If I Wanted to Go From $0 to $1M, I’d Do This

Business Model Generation, a contemporary guide to systematic business innovation, provides a template for brainstorming and visualizing the overarching elements that make up a successful, holistic business model.

The authors analyze the different ways you can combine these elements to create the most successful business model patterns. In addition, they provide techniques you can use to generate your own innovative business models, as well as strategies you can incorporate to regularly analyze and optimize your existing business models.

This guide supplements each key concept and strategy with up-to-date examples and commentary, and we suggest complementary processes to effectively incorporate their concepts into your own business models.

In The Millionaire Fastlane, multimillionaire entrepreneur and investor MJ DeMarco challenges conventional wisdom about how to create wealth and offers a simple formula to shortcut your path to riches and early retirement.

According to DeMarco, all financial strategies follow one of three formulas—Insatiable Consumption, Hopeful Accumulation, and Active Production. Each formula represents a distinct attitude and approach that determines both the amount of money you can accumulate and the speed at which you can achieve your financial goal.

The Millionaire Fastlane explores DeMarco’s key ideas about each of these three formulas and his argument that the first two represent common shortcuts to wealth that don’t guarantee financial freedom. However, he claims, there is a way to generate a massive income in a short time. DeMarco explains how, providing actionable advice to fast-track your path to wealth. Throughout this guide, we’ll compare and contrast DeMarco’s key ideas with research and practical advice from financial advisors and successful entrepreneurs.

Want to know the growth tactics that Uber, Facebook, and Airbnb used to reach massive valuations in record time? Written by LinkedIn founder and Reid Hoffman, Blitzscaling describes the counterintuitive business strategy of putting efficiency and confidence aside for pure speed.

Learn common attributes of today’s most successful tech business models, when it’s appropriate to blitzscale and when it will fail, and the counterintuitive violations of business common sense. While nominally a business strategy book, Blitzscaling is also relevant for investors who want to discover the next big company, employees who want to know how to work in one, and anyone who wants to understand how today’s companies grow at an unprecedented pace.

Mike Michalowicz’s Profit First criticizes traditional business accounting methods by claiming that they are unintuitive, and that their unintuitive nature leads many entrepreneurs to failure. He then outlines an alternate accounting system, which he calls the Profit First method. In the Profit First method, a percentage of income is set aside as profit before any expenses are calculated. This method, he says, allows an entrepreneur to do their business accounting in a simple and intuitive way, and to increase their business’s profitability and stability.

In this guide, we’ll discuss Michalowicz’s criticisms of traditional accounting, as well as his own recommendations for how to set up Profit First accounting and use its guidelines to improve your business. We’ll also provide commentary explaining psychological and economic research related to Michalowicz’s claims, as well as practical advice on how to apply some of his broader recommendations.

In Fix This Next, entrepreneur and business author Mike Michalowicz introduces the Business Hierarchy of Needs, a system for determining which of your company’s problems you should fix next. Michalowicz created this system because many entrepreneurs struggle with prioritization. They’re often overwhelmed by problems, so they focus on fixing the most immediate problem instead of identifying the most impactful approach that’ll fix the problem’s root cause. Since the root cause isn’t resolved, problems continue to appear.

In this guide, we’ll discuss how Michalowicz’s prioritization system works and how you can use it to make your business more successful. In our commentary, we’ll compare his advice to that of other business experts like Simon Sinek and Seth Godin, as well as explore concrete tips for implementing Michalowicz’s ideas.

Why do so many business models fail? According to entrepreneur, Lean Canvas creator, and best-selling author Ash Maurya, it’s because entrepreneurs assume they already know what customers want and finalize their plans before testing their ideas. As a result, they create rigid plans that they can’t easily adapt to customers' actual preferences.

In Running Lean, Maurya suggests that you can avoid this pitfall by adopting continuous validation and iteration. This approach helps build and sustain a flexible business model that evolves alongside customer preferences.

This guide explores Maurya’s thoughts on creating successful business models. You'll come away with a plan to capture the core elements of your idea in a concise, agile business model; a methodology that allows you to refine and align your offer with your customers' true needs; and a testing strategy to optimize your business for sustainable long-term growth. Additionally, we’ll complement Maurya’s ideas with research from business experts, and we’ll suggest actionable strategies to help you apply his concepts to your own business.

If you’re looking to break away from your current work arrangement and start doing something that you’re passionate about, consider starting your own microbusiness, a business run by one person. Where you once needed to have a fair amount of funding to get started, Chris Guillebeau suggests you can now do so for as little as $100.

In The $100 Startup, Guillebeau breaks down the process of starting your own business. He covers everything from finding your target audience to creating a development plan, explaining how you can find success without loaning a cent from the bank.

In We Should All Be Millionaires, self-made millionaire Rachel Rodgers argues that all women, especially women of color, can and should strive to become millionaires. According to Rodgers, women succumb to myths and stereotypes that prevent them from earning more. Rather than simply work harder or live more frugally, women must change how they think and feel about money, reclaim their time and energy, and stop underselling themselves. By following Rodgers’s advice, you can become more financially confident, grow your wealth, and live with more freedom and autonomy.

In this guide, we’ll discuss ways to develop a positive money mindset, manage your time and energy, and increase your wealth by recognizing the worth of your work. We’ll also compare Rodgers’s advice with that of other entrepreneurs and financial experts and provide practical tips on how to implement her strategies.

Do you dream of owning your own business but aren’t sure how to get funding to start it? In The Minimalist Entrepreneur, Sahil Lavingia says you don’t need any. In this book, the successful business owner gives detailed advice for starting your own profitable “minimalist” business without using venture capital or spending a penny on advertising.

In this guide, we’ll explain Lavingia’s business model, from identifying a business you’ll love to run by finding inspiration in your own communities, to setting up, testing, marketing, and launching your business. We’ll also discuss how to run your business sustainably, with the ultimate goal of achieving “time affluence” for yourself, and making a positive contribution to the world.

Throughout, we’ll compare and supplement Lavinagia’s advice on starting a business with that from other books like The Lean Startup, The $100 Startup, and Blue Ocean Strategy.

Many businesses assume they must rely on expensive mass-media marketing campaigns to build customer awareness and generate sales. However, this assumption doesn’t bode well for small businesses with limited resources.

Bestselling author and marketing guru Jay Conrad Levinson argues that, with the right marketing strategy, even the smallest of businesses can make a significant impact. In Guerrilla Marketing, he provides timeless advice for creating a profitable marketing strategy that any business can use to establish its place in the market.

This guide distills Levinson’s advice for creating a profitable marketing strategy into a five-step process. You’ll come away knowing how to:

• Define your target market
• Create an appealing marketing message
• Keep your marketing costs low
• Identify the most profitable marketing methods for your business

Additionally, we’ll clarify his ideas with research from marketing professionals and suggest actionable strategies to help you apply these concepts to your business.

In The Marketing Plan, management and marketing expert William M. Luther outlines the variables that impact both the immediate and long-term success of your product or service. He encourages analyzing how these variables impact your business so that you can:

• Assess the profitability of potential products and services before you commit to developing them
• Develop an effective business plan
• Differentiate yourself from your competitors
• Structure your operational procedures to maximize your profits

This guide walks you through the key ideas covered in The Marketing Plan. We’ll discuss the main variables that impact the success of your product or service so that you can develop a profitable marketing plan for your business. Additionally, we’ll expand upon Luther’s advice with research and actionable ideas from other marketing experts and management professionals.

If you’re a creator of anything (music, tech products, writing), you probably hope to have a large impact, breaking through to thousands or millions of people. But have you thought about creating something enduring? Have you ever thought about how to ensure your creation is still being used and loved 10 years from now?

That’s the question Perennial Seller is trying to answer. Ryan Holiday, an author and marketer, tries to articulate what distinguishes works that last from works that fade into obscurity. How is 4-decade old band Iron Maiden still selling records and concerts? What distinguishes works with followings, like Star Wars, from similar blockbusters like Avatar that have faded from public memory? Learn the strategies to create good, enduring products with loyal followings.

Leadership expert John C. Maxwell argues that today’s leaders must abandon traditional management practices and make leadershifts—changes in how they think, communicate, and act as leaders. In Leadershift, Maxwell shares lessons from a lifetime of leading organizations and coaching developing leaders, sharing common leadership mistakes, and providing guidance for becoming a transformative leader who can inspire great things from others. By making Maxwell’s leadershifts, you can maximize your leadership abilities and amplify the success of your team or organization.

In this guide, we’ll explore the leadership changes Maxwell suggests to run an effective organization. We’ll discuss how to improve your leadership mindset, manage a team effectively, earn the respect of others, and inspire new generations of leaders. We’ll supplement Maxwell’s advice with insights from other leadership experts and share additional practical tips for making Maxwell’s leadershifts in your work.

Running a successful business requires a lot of time and effort, but it doesn’t have to take over your life. In Buy Back Your Time, veteran entrepreneur Dan Martell says you can run a profitable business and make time for the things you love without having to work yourself to the bone. Simply buy back your time: Hire others to take over some of your work, and then invest your reclaimed time in activities that replenish your energy and advance your business. Martell shares practical strategies for managing your time better, including how to identify a task’s value, waste less time at work, and create optimized schedules for achieving your personal and professional goals.

In this guide, we’ll discuss how to prioritize and delegate tasks, run your business more efficiently, and create weekly and yearly plans to optimize your time. Along the way, we’ll supplement Martell’s strategies with advice from other self-improvement experts and provide additional practical tips for taking control of your time.

Whether they’re winning sports championships or engineering technological breakthroughs, teams can accomplish amazing things. But building a high-performing team requires more than getting a group of people together and hoping for the best. In The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork, leadership expert John C. Maxwell provides 17 pieces of advice compiled over a lifetime of leadership research to help you recruit and organize the right people, align their efforts with a common goal, and create a positive team culture. By following Maxwell’s advice, you can raise your team to its highest potential and achieve your most ambitious goals.

In this guide, we’ll discuss why teamwork is crucial for reaching big goals and explore how you can build a winning team by assembling the right people, fostering a team identity, and cultivating strong team dynamics. Along the way, we’ll share more practical tips to help you make the most of Maxwell’s techniques and supplement his advice with other expert perspectives on leadership and teamwork.