How to Get Paid for Doing What You Love

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.

All business methods, technologies, and consumer products grow obsolete and are replaced by something new. Innovation is the process of discovering those new ways of living, working, and doing business, and entrepreneurs are the people who work to bring the future into being. In Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Peter F. Drucker describes innovation as a methodical process to find ways to improve every aspect of business and life.

Drucker is widely regarded as one of the most influential thinkers in the field of modern management. In this guide, we’ll describe Drucker’s template for structuring an entrepreneurial organization and how to explore innovative opportunities. We'll go over strategies for bringing innovations to the market and discuss how to manage entrepreneurial startups. We’ll also examine how Drucker’s ideas carry forward into the 21st century, and we’ll compare how Drucker’s thoughts on innovation compare to those of business leaders today.

Reboot explores the rise and fall of Jodie Fox’s global business, Shoes of Prey—an innovative start-up that allowed customers to design their own shoes. Fox offers an honest look into her successes and failures as an entrepreneur, proving that there’s always value in the process of owning a business, even if your business doesn’t work out. She also provides advice on dealing with many of the situations you’ll encounter should you build a global business.

Throughout this guide, we’ll discuss topics such as how to start your business, how to negotiate cultural differences as an international entrepreneur, and how to manage mental health struggles as a business owner. We’ll also use examples from Fox’s time with Shoes of Prey to illustrate her points. In our commentary, we’ll discuss strategies for developing a business idea, offer advice for identifying and navigating cultural differences in business, and explore additional tips for taking care of your mental health.

In Competitive Strategy, renowned economist, best-selling author, and Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter presents a comprehensive framework for businesses seeking to achieve a competitive advantage. Originally published in 1980, this groundbreaking book revolutionized the field of strategic management and remains an invaluable resource for business leaders operating in complex and competitive environments.

This guide explores Porter’s insights and practical advice for gaining a competitive advantage, covering:

• Five factors that influence a market’s competitiveness and profit potential
• Four research areas for understanding and anticipating competitors’ strategies
• Three strategies for managing the five factors and outperforming competitors

Additionally, we’ll complement Porter’s ideas with research from management professionals and we’ll suggest actionable strategies to help you apply his concepts to your own business.

In Playing to Win, former CEO A.G. Lafley and consultant Roger Martin explain the steps for developing a successful business strategy. When the two worked together at Procter & Gamble, they used this approach to double the company's sales and market capitalization.

Their strategy involves answering five questions, each leading to the next like a cascading waterfall:

1. What is your company’s ideal future?
2. What are your target markets?
3. How will you succeed in those markets?
4. What capabilities does your company need in order to “win”?
5. How should you manage your company in order to “win”?

In this guide, we’ll examine each step of Lafley and Martin’s waterfall strategy, then discuss how to create a business plan that will help you dominate your chosen market. We’ll further enrich—and occasionally contrast—Lafley and Martin’s ideas with connections to other popular business guides such as Richard Rumelt’s Good Strategy/Bad Strategy and Simon Sinek’s The Infinite Game.

Have you ever wondered why so many high-tech products seem to make a sensational entrance, but then disappear before they’re refined enough to become practical? Marketing consultant Geoffrey Moore has an explanation: They fall into a “chasm” that separates the early market from the mainstream market.

In this guide, we’ll explore the chasm phenomenon, analyzing Moore’s model and comparing it to others that examine the way innovations are adopted. Then, we’ll look at Moore’s strategy for piloting a product across this chasm to mainstream success by targeting a niche market, forming corporate alliances to ensure the customer gets a complete solution, positioning your product as the market leader in that niche, and setting up an effective distribution channel.

If you have an idea to spread, Seth Godin believes you’re a marketer. All Marketers Are Liars offers a fresh take on marketing—one that focuses on connecting with your customer, rather than on catchy advertising jingles or gimmicks. Godin defines marketing as telling consumers a great story about your product, your political campaign, your job experience, or even just yourself. This book explores new marketing concepts that you can use to tell a better story in any area of your life.

In this guide, we’ll explore Godin’s ideas on marketing, authenticity, and telling a great story. We’ll also discuss how to understand your customer and common obstacles you’ll encounter in your marketing. Along the way, we’ll give context on his definitions and provide actionable tips from other marketing experts.

In This Is Marketing, entrepreneur and marketing expert Seth Godin challenges conventional marketing strategies. He argues that in today's media-saturated world, traditional marketing techniques are no longer effective. Instead, Godin emphasizes the importance of building strong relationships with customers based on trust, authenticity, and empathy. Effective marketing, according to Godin, goes beyond mere sales and aims to bring about positive changes in people's lives.

In this guide, we’ll explain why Godin says old marketing techniques are no longer effective and outline his guiding principles for successful marketing in the modern age. We complement his suggestions with insights from his other books as well as those of other marketing experts such as Ryan Holiday (Perennial Seller), Byron Sharp (How Brands Grow), and Pat Flynn (Superfans).

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.

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.

Many people dream of quitting a job and becoming their own boss by starting a business. A million new businesses are started each year, but 40 percent fail within the first year and 80 percent fail within five years. Underlying the high failure rate are persistent romantic notions about how businesses are born and what it takes to succeed.

In The E-Myth Revisited, Michael E. Gerber explains how focusing solely on the product undermines new businesses and just trying to work harder undermines new businesses. The right approach is to view your business like a franchise—to systematize operations so that it no longer relies on you. This thirty-year-old classic is a part-practical and part-philosophical guide to conceptualizing and starting a business.