Upskilling: Chris Guillebeau The $100 Startup #30

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opened 2022-07-29 13:09:26 +00:00 by realaravinth · 2 comments

realaravinth commented

2022-07-29 13:09:26 +00:00

Owner

(currently reading)

From the prologue:

...I traveled to sixty-three cities in the United States and Canada (and eventually more than fifteen additional countries), meeting with people who had made the switch from working for The Man to working for themselves.
I then worked with a small team to create a comprehensive, multiyear study involving more than a hundred interview subjects. Combing through reams of data (more than four thousand pages of written survey answers in addition to hundreds of phone calls, Skype sessions, and back-and-forth emails), I compiled the most important lessons, which are offered here for your review and action.

(currently reading) From the prologue: > ...I traveled to sixty-three cities in the United States and Canada (and eventually more than fifteen additional countries), meeting with people who had made the switch from working for The Man to working for themselves. I then worked with a small team to create a comprehensive, multiyear study involving more than a hundred interview subjects. Combing through reams of data (more than four thousand pages of written survey answers in addition to hundreds of phone calls, Skype sessions, and back-and-forth emails), I compiled the most important lessons, which are offered here for your review and action.

realaravinth added the

Expense

label 2022-07-29 13:09:26 +00:00

realaravinth added spent time 2022-07-29 13:09:33 +00:00

dachary added the

Improve Hostea

label 2022-07-29 14:07:32 +00:00

realaravinth was assigned by dachary

2022-07-29 14:07:37 +00:00

realaravinth added spent time 2022-08-01 06:14:28 +00:00

realaravinth commented

2022-08-01 06:28:23 +00:00

Poster

Owner

Target audience

While thinking about who might be Hostea's target audience, I was thinking about them in terms of places of employment and type of employment. This book recommends:

Who are your people? You don’t necessarily have to think of them in categories such as age, race, and gender. Instead, you can think of them in terms of shared beliefs and values.

So our target audience might be Free Software enthusiasts, people who prefer Free Software to proprietary software but are not necessarily Free Software vegetarians. These are people that will use proprietary software but if a Free alternative is available with UX roughly matching the proprietary experience, then they'll pay.

Service industry

As mentioned, the book is based on interviews of successful entrepreneurs. A person named "Gary" is a successful executive of a some firm is happy with their job and has no plans of leaving. Being an executive, they frequently fly business class and know the ins and outs of hacking the system to get the best deals from airlines. The love doing it so much that they were active on travel forums, helping other users find the best deals on plane tickets.

Then, they started receiving requests from friends to book luxury plane tickets for vacations. They soon realised that they could charge for this and started charging $250 per consultation(Plane tickets from my home to Uni cost $300!). These tickets are usually priced ~$5000 so, the $250 consultation price is justified. Now they have a successful business that generates +$50,000 in income, or the equivalent of a full time job in the US.

There is market in highly niche services.

## Target audience While thinking about who might be Hostea's target audience, I was thinking about them in terms of places of employment and type of employment. This book recommends: > Who are your people? You don’t necessarily have to think of them in categories such as age, race, and gender. Instead, you can think of them in terms of shared beliefs and values. So our target audience might be Free Software enthusiasts, people who prefer Free Software to proprietary software but are not necessarily Free Software vegetarians. These are people that will use proprietary software but if a Free alternative is available with UX roughly matching the proprietary experience, then they'll pay. ## Service industry As mentioned, the book is based on interviews of successful entrepreneurs. A person named "Gary" is a successful executive of a some firm is happy with their job and has no plans of leaving. Being an executive, they frequently fly business class and know the ins and outs of hacking the system to get the best deals from airlines. The love doing it so much that they were active on travel forums, helping other users find the best deals on plane tickets. Then, they started receiving requests from friends to book luxury plane tickets for vacations. They soon realised that they could charge for this and started charging **$250 per consultation**(Plane tickets from my home to Uni cost $300!). These tickets are usually priced ~$5000 so, the $250 consultation price is justified. Now they have a successful business that generates +$50,000 in income, or the equivalent of a full time job in the US. There is market in highly niche services.

realaravinth commented

2022-09-08 09:36:44 +00:00

Poster

Owner

Abandoning book in context of Gna!. It shows how to create a micro, highly niche business. Not sure how it will translate on to here.

realaravinth closed this issue

2022-09-08 09:36:44 +00:00

realaravinth added the due date 2022-09-08

2022-09-08 09:36:55 +00:00