Page 212 - The $100 Startup_ Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love

In trying to decide which path to pursue, the simple question to answer is:

“What kind of freedom do you want?” John’s model is all about creating an
entity apart from yourself and then selling it for a big payday. The $100 Startup
model is more about transitioning to a business or independent career that is
based on something you love to do—in other words, something intrinsically
related to the owner’s skill or passion. Neither model is better; it just depends on
your goals.

If you’d like to have the option of selling your business one day, John’s point
is that you have to plan for it by taking specific steps. The most important step in
creating an independent identity for the business is to create a product or service
with the potential to scale. This is an important distinction from many of the
businesses we’ve described thus far, so let’s take a look at how John explains it.

A scalable business is built on something that is both teachable and valuable.

A CPA provides a highly valuable service, but it isn’t easily teachable (she can’t
just bring someone into her practice and hand it over to him). On the other hand,
you can teach someone how to bus tables at a restaurant in a few minutes, but
that isn’t a valuable service (lots of people can bus tables). Therefore, a business
that has the potential to be sold easily for a high profit offers something at the