Page 82 - The $100 Startup_ Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love

exactly what to buy, cook, and eat each week. Jason started Paleo Plan, a one-
man business, in three weeks with $1,500. Within a year, the business grew to
earn recurring income of more than $6,000 a month, requiring a grand total of
two hours’ work to update the site each week.

Strategy 2: Sell What People Buy (and Ask Them If You’re Not Sure)
As you focus on getting to know “your people,” keep this important principle in
mind: Most of us like to buy, but we don’t like to be sold. Old-school marketing
is based on persuasion; new marketing is based on invitation. With persuasion
marketing, you’re trying to convince people of something, whether it’s the need
for your service in general or why your particular offering is better than the
competition’s. A persuasion marketer is like a door-to-door vacuum cleaner
salesman: If he knocks on enough doors, he might eventually sell a vacuum
cleaner … but at great personal cost and much rejection.

Persuasion marketing is still around and always will be, but now there’s an
alternative. If you don’t want to go door to door with a vacuum cleaner in hand,
consider how the people in our study have created businesses that customers
desperately want to be a part of.

What do you sell? Remember the lesson from Chapter 2: Find out what people
want and find a way to give it to them. As you build a tribe of committed fans
and loyal customers, they’ll eagerly await your new offers, ready to pounce as
soon as they go live. This way isn’t just new; it’s also better.

When you’re brainstorming different ideas and aren’t sure which one is best,
one of the most effective ways to figure it out is simply to ask your prospects,
your current customers (if you have them), or anyone you think might be a good
fit for your idea. It helps to be specific; asking people if they “like” something
isn’t very helpful. Since you’re trying to build a business, not just a hobby, a
better method is to ask if they’d be willing to pay for what you’re selling. This
separates merely “liking” something from actually paying for it.

Questions like these are good starting points:

• What is your biggest problem with ______?
• What is the number one question you have about ______?
• What can I do to help you with ________?

Fill in the blanks with the specific topic, niche, or industry you’re researching:
“What is your biggest problem with getting things done?” or “What is the
number one question you have about online dating?”