Twenty years ago, I wrapped up my BA in English flat broke and not sure where I was headed, but I knew I’d find a job as a writer.
I didn’t know exactly what kind of writer or where, but that’s what I went to school for, after all. I was self-confident, optimistic, and high on post-graduation positive thinking. I was sure I’d find an entry-level position of some sort, somewhere.
I figured I’d get my start at a newspaper or a magazine—I had my eye on Rodale (think Men’s Health, Prevention, and Organic Gardening) since their headquarters were in the next town over.
My favorite journalism professor’s wife was one of their high-ranking editors, and I was sure his recommendation would get me in like Flynn. After an hour with him on the phone, my mood was somber.
I had no published clips. No related experience. I had worked full-time through most of my college years, but it was in retail or restaurants. I just hadn’t had the time to write for publication, and none of my advisors had suggested I ought to find the time—or how.
It didn’t matter that I had aced all my writing classes and graduated with honors, he told me. The competition was stiff, and two years of editing graduate-level theses on the side didn’t even get me in the door.
Five years later—now with an MA in English under my belt—my plan was crystal clear. I would teach at the community college and freelance on the side.
I had always dreamed of freelancing; working at a newspaper or a magazine was just an avoidance tactic, I reasoned, a way to hide from my insecurities. Optimism soared. I knew I could do it.
Reality soon set in: teaching part time netted me $2 an hour—if that—after all the time I spent planning classes and grading stacks of papers at home. I stuck with it for a few years, but I was exhausted, and freelancing was scary. I had no idea what I was doing, despite reading countless books, and though I had some success, I wasn’t getting anywhere soon.
I wrote well enough, but I had no idea how to run a business—and freelancing is a business, after all. I couldn’t teach and write at the same time, so I hung up the professor cap and took a break from everything to travel and work on my poetry.
Fast forward to 2010. Marriage, divorce. Two dogs and three cats to take care of. A brief, optimistic stint in real estate which got me a house of my own, a mortgage, and not much else. A freelance career limping along with a couple of blogs in the background. Another confident, cheerful attempt at a “regular” sort of job, this time in sales management.
I tried to write, but I had bills to pay. So I did some thinking instead.
Optimism, positive thinking, and believing in myself just wasn’t enough.
I needed help. Sure, I needed to constantly work on improving my craft, but I needed help with the business side of things. That’s where the problem was.
The sales job was a bomb, and I quit just a few weeks before the store closed. It was now or never. The only thing I truly knew how to do, the only thing I ever wanted to do, and the only thing I’ve ever loved doing was writing and editing. Throw some tech stuff in there for good measure.
It was freelance or else. So I jumped ship from the world of “regular” work forever.
Since then, I’ve figured out all sorts of stuff. Blogging and writing for other blogs. Setting up and designing blogs. Ebook writing, layout, and design. Self-publishing. Social media. Running a business as a copyeditor and occasional freelance writer. But I’m only breaking even, and I know where my stumbling block is once again.
It’s the business and planning side of things.
Early in 2010, I discovered Chris Guillebeau. I was intrigued by his blog that focused on writing, traveling, and making a living doing it. As an avid traveler myself, I signed up for updates just as he launched his Empire Building Kit.
I bought it, and I studied the advice he sent every day in email for a year, among other things. Six months later, I got his first book, The Art of Non-Conformity, and I met him on his book tour.
“To Leah,” he wrote on the inside cover. “Grab the bananas!”
I was trying. Darn things were up pretty high, though.
The book was good, and I enjoyed it. It confirmed much of what I was doing and where I was headed, and I got some great tips. But I needed more. Something more specific.
Two weeks ago, an advance copy of The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future arrived at my door.
After all the reading and searching I’ve been doing in the last two years, I finally have the blueprint I need for the journey I’m on, all wrapped up in an easy-to-read, 285-page hardcover book.
The $100 Startup isn’t just a book—it’s a whole course complete with checklists, specific steps and instructions, countless charts that can be easily reproduced, toolkits, strategies, and key points at the end of each chapter.
Fifty case studies add real life drama. Real people I can relate to: young people just starting out and men and women just like me: mid-life and older, doing what they love and getting paid for it.
Some of them dreamed of becoming an entrepreneur from an early age. Others followed the usual success prescription until they were out of a job and had a family to support.
Who would think that a desperate move to sell mattresses from a car lot could turn into a respected business that’s different from the usual mattress warehouse?
Custom wedding dresses. Microsoft Excel spreadsheet templates. Bookkeeping and tax preparation. A retail yarn shop, maps, a diet and recipe planning guide, interior design services, a weekend retreat for artists.
No matter what your skill or product is—even if you don’t know what it is yet—you can turn it into a business.
From the introduction:
This blueprint does not involve secrets, shortcuts, or gimmicks. There are no visualization exercises here. If you think you can manifest your way to money simply by thinking about it, put this book down and spend your time doing that. Instead, this book is all about practical things you can do to take responsibility for your own future. Read it if you want to build something beautiful on the road to freedom.
Chris has been successful at what he’s been doing—making a living through writing and blogging—and I know he’s got plenty of optimism. But that’s not what got him where he is today.
He didn’t get to success because he’s had lucky breaks or friends in high places. He didn’t start out with a lot of money; if he had, he wouldn’t have been selling coffee on eBay or volunteering in West Africa as he once did.
His success is the result of hard work and specific steps, and plenty of failures along the way, just like anyone else. There’s no secret to success, no magical formula, no way to make it happen with positive thinking, prayer, beseeching the universe, or concentrating on our intentions to manifest abundance.
Hard work, smart work, and ongoing work is what it takes.
Hard work is what got Chris Guillebeau to where he is today, and it’s what gets anyone anywhere, including the 50 entrepreneurs he features in his book.
But when you love what you’re doing, you might not even think of it as work.
The $100 Startup encapsulates everything I’ve been studying—and then some (OK a lot)—for over two years from many different sources. In a way, much of it isn’t completely new to me because it’s either plain old good business sense or I’ve seen bits and pieces of it in blog posts, articles, and online courses over the years.
But it caters to the online entrepreneur or solopreneur who has something to sell. And that’s where it’s different. It’s a completely unique business model. It’s not the theory, it’s the practice, meticulously laid out so it’s easy to follow and easy to get to work right away.
As a writer and a blogger, The $100 Startup is exactly what I need. But it’s for anyone who wants to find some freedom, some meaning, some fulfillment, and a way to help people and make money doing it.
If you’ve been floundering like I was or wondering how to take it to the next level—which is exactly where I’m at right now—this book is invaluable, and if you have any desire to start your own business, it’s the best investment you’ll ever make.
Optimism isn’t enough. Thinking about something isn’t enough. Confidence and believing in yourself isn’t enough. Envisioning something doesn’t cut it.
Practical steps? A plan? Now we’re talking.
If you’re unhappy in your current job but you’re scared to leave—or you don’t even have a job or you’re struggling with your business—get this book.
Even if you don’t know where you’re headed, you’ll be in business soon.
Prediction: online entrepreneurs will be seen as a key element in turning the economy around. But you need to start with a plan, and here’s one you won’t ever regret following. I know I won’t.
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