In this book Chris Gillebeau focus on giving two big lessons. The first one is break the paradigm that to start a business you need a lot of money. Throughout the book he gives examples of ideas that became businesses with less than $5000 of investment. One of the ones that caught my attention the most was a guide to use an app called Evernote. The writer of this guide was so into this app that he decided he was going to teach other people how to use it and get the most out of the app. The guide cost less than $50 and the writer makes more than $100,000 a year by selling it. His guide is so impressive that he got hired from Evernote and work from home. By reading examples like this one, the author of the book tries to show that by teaching others doing something you really like you can make money out of it. The second most important lesson of the book is that whatever business you are going to do, it need to give value to your customers, either more of what they like (freedom, entertainment, love) or less of what they hate. Also you need a product, people willing to pay for it and a way to get pay. The book is divided into sections and is a very easy to read it because it gives a lot real life examples, it has a simple vocabulary, and is straight to the point. It also gives great lessons of how to market your business and launch it. This is a good book for those who desire independence and want their entrepreneurial spirit stimulated. There are lots of practical suggestions, tools, case examples, etc. I listened to the audio version of it and the book is well done. Some people have done a great job in creating a source of income in a microbusiness that gives them freedom to travel and work from anywhere in the world. If you're in a rut and want to break out of it, this is a good read.
What do You think about $100 Startup (2012)?
Useful for a want-to-be entrepreneur. Nice stories with easy-to-understand information.
—natasha
Great food for thought. I loved the case studies and wish there had been more.
—BlueHighway
A Wonderful book, really changed my way of looking to the business world.
—sidra
