3 Steps for a Successful Interview

Want to make money in college? One way is to simply get a job, or ideally a paid internship. You're biggest obstacle will be the interview, make sure you are ready for it!

Jason Nazar, CEO & Co-Founder of Docstoc (‪http://www.docstoc.com/‬) knows that making a good first impression is of the utmost importance and perhaps no where is that more evident than a job interview. Check out these 3 helpful tips to ace your next job interview. 

6 Steps to Getting Anything Done-- The Buried Life

The Buried Life Bros

Once again, the guys from the Buried Life have a ridiculously motivational post on their tumblr. Check it out, read up, and cross some things off of your list.

6 Steps

After 6 years of crossing things off our list we’ve noticed some patterns. Whether it’s playing ball with Obama or writing a #1 New York Times Bestseller, these are the 6 steps we’ve used to cross anything off our list:

#1. Stop and think about it. Really think about it.

What is it that you really want to do with your life? Start a business? Reconnect with an old friend? Dive to the bottom of the ocean? Smoke a cigar with Castro? Forget what you think you should do, what excites you? What feels impossible? Be honest with yourself. Your answers don’t need to make an impression on anyone but you.
For many people, the four members of The Buried Life included, the impetus to make a life change only comes with crisis. The summer before we started The Buried Life, I was struggling with depression; Dave was struggling with his weight; Duncan had recently lost a close friend; and Jonnie was just plain angry and disillusioned with our generation (“No one protests anymore,” he used to say). The four of us were so beaten down that we had no choice but to reevaluate what was important to us. Our project grew out of that frustration. Sometimes it takes a debilitating low or a crushing loss to snap you back to reality, but don’t wait for it. Ferris Bueller put it well: “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

#2. Write it down.

Simply put, it’s not real until you write it down. And by that I mean, take your dream and turn it into a project. Dreams have a funny way of staying dreams. But a project is something that needs to be done. Approach it as you would any other item on your daily or weekly to-do list. When you have a deadline— a presentation, a grocery list, a birthday gift you need to buy for someone–you find a way to get it done. Treat your dreams the same way. Add it to your list. You need to buy toilet paper. You need to spend the weekend in Paris with someone you love. When you write it down, you’ve taken the first step.
When we first started the project, we put things on the list almost as a joke. We didn’t think about whether they could actually happen; we just pretended that anything was possible. “#53: Make a TV Show” was a dream we’d shared since we were young. We had no filmmaking background and no connections in the business. And we lived on an island in Canada. We decided MTV in the States would be the place to have a show because it was the biggest and best platform we knew of for reaching people like us. So we wrote it down. And then we started filming it, because that was just the next logical step. Every step led to the next. Four years later, we were executive producers and creators of our own show on MTV.

#3. Talk about it.

Everyone knows someone who knows someone who knows someone.
After you’ve come up with your list and written it down, start talking. Tell everyone you know. Tell your parents’ friends. Tell new people you meet. Talk to your cabdriver. Talk to your boss. You never know whose uncle’s wife may be able to help you. And don’t just talk about it, but talk about it passionately. Enthusiasm is infectious, and people want to help when given the chance. Help can show up in the most unusual places, oftentimes the least expected ones.
We didn’t come from money. We had an idea, we talked about it, and people showed up in incredible ways help us. Our first lawyer was our parent’s friend who had heard about what we were doing and offered to lend a hand; our first manager was my godmother; I met my first Hollywood contact while traveling in Mexico; we cold-called local companies in our hometown to raise money for our first tour. Help often came in strange places. In 2007 we were able to finagle a five-minute meeting with Jann Wenner, legendary founder of Rolling Stone magazine, in order to discuss what it would take to cross #15 off our list, “Get on the Cover of Rolling Stone.” The five-minute meeting turned into a 45-minute meeting (after Jann threatened to kick us out and asked his assistant for a knife), during which time we talked about everything from protests to Bob Dylan to the difference between our two generations. We told him about some of our most ambitious dreams, including “#19: Write a Bestselling Book.” Jann was later instrumental in helping us get our book published—introducing us to a company where we met the smartest, most talented, best-looking book editor alive (hi Lia), who eventually offered us a deal.

#4. Be persistent.

Most people give up just before they reach their goal. We all hear “No,” a lot, but we’ve come to realize that “No” usually just means “Not now.” Be creative in your persistence. Don’t piss people off by nagging them—think of innovative and clever ways to grab their attention. Be different, and never say die.
Last year, we broke into the Playboy Mansion. We rented a giant stripper cake and decorated it like it was for the Willy Wonka–themed party. Two of us dressed up like Oompa-Loompas and hid in the bottom of the cake, which was then delivered to the back door of the Playboy Mansion in a rented delivery truck. Security saw our homemade Playboy logo on the cake and allowed it to pass through the gates. After waiting inside the cake for six long hours (peeing in bottles and filming in night-vision), we hatched out unnoticed and partied at the Mansion all night with free rein. Security assumed we were just very rowdy employees.
Playboy had no idea we had been in and out, or that we had filmed our first episode. But when we went back a month later to ask for permission to air, they said, “If you air the episode, we’ll sue you and have you charged with breaking and entering.” We got ahold of the company’s vice president, and he echoed that sentiment. MTV told us to move on and film another episode. Our production company said there was nothing we could do. In a last ditch effort we decided to send Hugh Hefner a handwritten letter along with the rough cut of the episode. A week later, we received this response from Mr. Hefner himself: “You can air the episode. Just know I’m not very pleased with you boys.” I always thought that crashing the Playboy Mansion was my dream, but getting scolded by Hugh Hefner was way better.

#5. Be ballsy.

The Buried Life boys playing ball with Obama.

The majority of people don’t go after their wildest dreams because they think they’re unrealistic. Tim Ferriss says it well: “Ninety-nine percent of people believe they can’t do great things, so they aim for mediocrity.” The level of competition is highest for realistic goals because most people don’t set high enough goals for themselves. But not only do you statistically have a better chance of achieving what may seem like an unrealistic goal, doing so fuels you. Once you feel the first high of accomplishing something major and seemingly unattainable, you want to go bigger and badder, and you force yourself to fulfill the need all the more. Even better, the technically smaller goals suddenly seem less daunting.
We put “#95: Play Ball with the President” on the list because it was literally the most unattainable goal we could think of. I remember Jonnie called me from his dorm room in Montreal in 2008 right after Barack Obama had been elected and Jonnie said, “We should add ‘Play Ball with Obama’ to the list.” I chuckled because it was so absurd and agreed. I found it humorous not only because the idea was so outrageous but also because I knew Jonnie was calling me from his “room,” a tiny space he was renting for $200 a month, which he shared with a washer and dryer. Of all people, we weren’t the best candidates for a pick up game with the leader of the Free World. Nonetheless, two years later we found ourselves shooting hoops with the President in the backyard of the White House. It’s a long, complicated story, and I don’t want to bore you with the details, but this is the kind of thing that the four of us chuckle about sometimes. It’s as if we have horseshoes up our butts, but it’s also happened too many times to be luck. When you dream big, you surprise yourself.

#6. Help others.

We’ve crossed off more than 80 list items over the last six years, but the moments that stand out the most are the ones when we’ve been able to step into someone’s life and share something real with them. I’ve been surprised by how little it takes to impact someone’s life. Something as simple as asking the question, “What do you want to do before you die?” and taking the time to listen is often all it takes. If you’re feeling lost or depressed, you might find what you’re looking for in someone else. Into the Wild said it best: “Happiness is only real when it’s shared.”
Your dreams are closer than they appear. There’s nothing about us four guys that makes us more able than anyone else to accomplish our goals, other than the simple fact that we’ve decided to go after them. George Elliot said, “It’s never too late to be what you might have been.” Don’t wait.

Original Post: http://theburiedlife.tumblr.com/page/2

Be Money Smart in College

J.D Roth, the author of getrichslowly.com, wrote this article for college students looking to make money and get rich. Enjoy.

School’s back in session, and with it come life-lessons in money management for students. But personal finance can be easy, even if you’re just starting out. You just have to know how it works. All of the following are concepts I wish I had known before heading to college.

Money Management
Now that you’re on your own, you might be tempted to spend money on all the things your parents wouldn’t let you have before. Go slow. If you play it smart, you can avoid the sort of money troubles that plague many young adults.

• Join a credit union. Don’t just sign up for a random bank giving away t-shirts or frisbees at registration. Track down a credit union in town, or do some research into online banks.
• Don’t get a credit card unless you absolutely need one. Don’t be a sucker. Those guys sitting behind the sign-up table are not there to help you. They’re there to make money.
• Avoid non-academic debt. It might seem like a good idea to put that Xbox on a credit card, but it’s not. Focus on developing good money skills with cash. Worry about credit later.
• Save and then splurge. If you decide you must have that Xbox, then save for it. Wait until you can pay cash.
• Pay your bills on time. Basic advice, but it’s surprising how many people lose track of things. If you pay your bills as they arrive, you won’t have to worry about forgetting them.

Organization and Planning
Some minimal organization will keep your finances in order. Each of these is an important adult financial skill.

• Track your spending. Use a notebook, or use Quicken if you have it. Good records will prevent you from getting overdrawn at the bank or charging more than your credit limit. This habit also allows you to detect spending patterns.
• Make a budget. It doesn’t have to be fancy. At the start of the month, estimate how much money you’ll receive and decide where needs to go. Remember: you don’t need to spend it all.
• Save your receipts. Put them in a shoebox under your bed if you must, but hold onto them. You’ll need to be able to compare them with statements at the end of the month. And some you’ll need to keep for several years.
• Guard your vital stats. Don’t give out your social security number or your credit card info except to known and trusted sources.

Campus Life
It seems like there are a hundred thing competing for your money. It’s hard to know what to do. Here are some smart ways to save money on campus.

• Buy used textbooks. You’re just going to sell them back at the end of the term. (Or end up wishing you had done so five years from now.) You don’t need new textbooks.
• Skip spring break. Forget the long road trips. You can have a lot of fun for cheap close to campus. (My college used to organize economical group trips; yours probably does, too.) You might be surprised at how fun it can be to stay on campus, too.
• Live without a car. Cars are expensive: gas, maintenance, insurance, registration, parking. Stick close to campus. Learn to use mass transit. Find a friend who has a car.
• Don’t hang out with big spenders. Some kids have parents with deep pockets. Other kids are well down the road to financial trouble. Hanging out with them can lead you to spend more than you can afford.
• Take advantage of campus activities. There’s always something to do. Attend free movie festivals. Pay a few bucks to see the local symphony every month. Support the sports teams. Attend lecture series. Get the most from your student ID!

Personal Life
Take care of yourself. Your mother isn’t around to remind you to brush your teeth. Nobody’s going to scold you for eating three bowls of Cap’n Crunch. Self-discipline is more important now than it ever has been in your life.

• Go to class. You’re in college to learn. Everyone skips now and then, but don’t make it a habit. What you learn and do now will have a profound impact on the rest of your life.
• Get involved. Staying busy staves off boredom. It also helps you build skills and form social networks that will last a lifetime. Try out for a play. Join the astronomy club. Write for the school paper. Find something that sounds fun to you and do it. Take risks!
• Stay active. A healthy body costs far less to maintain than an unhealthy body. You don’t have to do much to avoid gaining weight in college. A walk around campus each day will probably do it.
• Eat healthy. It’s possible to eat well on a small budget if you know what you’re doing.
• Limit vices. Beer, cigarettes, and pot are expensive. They also screw with your body and mind. Take it easy on the vices. There’s nothing wrong with a drink or two on Friday night, but don’t go overboard.
• Learn the art of the Cheap Date. The student’s guide to cheap dates suggests:
  • Take advantage of mother nature
  • Go for coffee
  • Use CitySearch to track down cheap food and activities
  • Attend campus events
• Have fun. Your college years will be some of the best of your life. It’s trite, but true. Make the most of them.

Decision Making
Get in the habit of making smart choices now, and you’ll develop a pattern of behavior that will stand you in good stead the rest of your life.

• Make smart choices. You can do anything you want, but you can’t do everything you want. Decide what’s important to you, and pursue that. And remember to leave time for yourself.
• When you want to buy something, ask yourself “Do I need it?” If you think you do, then wait. Don’t buy on impulse. Write the object of your desire on a piece of paper and pin it to the wall. Look at it every day for a week. If, at the end of the week, you still think you need it, then consider purchasing it.

Making Money
I’ve saved the best for last. If you can master even one of these, you’ll have a head-start on your friends. Master all four, and you’ll be on the road to wealth. No kidding.

• Spend less than you earn. Don’t earn much? Then don’t spend much. If your spending and income are roughly even, you have two choices: earn more or spend less. When I was in college, I worked as many as four jobs at once. This gave me a lot of spending cash. (Unfortunately, I didn’t do a good job with the spend less part of the equation.)
• Be an outstanding employee. Good work habits can pay enormous dividends, leading to recommendations and contacts that you can use after you’re out of school. Several of my classmates turned work-study jobs into launching pads for future careers.
• Start your own business. Can you install a hard drive? Can you strip a computer of spyware? Can you perform minor car repairs? Do you have a pickup truck you could use to haul furniture? Are you a passable guitar player? Charge cheap rates and exceed expectations. Word will spread. When you’ve built up a customer base, you can raise your rates a little. This is an awesome way to make money.
• Learn to invest. Find a discount broker and begin making regular investments. Sharebuilder is a great choice for college students. It costs only $4 to make a scheduled stock purchase, and you can invest any amount of money, even $20. Don’t obsess over the details yet. You can worry about high returns and low fees later. Right now the most important thing is to develop the investment habit. (Ad: Buy Stocks for $4 at ShareBuilder.) Ten years from now,you’ll thank yourself. If you can find a way to invest $1000 a year for the next ten years, you can set yourself up for life. No joke.

How to Start a Successful Business

Chris Guillibeau, stud entrepreneur.

The following article is a guest post by Chris Guillibeau, who’s traveled to 150+ countries and studied more micro-businesses than anyone I know. I hope you love this piece as much as I did. Enjoy!

 

Enter Chris

 

Over the past several years, I’ve been on a quest to study micro-businesses—small operations (typically one person) that make $50,000 a year or more (often a lot more). The quest took me all over the world, at first to a large group of 1,500 “unexpected entrepreneurs” who volunteered to share their stories in detail.
I wanted to hear from all kinds of businesses–both offline and online–to decipher what made them so successful. How did they get started? What helped them grow into significant, reliable sources of income? How can you increase odds of success?
After much effort, a small team and I narrowed down the case studies to a subset of 70 that I focused on for final analysis. All 70 people had created freedom for themselves: new income and a completely new way of life. There are formulas.
Here is a highly-condensed list of 17 lessons learned…

 

The 17 Lessons of $100 Start-ups

 

Note: Links show the businesses in action.

A gap in the marketplace reveals a business opportunity.

Gary Leff used his Frequent Flyer Miles to travel all over the world in First Class, and his friends kept asking for advice. Almost on a whim, he decided to launch a basic website offering the service of booking travel awards for a fee.
His service is something that people could do on their own for free—but plenty of people don’t know how it works or just don’t want the hassle of dealing with airline call centers. This “side business” now brings in more than $100,000 a year.
Lesson: Provide results (photos, testimonials, details of your own experiences) and offer to do something for people that they don’t know how to do or don’t want to worry about.

Latch on to a popular service, then simplify it for others.

Self-described “professional nerd” Brett Kelly wrote Evernote Essentials, the first English-language manual for the popular Evernote software. Brett was hoping for a $10,000 payday over the course of a few months—enough to pay off some bills. Instead, he received $10,000 in two days… and then the sales kept coming.
Originally conceived as a hobby that Brett worked on during nights and weekends, Evernote Essentials now earns more than $160,000 a year in net income. Here’s what Brett says about the results: “The unreal success of this project has not only freed our family from a decade of debt and financial instability, but has also given us the freedom to pursue the kind of life we want.”
Lesson: Simplify things and cash in. Brett developed a comprehensive resource with lots of screenshots and detailed, highly actionable tips. More than 10,000 customers later, it’s still going strong.

Don’t beg your friends for money!

You probably don’t need any outside investment to begin. The vast majority of respondents in the study started their business for less than $1,000, and nearly half for $100 or less. In Vancouver, Canada, Nicolas Luff started with only $56.33, the cost of a business license. Others started only with a domain name and a free WordPress account.
It wasn’t just online businesses that started on the cheap. Michael Hanna started an unconventional mattress store after being laid off from his job in media sales. A friend of his who owned a furniture store offered him an unwanted truckload of mattresses, figuring that Michael could sell them one at a time on Craigslist. Instead of Craigslist, though, Michael found a car dealership that had recently gone out of business. He was able to rent the space at a huge discount, and he opened his first store while learning on the job.
Even though Michael originally knew nothing about the mattress business, three years later Mattress Lot produces more than $1 million in revenue.
The chart below illustrates the average startup cost from the businesses we examined.

Image Credit: Mike Rohde.

Note: I sometimes hear from people who say that not all businesses can be started on the cheap. This is true. If you want to open a factory, you might need more than $100. If you want to found a VC-backed tech start-up, you might need to woo investors. But the point remains: you can start many different kinds of businesses without going into debt. All things are equal, why not take that route if the costs are low?

Lesson: Whenever possible, start quickly and start cheap. (And most of the time, it is possible.)

If you do need money, you can find a way.

Emma Reynolds had an idea for a consultancy that would work with big companies to improve their staffing and resourcing. She calculated that she would need at least $17,000 to start the new firm. There was just one problem: Emma was 23 and unlikely to get a business loan.
Emma and her business partner Bruce realized that despite this, they could probably get a car loan. Bruce proceeded to do just that, borrowing $17,000 for a car and then investing the funds in the business with Emma instead. They paid back the car loan within ten months, and the bank never found out that there was no actual car. Now the profitable firm employs twenty people and has multiple offices in four countries.

Another example: Shannon Oakey was turned down for a small bank loan despite excellent financials and a strong business plan. Shannon took her business elsewhere: to Kickstarter, where her project was fully funded. Shannon printed out a copy of the final results and mailed it to the loan officer who had rejected her—with a lollipop inside the printout.

Lesson: If you really need a loan, don’t take “no” as the final answer. Consider alternatives. Bootstrap. Hustle. Figure it out. (Note: Borrowing money for a non-existent car is at your own risk!)

Get to the first sale as quickly as possible.

Nick Gatens put up a portfolio site for his photographs and sold a $50 print for the first time. What’s the big deal? When you’ve never sold something before–i.e. never had a stranger comes to your website and hands over their credit card–the first time is flooring. Here’s what Nick said:
“It took me a long time to add the order button on my site. For a while I kept blaming it on technical issues—a WordPress glitch, the need for design improvement, and so on. Finally I realized I was waiting for no good reason. I put the offer out there and made a sale. It felt great!”
Lesson: Does your site have a PayPal button on it? If not, add one today!

A trend or controversial idea can also reveal a business opportunity.

Jason Glaspey was a follower of Paleo, the controversial diet that is both loved and ridiculed. Jason noticed a common problem among fellow devotees: because of the requirement for regular shopping and planning, Paleo was hard to follow on a regular basis.
Jason created Paleo Plan, a membership site that offers shopping lists and ongoing guidance. The goal of Paleo Plan is to keep its customers on track, with detailed shopping lists and ongoing recommendations. The project now brings in more than $5,000 a month.
Lesson: When large groups of people love and hate something, it’s a good sign there’s a business model hiding in plain sight. Get paid by making things easy for the people who love it.

You can be one person… or maybe two.

Nathalie Lussier had lost weight and discovered a new way of life by following a raw foods diet. She then set up a successful business teaching people how they could do the same thing, using webinars, courses, and personal coaching. One of the tipping points came when Nathalie discovered that the initial name she had chosen, Raw Foods Switch, could also be rendered Raw Foods Witch. Nathalie jumped into character, dressing up with a broom and pointed black hat.
Within a year, the business grew to more than $60,000 a year in net income. What’s not to love? Just one thing: Nathalie liked raw foods, but that wasn’t all she liked. She was also a programmer who had set up the entire database and backend operation for Raw Foods Witch. She wanted to put those skills to greater use, and she felt like she could help aspirational entrepreneurs build their business.
Instead of shutting down the raw foods business, however, Nathalie put it on auto-pilot, using auto-responders and repeating webinars to essentially market the business on its own. Then she switched over to a new site, NathalieLussier.com, where she offers specific consulting services based on business-building and technology.
Nathalie now earns a good living from both businesses, with RawFoodsWitch.com essentially running on its own as she focuses her efforts on the new site.
Lesson: Clone yourself for fun and profit. It’s not necessarily about doing more, it’s about being smart.

Notice what frustrates you, then figure out a way to correct it. [TIM: This is my business model for almost everything]

In Portland, Oregon I met Sarah Young, who opened a yarn store at the height of the recession despite no business background. When I asked Sarah, “What made you think you would succeed?” her answer was astute.
“I wasn’t an entrepreneur,” Sarah said, “But I was a shopper. Other yarn stores were cramped and unfriendly. There wasn’t really a space you could go to hang out. I knew I wasn’t the only knitter who felt this way, so I decided to create an alternative.”
Sarah followed up, renting retail space and decorating for the grand opening of Happy Knits, a welcoming space for knitters and their families. The last part was important: most (though not all) knitters are women, so Sarah set up a play area for kids and a WiFi area for non-knitting partners. Customers are welcome to stay as long as they like.
You can see Sarah and hear more about Happy Knits in this video trailer.
[Note: in the trailer, Sarah tells the story of her first $1,000 day. We filmed this a few months ago, and when I recently caught up with her, she told me about the store's first $10,000 day. Business is great and Happy Knits now has six employees.]
Lesson: See something missing? Maybe you’re not the only one. Pay attention to inefficiencies, which may be opportunities to provide something better.

To make an extra $35,000 a year, be open to change.

One of the most insightful stories came from a source who preferred to be anonymous, a gent who tweaked a single variable in his sales page. Everything else was constant:

On one sales page I had $49, and on another $89. Nothing was different at all—same copywriting, same order process, same fulfillment. To be honest, I thought that $49 was a better price, but I had set that price somewhat arbitrarily. Guess what? Conversion went down [for $89]… slightly. But overall income actually increased! …
I then decided to test it at $99. Why not, right? But from $89 to $99 I saw a bit more of a drop-off, and I got worried. I’m now back at $89, and even with the lower conversion factored in, I worked out that I’ve given myself a $24 raise on every product that sells.
These days we are selling at least four copies a day. If everything else remains consistent, I’ll make $35,040 more this year . . . all from one test.

This single, unexpected tweak resulted in more than $35,000 a year in net income. His last words to me were: “I’ve decided to try some more tests.”
Lesson: Test everything. If you’re not good at testing, however, at least test pricing. [TIM: Here's one helpful tool you might get obsessed with: Unbounce.com]

Give them an offer they can’t refuse.

What separates a decent offer from a compelling offer that you simply must purchase? I learned this lesson in Anchorage, Alaska, when I talked with Scott McMurren, co-founder of Alaska TourSaver, the leading coupon guide for visitors coming to Alaska.
Scott explained how it worked. Every year, more than a million visitors head to the frontier state, and many of them travel independently. Alaska is a beautiful place, but it’s also expensive. To keep costs down, Scott worked with hotels, restaurants, and tour providers all across the state. He put pressure on them to provide real savings instead of the usual minor discounts that other coupons offered. (In the TourSaver guide, most deals are Buy-1-Get-1-Free or 50% off.)
Then Scott make an important decision: instead of pricing his coupon book for twenty bucks or so, like some competitors did, Alaska TourSaver would sell on an annual basis for just under $100. Because the deals are so valuable, it’s a no-brainer for most travelers to pick up the package. Scott’s pitch is: “Get this coupon book, use it once, and it will pay for itself. Then you’ll have hundreds of additional coupons to use as well.”
Lesson: Make your offer so compelling that buyers have no reason to say no. Give them an offer they can’t refuse. (Bonus tip: every compelling offer includes an element of urgency, the reason why buyers should take action right now. “Supplies are limited! Don’t wait!”)

Give people what they want (not just what they say they want).

Kyle Hepp is a wedding photographer who travels the world from her home base in Santiago, Chile. Kyle’s clients tend to be young and hip, and they’re drawn to her work because it is non-traditional. Sometimes they even say they don’t want any traditional wedding shots. “We’re not into old-school,” was how one couple put it.
Kyle agrees with them and spends her time at the wedding getting fun, candid shots that she knows the couple will like. But that’s not all. Having done this for a while, Kyle knows that what her clients want and what they say they want may be different—and she also knows that the families of the bride and groom may have preferences of their own. Here’s how she handles these competing desires:

On the day of the wedding, I’ll grab them and say, “Let’s get your family and just do a couple of traditional shots.” I’ll make it quick and painless. I make sure everyone is laughing and having a good time and it’s not those awful, everybody-stare-at-the-camera-and-look-miserable kinds of shots. And then after the wedding, when I deliver those photos, either the bride and groom’s parents will be thrilled to have those pictures (which in turn makes the couple happy), or the bride and groom themselves will end up saying they’re so happy that we did those shots.

Kyle goes above and beyond by giving her photography clients what they really want… even if they hadn’t realized it themselves.
Lesson: Dig deeper to uncover real needs. Give people what they really want.

Put happiness in a box and sell it.

What do people really, really want? They want something positive added to their lives or something negative removed. The best microbusinesses do this in different ways—making it easier to travel the world, for example, or making customers feel special. But when you talk with business owners, many focus on the descriptions of their business instead of how their product or service will actually help people.
Consider these different approaches in explaining the mission of the V6 Ranch, an unconventional vacation destination in Parkfield, California:

Descriptive (Boring): Our business enables visitors to ride horses and sit around the campfire.
Benefits (Inspirational): Our business helps visitors be someone else for a day. The message we try to send is “Come stay with us and be a cowboy.”

Isn’t the second option so much better? Sell happiness (benefit) instead of merely describing your business (features).
Lesson: As much as possible, focus your business messaging on adding something positive or removing something negative from customers’ daily routines.

Forget traditional demographics. Focus on psychographics instead.

In Arcata, California, Charlie Jordan and Mark Ritz teamed up to start the Kinetic Koffee Kompany. They had great coffee, but that wasn’t enough—these days, there are plenty of small businesses making great coffee.
What set the Kinetic Koffee Kompany apart was their target market: they focused specifically on the outdoors community, pitching bike shops and “gear retailers” on carrying their stock. They showed up at races and made a name for themselves among groups interested in active hobbies. Instead of competing with Starbucks, Charlie and Mark made their own market.
Lesson: Figure out who “your people” are and serve them. Don’t group them according to traditional demographics unless you have a good reason to.

Offer a “no pain, all gain” refund option to build confidence.

Nev Lapwood was a snowboarding instructor who created a set of instructional DVDs that sold around the world. Nev had a good business model almost from the beginning, but he decided to kick it up a notch, offering to refund his customers 110% of their purchase price if they didn’t like the product. Sales increased, and Nev applied the same approach with foreign translations of his DVDs.
I asked Nev if this had become a problem with people requesting habitual refunds. His response: nope, not at all. The business now produces more than $240,000 a year in net income.
Lesson: Build trust by making it easy to trust you. Offer a strong guarantee, and don’t make people jump through hoops to get a refund.
[TIM: 110% sound familiar? Check out the below. Congrats again, Nev!]

“Marketing is like sex (only losers pay for it).”

This quote, originally from a 2010 Fast Company article, aptly describes how the roles of marketing and paid advertising have changed. The vast majority of business owners I surveyed had built their customer base without any paid advertising at all. Instead, they did so largely through word of mouth.
I tested this hypothesis through my [Chris] own $10,000, Ten-Hour “Marketing and Sex” experiment—placing a series of paid ads for a travel service I operate and comparing them to the efforts of “hustling,” or connecting with friends and readers in a free, organic manner. The results were clear: I made far more money through the hustling efforts than through the paid advertising methods.
Lesson: If paid advertising proves to work for your business, by all means, don’t quit. But before you go down that road, consider “hustling” instead—the gentle art of self-promotion, and making something interesting that others will be eager to share for free.

Plan your product launch long in advance, and make people line up to purchase.

Like a Hollywood movie, you want to build anticipation before launching anything. Use the “dark and stormy night” approach to tell stories and lead people into a great experience—not just a sale.
Adam Baker and Karol Gajda’s Only72.com project illustrates this concept well. Twice a year, they line up affiliates and partners to push through a megasale of discounted online products… for only 72 hours. Each sale produces a six-figure payday for Adam, Karol, and the affiliates—because they’ve learned to build anticipation.

Free bonus: wondering how to launch your first product? Here’s a 37-Step Product Launch checklist. Pay it forward by making a great product or service and launching well.

Lesson: Get people excited! Then give them what they want.

Turn disaster into recovery—then sell recovery.

Ridlon “Sharkman” Kiphard was on an island in Fiji, operating his first big tour for Live Adventurously, an alternative tour operator for those who like to play hard. The first half of the trip had been great, but then the call came: the chief of the neighboring island, which they were scheduled to visit the next day, had died. His death called for a mandatory 100 days (!) of mourning. Suddenly, Sharkman had nine high-paying guests… and nowhere to go.
In Sharkman’s words, here’s how the story unfolded:

“This was when doing our research earlier, and really knowing the area, paid off. We managed to extend our stay where we were by one night and spent the time feverishly cobbling together plans. We chartered an aircraft; contacted numerous hotels, resorts, and dive operators; got recommendations; did some more research; and booked the group into a newly opened property on a remote island. The transition went smoothly, the entire rest of the trip came off without a hitch, and it was as if it had been planned that way the entire time.”

Over and over, I heard stories like these—of how an impending disaster turned into a moment of strength. In Sharkman’s case, his guests were highly impressed with how the team managed the problem. Some of them offered to pay extra to cover the additional costs incurred with the change, and all went on to provide strong referrals for Live Adventurously.
Lesson: Stick it out! (Bonus: The value of failure is overrated. Everyone always wants to know about failure because of some convoluted theory that you must fail more often than you succeed. “You learn more from your mistakes…” etc. Why not succeed from the beginning? Some people do. [TIM: In other words, learn from other people’s mistakes instead, when possible.)
***

Wrap-up: Your Turn

 

The constant themes in our study were freedom and value: freedom is what we all want, and value is the way to achieve it. Over and over, I found business owners who had created their own freedom (and a great income) by making something useful and desirable for their customers.
It’s easy to think that these are isolated examples, or that you can’t achieve the same results, but the micro-business phenomenon is happening all over the world in different ways.
Follow the path of these stories and make actionable plans. Pick one thing, get it on the calendar, and do it in the next week. Just do something.
Lesson: Don’t kill the dream! Live the dream!

Make Money By Investing

Once you begin to make money from any of my suggested methods, you will want to look into investing this money in order to earn even more money. There are thousands of ways to do it; stocks, stock mutual funds, bonds, bond mutual funds, lifecycle funds, exchange-traded funds, certificates of deposit, money market funds, and annuities are only the beginning. Buying a house and renting it out, or privately funding a new start up business can be good ways of investing away from bankers. Deciding when, how, and how much to invest is a tricky thing, and should be approached with caution. I recommend checking out www.investor.gov and reading up on the basics of investing before you do anything with your hard earned money.

Get Motivated

Frequently write by hand the quotes that motivate you the most.

Sometimes we have the resources and ability to make money, but lack the motivation. Use this list of quotes about success (provided by www.under30ceo.com) to inspire you when you feel like quitting. Pick your favorites, write them down, and post them up somewhere you will consistently see them. Good luck!

44 Success Quotes From Under30CEO Readers

1. “Opportunities don’t happen, you create them.” via Chris Grosser

2. “Don’t complain; just work harder.” via Chris Grosser

3. “Deeds not Words” via Bernord Hor

4. “Before you can work smart you must work hard.” via Chris Pardo

5. “Persevere…because on the road to success there is never a crowd on the extra mile!” via Charity Gibson

6. “I’m not afraid of dying, I’m afraid of not trying.” – Jay Z via Steven Gordon

7. “Coffee is for CLOSERS!” via Michael Wayne

8. “It’s not the cards you’re dealt it’s how you play the game” via Chris Pardo

9. “If you think you made it, your at the wrong place, never stop” via Chris Pardo

10. “Some people dream of great accomplishments, while others stay awake and do them” via Danielle Luedtke

11. “The grass is greener where you water it” via Danielle Luedtke

12. “If you are going to fear anything fear success. Think about what you are doing and when you succeed what life you will have” via Brandon Chalmers

13. “God gives every bird his worm but He does not throw it into the nest” via Liam Carey

14. “If it is to be, it’s up to me” via Caleb Anthony Parker

15. “Life doesn’t have to suck…DO something about it!” via Jennie Mustafa-Julock

16. “The elevator to success is out of order. You’ll have to use the stairs…. One step at a time.” via Rande Wilson

17. “The only time success occurs before work is in the dictionary.” via Cameron Cashmore

18. “Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.” – Theodore Roosevelt via Mike Jones

19. “Entrepreneurs average 3.8 failures before final success. What sets the successful ones apart is their amazing persistence.” – Lisa M. Amos via Tanya Hamilton

20. “The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine.” via Ashwin Bonde

21. “Anything less than 120 hours a week is part time, if you are okay with average…then work part time” via Chase Slepak

22. “Nothing is as it appears to be” via Trace Cohen

23. “Success is the worst teacher” via Trace Cohen

24. “If you want to manage somebody, manage yourself. Do that well and you’ll be ready to stop managing. And start leading.” via Mark Gonzales

25. “We are all self made but only the successful admit it” via Corey Leja

26. “If you don’t take a chance, you don’t stand a chance.” via Gabriella Mischel

27. “A successful person is one who can lay a solid foundation from the bricks others have thrown at them.” -David Brinkley via Luke Shaw

28. “Luck is where preparation meets opportunity” via Eric Knotts

29. “Things come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle” – Abraham Lincoln via Tina MiModels

30. “If you are willing to do more than you are paid to do, eventually you will be paid to do more than you do” – unknown via Tina MiModels

31. “Fall down seven times, get up eight times” – Japanese proverb via Tina MiModels

32. “Success is a lousy teacher, it seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose” – Bill Gates via Ryan Seitz

33. “Nothing is impossible, the word itself says I’m possible” via Victor Aguirre

34. “Entrepreneurs don’t waste time/energy worrying about being better than someone else. Focus on being the very best version of YOU.” via Abdulaziz Aljouf

35. “Whoever says ‘Nothing is Impossible’ has obviously never tried stapling Jell-o to a tree” via Charity Gibson

36. “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” Charles Darwin via Ann McCartan

37. “Life isnt about learning how to weather the storm. its about learning how to dance in the rain.” via Monica Fish

38. “There are two rules to success: 1) Never tell everything you know.” via Nick Tart

39. “Create your own destiny. If you don’t, someone else will.” via Chris Leber

40. “Success is not so much what we have, as it is what we are.” – Jim Rohn via Nicole Elizabeth Shields

41. “Success is being able to juggle those Glass Balls called Priorities and keeping them shiny & intact while running the Marathon of Life.” via Jouyin Teoh

42. “Learning from success is important but learning from failure is vital to succeeding” via Jason Platnick

43 “True nobility is not about being better than anyone else its about being better than you used to be.” – Dr. Wayne Dyer via Jason Platnick

44. “Whether you think you can or you can’t, you are right.” – Henry Ford via Brett Kunsch

Build a Startup

Building a Startup can be one of the hardest things you ever do. It takes time, energy, dedication, and money. However, a successful Startup can be both rewarding and extremely profitable. Facebook, Google, Disney, and many other companies you know and love began as Startups. Here is a helpful video from docstoc.com that outlines 10 strategies for Startup Success. If you have an idea or are currently working on a Startup, I would love to hear about it. Good Luck!