Page 168 - The $100 Startup_ Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love

TWEAKING YOUR WAY TO THE BANK:
HOW SMALL

ACTIONS CREATE BIG INCREASES IN
INCOME.

“Remind people that profit is the difference
between revenue and expense.
This makes you look smart.”

—SCOTT ADAMS

Over and over, the subjects of our case studies discussed how growing the

business wasn’t nearly as hard as starting the business. “It took a while to find
something that worked,” a common statement began, “but once we were rolling,
we gained traction and quickly took off.”

As we saw with Nick’s story in Chapter 6—the guy who was thrilled about
selling his first $50 print—sometimes the first sale is the hardest but also the
most rewarding. Several others said much the same thing: “The day I got my
first sale was when I knew the business was going to work out. Everything that
came afterward was reinforcement of the initial success.”

I call it “the first $1.26 is the hardest” principle, because one day many years
ago I made my first $1.26 with a new project while on a layover in Brussels. I
couldn’t afford a single Belgian waffle on the day’s take, but I had a good feeling
about the future. In this chapter, we’ll look at ways to move on up by increasing
income in an existing business.