I also hope to visit other cities where a significant number of awesome people are interested in hosting a group meetup.

If you’d like to help arrange a $100 Startup tour stop (it will be fun and interactive, not a boring “book reading”), let me know by posting a comment. Why should we come to your city? Will you help to make it happen?

Over at World Domination HQ, the cat and our biased judges will do what we can to pick as many additional cities as possible and get this party started.

Where should we go on The $100 Startup road show? Let us know here!

###

Illustrator: Mike Rohde

Last week I presented a scenario from one of our readers. Anna was recently laid off from a middle management job, and rather than look for work, she was hoping to become self-employed for the first time.

What are the first steps? she wanted to know. I said that I would share my answer, but first I wanted to hear from the rest of our community.

If you’re in a similar situation or are just curious, you can read some of the answers and see if any advice serves your needs. I’ve copied a few of my favorite responses below.

Derek said…

I think *THE MOST* important thing to working for yourself is to earn your first $100 to $500. That means that in the first few weeks, skip:

- Branding
- Buying business cards
- Establishing LLCs
- Complicated strategies
- Etc

Skip everything except things that will generate immediate cash. Why? Because the very first time you make tangible money as a freelancer or solo entrepreneur, it suddenly becomes a lot more real. You’re no longer just experiencing it as a dream or a hope, but you’re actually on track to making it happen.

Krishan said…

Create something — anything — and get it in front of a potential customer. If you think you want to help people with their taxes, create brochure. If you want to do arts and crafts, make something and post it on Etsy. If you want to start writing, start a blog on posterous and send it to all your friends via email and ask them subscribe and share it.

Michelle said…

The old cliche of do what you love and the money will follow, should actually read, “Share what you love and the money will follow.” It is through the sharing of what you love that value is brought into the world – the doing is only a fraction of the process. So I think you should focus not so much about what you’re going to do, but what you’re passionate about and how you can share that with the world.

Gene said…

What’s missing in your life? What are you looking for that you can’t find? That’s how Restoration Hardware was started. Someone who had a need and couldn’t find the goods they were looking. And it doesn’t have to be goods it can be services too.

Alain said…

Self employed for 20+ years. First thing you need is to be ABSOLUTELY comfortable with uncertainty. Regardless of what you decide to do, being self employed you will rarely know where the next few checks are coming from. You need to be real honest with yourself that you can deal with this. In twenty years of self employment [successful 6 figure hospitality consulting/lobbying] I rarely could tell where my money was coming from 90 days out. I simply did the work, persisted and it all worked out but the anxiety never left. Your partner, children, family, friends, bankers etc are usually not that accepting.

Brandon said…

Decide whether you want to be self-employed or if you want to own a business. There is a big difference. Either way can be the right way for individual people. But decide whether you are a solo individual providing a service (like writing, or graphic design, etc.) or whether you are creating a system where a product (or service) is being provided for customers, and you are the one who manages the system.

Heather said…

Unlike many other folks here, I’m not going to recommend you dig deeply into yourself and follow your heart. You need to create a business that meets your financial needs and rewards you with all the benefits of self-employment. Yes, you can create a business around your skills and interests, but at the end of the day it’s still a business and must be treated as such. You need your work, and you need your hobbies.

Our biased judges picked Derek as the winner of the $50 gift certificate from UnconventionalGuides.com. Thanks to everyone who shared advice!

My Thoughts

I’ve been self-employed for almost all of my adult life, a story I told in more detail in the AONC book. It wasn’t always a strategic process—in the beginning I was motivated primarily by the desire to avoid working for anyone else—but most of what I’ve learned in nearly 15 years of working for myself can be reduced to a few simple concepts.

My first step would be to figure out what I can offer that other people will buy. Everything comes down to this interaction. How can I create something that is both desirable and compelling?

People ask all the time about various technical things: “Which web host should I use? What’s an RSS feed? How can I accept online payments?” and so on. There’s nothing wrong with these questions, but they’re not what you should focus on when first learning about self-employment.

I made a short video about the distinction between strategy and tactics a while back. Simply put, you can always figure technical things out. When you’re not sure what to do about a technical issue, this site is a great resource. But there’s no website that will tell you exactly what kind of business you should run.

Instead, ask yourself questions like these:

What do I know how to make?

What do I know how to do?

Is there anything I can teach?

What skills do I have that are valued by others?

Your “first steps” should comprise of answering these questions, or at least thinking carefully about what to offer the world. You can then tackle the “next steps” of figuring out how to create a business model around the answers, how to craft an offer from your business model, how to get the word out about your offering, and everything else.

Note: We’ll soon be gearing up for the pre-sales of The $100 Startup, a book that has been in the making for more than two years. The book is all about this very subject—how to make a living doing something you love. I’ll be going on tour to 30 cities in the U.S. and Canada starting in May, then to other countries a bit later. Stay tuned!

We have a big community of people like Anna, as well as a lot of people who are already self-employed. I hope to do a better job of answering questions like the one we’ve looked at here, and also to facilitate more interaction between both groups.

But First, I’m Off to Nauru

This morning I’m leaving Brisbane, Australia to fly to Nauru, the world’s smallest republic. Long-time readers may remember that my previous attempt to visit Nauru was disrupted due to a visa problem which resulted in my first visit down under. I LOVE everything about Australia—we’re planning a whole tour down this way later in the year—and I’m also glad about finally getting to Nauru.

The world’s smallest republic is not known for high-speed internet access, so I’ll keep comments off on this post and we’ll resume them again later in the week when I’m back on the mainland.

See you all from the road!

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Image: Robert

Anna wrote in with a common question: how to get started working on your own?

I hear these questions a lot, and they come in all shapes and sizes. Despite the variations, most of them have a common theme. Here’s how Anna put it in her message, which I’m sharing with her permission:

I was recently laid off after working in a middle management position for the past four years. The layoff was sad, but not completely unexpected. The company has been losing money, and while I’d like to think I was irreplaceable, I know the truth is that they simply had to eliminate some positions.

My job was tolerable—I didn’t love it and didn’t hate it. I’m not opposed to going back into the workplace, but the job search is difficult. Many people are looking for work in my field, and some of them are much more experienced than me. I was making a good salary and might have to take a lower one if I was actually able to find a new job.

Besides, what I really want to do is work for myself. I want to find a way to create some kind of small business that pays the bills. I’m not trying to get rich, but I do like the idea of establishing my own security. I don’t know where to start, however. There are lots of things I’m excited about, from writing to making crafts to helping people with their taxes (I know, that’s weird), but I have no clue how to “monetize” these things.

I have a college degree in Psychology. I don’t have any debt except for a student loan that is low-interest and can be deferred for a while. I’m a fast learner and can afford to spend a few months without income while I’m starting up, but not much longer. What should I do?

I’ll share my advice to Anna in a forthcoming post… but first I’m wondering, what would you suggest?

What are the first things she should do to begin creating more self-reliance? Feel free to share your ideas in the comments.

Keep your advice as specific and helpful as possible, and remember: it’s not just Anna who wants to solve this for herself. LOTS of other people are thinking about the same things and looking for ideas.

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Update: Thanks for the great input. We’ll announce the winner in a follow-up post within the next week.

*Free prize! Our biased judges will choose one answer from the comments and award a $50 gift certificate to UnconventionalGuides.com. All answers must be in by Wednesday at 9am PST.

Image: Matthew

I woke up before 6am on Tuesday morning, eager for a big day. A product launch is always filled with lots of emotions, especially in the first few critical hours.

What would happen? Dun dun dun…

At 7:30 there was a knock on my door. It’s Nicky Hajal! Our genius developer (AKA “kid wonder”) had arrived from New York the previous day. Nicky was in town along with Wes and Tera, our media team, for a tour of venues for this year’s World Domination Summit.

More on that process later—for now, Nicky was also here to help out with Tuesday’s launch of the Unconventional Guide to Publishing, our first commercial guide in more than a year. Since he was staying about a mile from my house, we decided he would just come over in the morning so we could do the launch live from World Domination HQ.

The previous night, Nicky had dropped off a monitor he “borrowed” for a few days while he was here. (Thanks, Office Max!) The monitor was now on our living room table, and on our kitchen counter was what he called his mobile workstation. Take a look at this:

Kitchen-Aid mixer not included

The setup looked suitably impressive to me, someone who has no technical skills and also no physical skills of any kind. (An unwritten post from last weekend: “Why Chris Guillebeau Is Not the Friend You Want to Help Assemble IKEA Furniture”).

As awesome as this workstation was, there was one small problem. Nicky connected a bunch of wires and antennas around the living room, and attempted to connect to the “liberator” WiFi network we use. After a few minutes, a furrowed brow was raised, and I heard lots of clicking.

“Hey, how’s it going?”

Nicky was silent for a few minutes. Finally, he announced the small problem… the awesome setup wasn’t WiFi-friendly.

Womp-womp.

No internet? This act of aggression would not stand—Nicky spends about 15 hours a day looking at code on a huge screen (thus the Office Max monitor) and needs to be online to do it.

Meanwhile, the launch was coming up in about 45 minutes… with at least 30 more minutes of things we needed to do beforehand. I was mildly stressed about getting everything done on time with an optimal setup, but now we really had a problem.

Side note: there’s a GREAT book coming out in May called The $100 Startup. I just happened to be proof-reading the final edits last week, and noticed an entire chapter all about product launches. Whoa! If only I had such wisdom before Tuesday. More news about this AMAZING book later. Now back to the story…

Don’t you have a laptop? I asked Nicky.

“Yeah… it’s back at the place.”

Don’t you have an ethernet cable? He asked me.

“Yeah… at my old apartment.”

Nicky hopped on my bike and rode back to his place to grab the laptop, and then to the grocery store to get an ethernet cable. (Yeah, it turns out grocery stores carry those… we were surprised too.)

Long story short, we kicked things off about 20 minutes later than planned. I wrote to our affiliates and apologized for the delay. It wasn’t terribly long, of course, and it’s always better to make sure things are going well before opening the doors to the masses, but nevertheless I still felt bad about the delay. To be safe, I delayed my own post here on the site an extra hour so that the affiliates who were rushing to get their posts up could do so first.

After getting underway, we still had a few problems. We’re moving everything over to our own in-house e-commerce system, which will be great… when it’s done. For now it’s still in beta, and most of the time it works well, but not always. A few users had problems with using Google’s Chrome browser. Others had issues making payment, logging in to a new account, or downloading files.

Computer-in-a-box with biscuit-in-a-box

Thanks to Nicky’s real-time tech support, most of the issues subsidized within an hour or so. We got on a roll with lots of orders coming in, and began receiving good initial comments from customers who were accessing the materials.

Meanwhile, other members of our team were working from various locations. David was sitting in Southern California, patiently entrusting the outcome of this process to my hands. (No pressure, Chris.) Sean, our newly titled “Chuck Norris” Affiliate Wrangler, had just flown in from Denver and was managing email communication with various partners. Reese, our superstar designer, was doing site reviews of other projects in a coffee shop somewhere.

As they say, it was truly a team effort! Thanks, team.

Continuous Improvement and Why Book Proposals Matter

On Wednesday, I cleared as many of my emails as possible, then sat down to review the order process. We still had a few challenges—some users had difficulty accessing their files, and others received payment errors when trying to check out. I knew that Nicky was working on that, and my skills are fairly limited, so I took a closer look at other things.

One thing I’ve learned with launches is that you can always improve results by making a few careful improvements, even after you’ve begun the process. In our case, the check-out page wasn’t as clear as it could have been. I revised it to clarify exactly what people would receive when they finished the transaction. If you’ve already purchased and something didn’t work as it should, check again—and don’t hesitate to let me know if you’re still having difficulty.

Another mistake I made in sharing the launch communication was in failing to explain why we had included several sample book proposals with the guide. When I was first learning to write a book proposal, I really struggled. I had written lots of different applications, proposals, and academic essays—but I learned that a book proposal is a very different thing. There’s a specific way you have to do it, and few good examples out there.

I totally forgot to highlight this fact about the launch, and David sent me a note about it:

In 20 years of doing this job I’ve always found that readers love it when I offer to send them an example of a proposal that has actually sold to a big house. And it’s extremely uncommon to get to see one that has sold for six figures. If you look at most of the books on proposal writing out there, they’re full of low-end, $10k titles and just aren’t very impressive.

Because David is the master negotiator, he was able to get us five complete proposals from books that sold for good amounts to leading publishers. Several of them sold for at least $100,000 and then became international bestsellers.

In addition to the 45,000 word guide and all the proposals, we also included a number of interviews with the guide. There are some surprising disclosures in these interviews, including long discussions on average selling prices for books, what captures an editor’s attention, and several good examples of marketing campaigns that helped new authors stand out in a crowded field.

All files, including these proposals and interviews, are available immediately upon purchase. All updates are FREE for the life of the guide.

Motivations, Thanks, and a Reminder

I work on a lot of different projects, and the motivations vary. In some cases, I want to create sustainability in my business. For some, I may be looking for a significant payday that will allow me to do other things that cost money. In others, like a webinar, I just want to do something fun and useful.

In this case, I was conscious of the fact that David put in a TON of work on this guide. We also had a ton of affiliates lined up to promote the guide, so for both their sakes—David and the affiliates—I wanted it to do well, not just during the launch period but on a long-term basis.

I really appreciate everyone who has supported this project by picking up the guide or spreading the word along. As mentioned earlier in the week, at least 80% of people say that they want to write a book sometime in their life, but only a small minority actually do it. Our goal is to help more of the 80% move into the minority.

Also, one final reminder: the special pricing for the Hemingway version of the guide expires tomorrow night (Friday) at midnight. David will also be hosting a special Q&A call for buyers at all levels who purchase before the deadline. After that, the guide will be in the shop on a long-term bonus, but without the bonuses.

Here’s the link if you’re interested.

Otherwise, thanks for being a part of AONC. Much more is on the way!

Question for those who are still reading: What’s the one thing you wish you knew more about?

You can share with others in the comments.

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Image: Will