Page 144 - The $100 Startup_ Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love

AT LEAST MONTHLY

Connect with existing customers to make sure they are happy. (Ask: “Is
there anything else I can do for you?”)

Prepare for an upcoming event, contest, or product launch (see Chapter 8).

ONCE IN A WHILE

Perform your own business audit (see Chapter 12) to find missing
opportunities that can be turned into active projects.

Ensure that you are regularly working toward building something
significant, not just reacting to things as they appear.

While thinking about the quote and drafting this chapter, I decided to conduct

an unscientific experiment to measure paid ads versus free hustling. Over the

course of a month, I spent $10,000 on carefully selected ads and sponsorship for

my Travel Hacking Cartel service. I also spent ten hours hustling, writing guest

posts, recruiting a joint venture with another service, touching base with

journalist contacts, and so on. Here are the results:

Ad Cost: $10,000 vs. Hustling Cost: 10 Hours
(+2 hours of setup) Zero Dollars

Number of New Customers: 78 Number of New Customers: 84

Estimated Value of New Customers: Estimated Value of New
$7020 Customers: $7560

Approximate hour-per-hustle value: $756

Do we have a clear winner? I think so, but with a couple of disclaimers. First,
one could say that I had access to relationships that others don’t have and those
relationships were what determined the high hour-per-hustle value. This may be
partly true. However, the whole point of hustling is to put your relationships to
good use, whatever they are. Not everyone may be able to earn $756 per hustling
hour. However, some situations could have produced an even higher hustling
value.

It is also true that hustling time is not unlimited. If I had $100,000 to spend
instead of $10,000, the situation might indeed be different. Combining hustling
with paid advertising (again, carefully selected) could be a viable option for
some. The point is that hustling can take you far. When you’re thinking about