The $100 Startup

The $100 Startup shows you how to break free from the shackles of 9 to 5 by combining your passion and skills into your own microbusiness, which you can start for $100 or less, yet still turn into a full time income, thanks to the power of the internet.

Thanks to Steve Jobs we now face a generation where a myriad of people try to turn their passion into their paycheck. While I generally support that with all my heart, I cringe at the level of unpreparedness of most people who do so.

Chris argues for a much more practical approach, where you keep your day job at first, and start a business on the side. He says passion is only part of the equation, one third, to be exact.

The other two parts are skills and customers.

You have to find the sweet spot where your passion meets the skills you’re good at and the needs of other people, which you can fulfill with those skills. After all, people have to pay you for this to work. For example, while eating pizza might be a passion of yours (it sure is one of mine), it’s hardly a skill that warrants payment and doing it doesn’t solve other peoples’ problems.

However, making pizzas does. Plenty of people can’t make good pizza themselves, and are more than happy to pay for one (or two). You could throw pizza parties in your home, invite friends over, and have everyone chip in $10 for your time and ingredients – that’d make a good start!

So be flexible enough to stay open for a skill transformation, where you learn skills adjacent to your passion and then capitalize on those as best as you can, while picking up the rest as you go along.

Newsflash: Unless someone pays you, your passion business is just a hobby. Therefore, you must look at funding, income and costs of your business. Luckily, funding is easier than ever before. Most businesses can be run or at least validated with a website only, thus costing less than $100 to get set up. If you do need funding for a physical product, for example, you can build an audience first and then launch a Kickstarter campaign, to help you get together the money you need. In a microbusiness your income mostly depends on your hustle. The more potential customers you reach out to, the more affiliate partners you get on board, and the more traffic you build, the more you’ll sell. Be proactive about developing your business and focus on low-cost, but time-intense methods like personal outreach, going to conferences, or Google ads. Lastly, your costs are a great chance to…