The $100 MBA Show

It’s Q&A Wednesday, and we’re helping a listener with a very good, very 21st-century business question: do online businesses need business cards?

It’s easy to see why some would question whether paper business cards are still relevant in a digital economy. In fact, our host Omar hasn’t given one out in years! But just because business cards aren’t for every business doesn’t mean they’re not appropriate for some. In fact, they can be a valuable networking opportunity. Today, we discuss when — and how — to take advantage.

We cover which kinds of businesses can most benefit from physical cards, which aren’t likely to, and the ROI of cards given how incredibly cheap they’ve become. We also discuss what features and layouts best optimize a business card for maximum networking and lead-generating effect. It’s a digital world, but there’s still room for a little bit of old-fashioned paper. Click Play!

WebinarNinja

Vistaprint

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No, they’re not always right.

Some customers are wrong. Some customers do not have valid complaints, or problems that your business can solve. Some customers do not seek solutions, but aim to cause problems. Some customers have issues that have nothing to do with you, but that — if you allow it — can become your problem. Some customers, to put it plainly, are jerks.

Just because someone pays you does not entitle them to abuse you. So how can you deal with straight-up evil customers? Today, we discuss practical, sensible ways to handle the worst of the worst, the ones who simply aren’t worth whatever revenue they’re providing. With calm, dignity, and grace, you can refuse to feed the impulse that drives strangers to drive you crazy. Learn how to deal. Click Play!

$100 MBA Free Idea Validation Course

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Bruce Springsteen knows music, but he also knows business. From his extremely modest upbringing to the top of the charts, the legendary rocker is a model of financial discipline, business sense, and plain old savvy. While other artists were blowing money on the finer (and more dangerous) things in life, Springsteen kept his business “why” in mind: to never return to the poverty of his youth.

Success leaves a trail of breadcrumbs for other entrepreneurs to follow. Continuing our series of Must Read Book Reviews featuring artists and entertainers, Born to Run is another phenomenal example of entrepreneurial achievement from the pop culture world. Find out what you can learn from a poor Jersey kid who made it all the way to the top. Click Play!

Audible Free Audio Book Download

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Someone once said that rules were made to be broken. They were wrong.

At least they were wrong about these rules. Today, we discuss 3 immutable, no-exceptions, absolutely unbreakable rules of business. No matter the business type or size, these 3 principles are always true. Violating any one of them is a guaranteed success-killer! Whether you’re trying to sustain growth or simply get your business off the ground, keeping these rules in mind will save you a lot of trouble.

Some of these rules may seem obvious. Some may surprise you. You might be breaking some right now! Whatever the case, these simple formulas are reliable. They’re the basic, Business 101 pillars of any plan for success. Hear what they are, and find out exactly why they’re so important. Click Play!

WebinarNinja

EasyCourse

1,000 True Fans

How to Reduce Churn with Stefan Pretty

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Location independence is a beautiful thing. If you work online, you’re free to live where you want, when you want. That leaves you with literally a world of choices. That’s a good problem to have — but it’s still a problem!

What should you look for in an international location? Is it safe? Can you afford it? Is there wifi? We’ve done some extensive traveling, even as we built our businesses, so we know what online entrepreneurs are looking for when it comes to finding your next “home” abroad.

Today, we discuss the five most attractive international cities for digital nomads. We review each one in terms of the metrics that matter most to would-be expatrepreneurs: value, safety, things to do, and yes, internet speed. From weather to  nightlife, we cover the ups and downs of these increasingly popular locations. Find out where to hang your hat (and your laptop bag) next. Click Play!

$100 MBA Idea Validation Course

EasyCourse

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It’s not you, it’s me. Or is it?

It’s Q&A Wednesday, and we’ve got a tough question from a listener about an uncomfortable subject: firing. Almost every successful business has to let people go at one time or another. But after a few too many firings, is the real problem the employees, or the employer? If you’re even asking that question, we have good news — it’s probably not you. But it might be your hiring practices.

Today, we offer specific hiring strategies that can preempt problems down the road. We discuss interview strategies, along with ways to “test” your potential hires before you commit to a long-term relationship. The key is setting expectations, both for you and the potential hire.

Hiring well is a learned skill — and firing people is a learning experience. Hear how to improve your staffing outcomes. Click Play!

$100 MBA Idea Validation Course

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Sometimes, you just have to say no.

While entrepreneurs are driven to be positive, affirmative, and happy to take on a challenge, limits are our friends! And while fostering good relationships means helping people when you can, overextending yourself can lead to the worst reputation killer of all: failure to deliver. So how can we turn people down without turning them off? How can we say “no” in a way that maintains our reputation?

We’ve got you covered. Today, we discuss some easy, practical ways to decline. These strategies are polite, non-confrontational, and help preserve — or even strengthen — relationships. These declining techniques are appropriate and effective for everyone from clients to friends, with a focus on the relationship’s value.

Don’t spread yourself too thin. To paraphrase a famous wizard, you SHALL pass, when appropriate. And it just might save your business. Click Play!

Essentialism by Greg McKeown

Gather

Acuity

EasyCourse

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As entrepreneurs, we spend a lot of time thinking about how to get customers. But are we doing enough to keep the ones we have?

Today on The $100 MBA Show, we’re talking churn: the rate at which your business loses customers over time. To help understand this complex metric, we’ve brought in another expert guest teacher: Stefan Pretty of Subbly.co. Pretty is an authority in the subscription services game, and specifically in the science of customer retention. When in comes to reducing churn, this is the guy to talk to.

Pretty outlines the reasons behind high churn rates, and the importance of tracking and analyzing this oft-neglected metric. He offers specific strategies to reduce churn at key stages in the marketing and sales funnel. He gives valuable advice on how to make your product more “sticky” and relevant over the long term. There’s a lot to learn in this episode!

You earned your customers — now keep them. Click Play!

Ready to try Subbly? Get 25% off for 3 months with a free 14 day trial, exclusive to $100 MBA listeners! Just use code 100MBA. Signup at www.subbly.co

Hooked by Nir Eyal

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Have a great idea for a mobile app? We’ve got your back! Today is Part II of our series on developing and selling your mobile app, from start to finish. Yesterday, we discussed how to design and build your app, with a focus on user experience and customer problem-solving. Today, we cover how to get your completed app in front of those customers, by applying basic marketing strategies.

The good news is that your app has every chance of success, as long as it solves a customer problem. The bad news? Very few people will find your app by chance! Standing out in a sea of over 2 million apps requires purposeful strategy. We’ll show you how to build your brand, find your audience, and ensure that the people who can benefit from your app find out about it.

All that, and it’s FREE RIDE FRIDAY!!! Make your app idea an app reality. Click Play!

Estimation Kings

Growth Hacker Marketing by Ryan Holiday

EasyCourse

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What’s an idea worth? Without execution, nothing! That’s why we’re devoting two episodes this week to executing something that plenty of folks have ideas about, but aren’t sure how to carry out: mobile apps.

If you have a great idea for a mobile app, congratulations! That’s step one. It’s those pesky other steps that today’s (and tomorrow’s) episode will help you with. We discuss exactly what goes into creating a real-world app, from the design process to the costs. We show you how to conduct market research, and refine your idea into a niched-down, super-lean, truly viable product that can work in the real world.

Take the leap — turn your app idea into an honest-to-goodness business. Click Play!

The Complete iOS App Development Boot Camp

$100 MBA Idea Validation Course

UpWork

WebinarNinja

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It’s marketing 101: the “customer avatar,” also known as the “buyer persona.” In theory, every business keeps an imaginary customer in mind when crafting…well, everything. From the product itself to the marketing content, everything is designed with the aim of pleasing this avatar, this stand-in for your potential customers. But who is this person? And how do you create them?

That’s the topic of this week’s listener Q&A. We help one $100 MBA fan identify the key characteristics of his customer avatar by taking a radical approach: thinking of an actual customer! You don’t have to work your imagination too hard when real people do a fantastic job of representing themselves. We discuss how to mine your real-world customers and contacts for avatar info, so that you can tailor what you do for maximum appeal.

Learn how to craft the ultimate buyer persona: Click Play!

WebinarNinja

$100 MBA Idea Validation Course

The Productivityist Podcast

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What is social media costing you? What is it gaining you? The answers to these questions — and finding the right balance between them — could mean as much to your business as it does to your personal life and well-being. Our host Omar decided to find out in the most direct possible way: by quitting social media altogether.

4 months in, and Omar’s learned a lot about the time and headspace consumed by social media, and how that compares to the business benefits. While there are some things he definitely misses, there are other things our host (and our business) are happy to do without. Is social media your default go-to when you have a spare moment? If you added up all your spare moments, could you do something more productive with them?

Find out how to balance the realities of online marketing with the need for healthy habits. Click Play!

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What can you learn from someone who made millions out of nothing? No capital, no connections, and no fantastic product idea? That’s the story of popular comedian Kevin Hart. His autobiography I Can’t Make This Up is the subject of this week’s Must-Read Book Review, and it’s packed with valuable insights that any entrepreneur can utilize.

It’s a long read, but engaging all the way through. Most importantly, Hart’s personal philosophies on work ethic, failure, and adaptation are proof that success doesn’t come from outside funding or the “perfect” product idea, but from a willingness to execute with what you have. His revelations about personal transparency and the marketability of honesty are fantastic examples of the core business principles we can all apply. Kevin Hart is a funny guy, but his true-life business lessons are nothing to laugh at. Click Play!

16 Things You Don’t Know About Me (Omar)…But Should

The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday

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Not all content is created equal. There was a time when a simple weekly 500-word blog post, stuffed to the brim with keywords, was all you needed to get the attention of consumers. Not any more. Today’s content market is bigger, more sophisticated, and not likely to be fooled by anything less than the genuinely valuable. Free content can still work, but only if it’s done right.

Today, we discuss what makes content truly valuable — both to you and your audience. We describe the characteristics of content that works, and content that doesn’t. Does your content have heart? Does it have what it takes to not only stand out, but resonate? Do you know how to promote it? Learn how to create content that converts. Click Play!

EasyCourse

Backlinko

Guest Teacher: Brian Dean

$100 MBA Free Idea Validation Course

WebinarNinja

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Some days, you just don’t feel like it.

That’s ok! One myth of entrepreneurship is that you should love every second of running your business. A fantasy of doing what you love and “never working a day” pervades the laptop-on-a-beach culture of easy independent success. But it’s absolutely healthy and normal to struggle with motivation, and to just…well, hate it sometimes.

The key to navigating this is to stay rooted. Build your business around a genuine motivation, and tap into that motivation when the going gets tough. Today on the podcast, we discuss how to find your “why,” and let it guide you through the late nights, early mornings, and other inconveniences of earning your success. Hang in there, friends. Click Play!

$100 MBA Must-Read: Grit by Angela Duckworth

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You’ve got a great business idea, but you’re keeping it to yourself. If you let your million-dollar cat out of the bag too soon, surely someone will come along and beat you to market with it, right?

Not exactly.

Today, we address a frequently asked question about protecting business ideas from would-be thieves. Long story short: don’t worry about it! As we’ve said many a time, business isn’t about ideas; it’s about implementation. In so many cases — from electric cars to social networks — it’s not the first version that succeeds, but the best executed version. Listen to the podcast, and learn why you should never sit on an idea. Learn why the odds of losing out to idea bandits are so ridiculously low that it should never hold you back. Click Play!

WebinarNinja

$100 MBA Free Idea Validation Course

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Get ready for launch! Sometimes, entrepreneurs struggle to get their product market-ready in time. It’s no secret that we believe strongly in the principle of launching the MVP, or Minimum Viable Product, as soon as possible. So while we never recommend “perfecting” your product into non-existence, you do want to make sure that the first version you release will have the best possible impact — and lay the foundation for success with future versions.

Today we discuss the specific strategies you can use to optimize your V1. By implementing a few key principles, you can align your product with customer needs and customer outcomes. You can set your product up to gain traction, build momentum, and be the first phase of something wonderful. Let’s get viable: Click Play!

$100 MBA Free Idea Validation Course

EasyCourse

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What makes you click? Whether it’s a blog, email, or sales page, you’ve got about 2 seconds to convince your potential customer to read what you have to say. That’s why your headline may be the most important few words in any piece of content.

Sean D’Souza is a veteran copywriter, and an expert in the psychology of content effectiveness. Today, D’Souza stops by to give us a detailed lesson on creating headlines that generate the most important feeling a web-surfer can have: curiosity. He describes three simple techniques you can use to juice up any headline for maximum impact, by anticipating and addressing the reader’s instinctive responses. Set your content on fire: Click Play!

Psychotactics

The 3-Month Vacation Podcast

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You’ve got the product. Great! Now how will you get people excited about it? Too many entrepreneurs leave out a key marketing tool, one that’s easy to create and use. Its value is underestimated, but its impact can be profound. Today, we discuss exactly how to create the perfect pre-launch page. This simple tool can generate curiosity, interest, and ultimately customers.

We cover it all: the purpose and value of pre-launch pages, the various required and optional features a great pre-launch should have, and the best (easiest to use) software tools available for building one. All that, and it’s FREE RIDE FRIDAY!!! With pre-launch pages, it’s never too early to get started. Click Play!

EasyCourse

Ship by Product Hunt

LeadPages

ClickFunnels

OptimizePress

Thrive Themes

WP Engine

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Hard work pays off, or so we’re told. But on today’s podcast, we’re discussing something that isn’t easy to say, or hear: Hard work by itself just won’t cut it.

Lots of people work hard, really hard, and don’t see success. Your work ethic is immensely valuable to you, but not necessarily to your customers. Like talent, passion, or a great product idea, hard work is only one part of a greater equation. There are other ingredients, including one that’s rarely discussed but easily as important as hard work. It’s another core value, without which hard work can only take you so far.

Hard work is certainly necessary, but it’s not a magic elixir guaranteed to bring results. Be a well-rounded entrepreneur. Find out what other key factors you might want to focus on. Click Play!

The Art of Charm

Tim Ferriss

Perennial Seller by Ryan Holiday

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Online group coaching is one of the best ways to monetize your expertise in a given field. Whether it’s fitness, life coaching, or professional skills, this business model is most coaches’ best opportunity at building a client base. But how many clients should you take on in each class? How many is too many?

That’s what one listener wants to know, and that’s what we’re discussing for this week’s Q&A Wednesday!

It’s not necessarily true that more clients = less value for each of them. Your clients will learn from and support each other, so it’s valuable to have a certain minimum. But there is a limit, and it’s important to find out where it is. Today, we discuss the factors you should consider when setting your group size limit. The kind of coaching, the frequency and duration, and a host of other factors will affect your decision.

We’ll show you how to estimate, test, and adjust your session sizes to find that “sweet spot” between too few and too many clients — within the limits of what we consider the minimum and maximum for any coaching program. This episode is a must for anyone doing (or considering) online coaching. Click Play!

$100 MBA Idea Validation Course

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Great businesses can teach great lessons. The same goes for great products — and Apple’s AirPods are beyond great, both as a product and a study in product rollout. No, this is not sponsored content. In fact, we discuss how Apple didn’t exactly release the AirPod according to plan (much to their embarrassment!). AirPods may be the single biggest innovation to come from Apple since the first iPhone, and getting them to market was an incredibly difficult process.

Today, we discuss what lessons you can learn from Apple’s execution of the AirPod. This story is full of principles that you can apply directly to your business, no matter what you sell. From navigating technical hangups, to transparency and communication with pissed-off customers, to deciding when to delay, it’s all here. Innovating isn’t easy, but it’s how every business — big and small — secures its future. Click Play!

EasyCourse

$100 MBA Idea Validation Course

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Do you still quote Seinfeld or The Simpsons? Do you still listen to U2 or Mozart? Ever read Shakespeare? Art is a product, and like any product, the truest measure of its success is longevity. On today’s podcast, we review a Must-Read book about the art of long-term product viability: Perennial Seller by Ryan Holiday.

Perennial Seller is about producing work that lasts, and creates profit for years. As our collective attention span shortens, how can you create something with a lasting impact? Holiday destroys myths about sudden inspiration and inborn creativity, and instead explains the patient process of executing and refining your way to long-term success. He also explains how to market your product for the long haul, rather than the quick buck.

We had high expectations for this book, and they were exceeded. Hear how Perennial Seller can recalibrate your goals for the big picture. Click Play!

Perennial Seller by Ryan Holiday

The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday

The 48 Laws of Power

The War of Art

Audible

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Is it worth it? That’s the first question you should ask yourself about any marketing expense, especially a significant one like sponsoring a major conference. Between the cost of the actual sponsorship, and the associated costs like travel and materials, it can add up. But the potential for sales leads is incredible — if you do it right.

Today we discuss the actual, real-world numbers behind conference sponsorship, so you can calculate the true cost/benefit ratio and potential ROI. We cover the tangible, budgetable costs you must consider, and help you determine how to make the numbers work. We describe in detail what you can expect for your money, plus how to prepare for the conference and maximize your results.

All that, and it’s FREE RIDE FRIDAY!!! Sponsoring a conference may be well worth it for you, or it may not. There’s one way to find out: Click Play!

EasyCourse

Idea Validation Course

Heroic Public Speaking

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What is success? On a recent trip, we ran into someone whose business accomplishments inspired us to devote an entire podcast episode to him — not just because he’d “made it” in business, but because of how he’d made it, and how he’d defined “making it” for himself. He didn’t create some incredible invention or stumble on some viral marketing strategy.

He simply executed a simple business plan with little more than patience, hustle, and some very happy chickens.

Yas Kubota is an organic egg farmer in Australia. He’s also an incredible example of a solopreneur who’s managed to sustain, grow, and thrive off an independent business for three decades. This long-term success story is perfect for anyone who wants to understand the fundamentals of independent business. Kubota is proof that fundamentals — and a positive attitude — are really all you need. Click Play!

8 Must-Haves for any Business Website

EasyCourse

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It’s Q&A Wednesday, and class is in session! Not just our class, but yours! This week, one $100 MBA member wants to know how best to improve his online course. Specifically, how can a course be made more interesting? Fortunately, our host Omar knows a thing or two about that, being an educator with years of teaching experience in and out of the classroom.

Today, we discuss how to create and deliver a course that your audience won’t just learn from, but love. We’ll show you how to design lessons that are as engaging as they are valuable — the kind of lessons that eliminate boredom, increase interaction and motivation, and empower customers. Get ready to crush your course! Click Play!

Brian Dean on YouTube

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Startups and swag go together like peanut butter and chocolate. But do all the T-shirts, water bottles, stickers, and USB drives work? Does the money spent on giveaways come back in the form of conversions? The coolest swag in the world doesn’t help your business if it doesn’t come with a meaningful ROI.

We recently did a swag-speriment to measure the marketing impact of our free goodies. We dropped a full-on swag bomb at a major conference, giving away thousands of dollars worth of items featuring our webinar company, WebinarNinja’s, brand. The results shed some light on the true value of swag, and how best to maximize its impact.

Hear all the details, and see how you can swag your way to more customers. Click Play!

WebinarNinja

Idea Validation Course

Heroic Public Speaking

Perennial Seller by Ryan Holiday

EasyCourse

Born Standing Up by Steve Martin

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YouTube has been called “the world’s 2nd biggest search engine” behind Google. While so many entrepreneurs are striving to climb the Google rankings, are we leaving potential customers on the table by ignoring YouTube? Our first guest teacher of 2018 seems to think so, and he’s put the time in to discover exactly how to dominate it. Now, he’s here to tell us how it’s done.

Brian Dean is an SEO genius, whose years of experimentation and fine-tuning have made his website, backlinko.com, one of the most trusted resources for content marketers. In fact, he’s so great at SEO that we actually found him through (you guessed it) a Google search!

In the last year, he’s turned his attention to YouTube, which – like Google – is key to building your audience. But YouTube’s ranking algorithms are very different from Google’s. Today, Dean shares 7 strategies to optimizing your YouTube videos, including some surprising discoveries that will completely change how you approach the video-sharing site as a content marketing tool.

Brian Dean is the first of many fantastic guest teachers we have lined up for this year. Don’t miss out on what YouTube can do for your online presence. Click Play!

5 Steps to Idea Validation

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It’s FREE RIDE FRIDAY!!! For the first time in 2018, we’re giving away a special gift to one lucky listener. We’re also looking back at 2017, and discussing the lessons learned from the most intense business challenges we had to face. And boy, did we ever face some doozies. After a wild year in which we completely re-launched our webinar software, WebinarNinja, the insights we gained were commensurate with the uphill battles we fought.

Reflection is one of the most important things an entrepreneur can do, in order to grow. Join us as we discuss all the things wish we knew going into 2017. We learned these things the hard way, so our listeners don’t have to! Take these lessons into 2018, just as we will. Struggle, reflect, grow, repeat — Click Play!

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Guide: Must-Haves for Any Business Website

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Today, we’ll teach you how to KISS.

No, we’re not celebrating Valentine’s early. We’re showing listeners how to do the most important thing a lean, growth-focused independent business can do: Keep It Simple, Stupid. Of course, we don’t think anyone smart enough to listen to our show is “stupid,” but the acronym is a valid one.

When complications creep in, it becomes harder for you and your customers. In this episode, we discuss how to streamline your business into its most simple, direct, and effective form. Tune in, and hear our 5 key principles of business simplicity, the 5 ways you can give your company the edge by discarding unnecessary complications. Simplify, and watch your business grow. Click Play!

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It’s our first Q&A Wednesday of the year, and we’re kicking 2018 off with a tough one! It’s uncomfortable to think about, but what should an entrepreneur do when resources dry up? The accounts are low, spending is outpacing revenue, and it looks like all is lost. Can you carry on?

Absolutely. Just because you’re tapped out, doesn’t mean you have to tap out. On today’s episode, we teach you how to evaluate the problem, get things under control, and make the tough choices necessary to save your business. In our experience, struggle can be the best teacher. Stay positive, and power through. We’ll show you how. Click Play!

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To submit your questions, visit 100mba.net/q.

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Is this working? If you’re not asking that question about every aspect of your marketing, sales, and finance strategies, you’re leaving money on the table. It’s vital to know when your efforts produce fruit, and when you’re wasting your time. Knowing how to measure growth is the key to achieving it!

Today, we discuss specific, actionable techniques for making sure you’re doing what works. We lay out the key progress indicators (and how to measure them) for everything from your blog to your social media to your hires. By putting a little time and thought into analytics, you can maintain a truly lean business — doubling down on what’s effective, and cutting out everything else. Learn how to get a clearer picture of your business. Click Play!

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Happy New Year! It’s 2018, and we’re back with our DAILY podcast! We’ll be bringing you 5 practical business lessons every week, including our popular Q&A, Guest Teacher, Free Ride Friday giveaway, and Must-Read Book Review episodes.

Steve Martin might not be the first person you think of for business advice, but his biography is a master course in business perseverance. From his hard-earned advice on staying lean, to his invaluable lessons on the value of effort over inborn talent, Martin’s Born Standing Up is a treasure trove of wisdom for anyone trying to make it against all odds. As entrepreneurs, we’re on stage in front of an audience, too. Tune and learn how to “perform” successfully, no matter what industry you’re taking on. Click Play!

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Born Standing Up by Steve Martin

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‘Tis the season — let’s talk giving!

Offering free bonuses is a common sales-boosting strategy, used by everyone from the smallest mom-and-pops to the biggest corporations. But do these giveaways work? If you’re starting or running your own business, it’s important to use every resource wisely.

You’ve got to carefully consider everything you offer to customers, or it’s money down the drain.

The key to effective bonuses is to remember what they really are: not gifts, but investments. The value of the investment relative to the value of the outcome has to be favorable, for both you and the customer. Give the wrong bonus, and the outcome is nothing but increased expenditures and lost credibility.

It’s all about the ROI.

Today, we’re discussing exactly what kinds of bonuses work, and what kinds don’t. We’ve used bonuses to promote our own products, from our webinar software service to The $100 MBA course. We’ve seen bonuses succeed, and we’ve seen them fall flat. In that time, we’ve learned a thing or two about precisely what makes a bonus effective.

Specifically, we’ve compiled 4 distinct characteristics that define a successful bonus offer. By ensuring these 4 keys are in place, you can craft an offer that will be worth every dime you “give” away, to yourself and your audience. You gain the trust that drives sales, and your customers get one step closer to the solutions they seek.

Bonuses are the gifts that keep on giving.

In a nutshell, a great bonus comes down to relevance, actionability, and value. The 4 principles we discuss today are the keys to establishing those things for your bonus offers. By aligning your offer with your own product and your own customers’ needs, you can pinpoint the offers that will truly generate sales.

You’ll also learn how to “sell” the bonus, and deliver it in a way that’s targeted towards results.

This is our last episode of 2017, an incredible whirlwind year that’s seen major twists and turns to our own business journey. It’s been a privilege to share those twists and turns, in our effort to make our experience valuable to you.

From the complete overhaul of WebinarNinja, to our decision to mine that overhaul for insights for our audience, to our experiment with our current weekly podcast format, we’ve learned a ton — and we hope you have too.

Starting on January 1, we return to our daily podcast format, with 5 episodes per week — including our ever-popular Q&A episodes, and our FREE RIDE FRIDAY subscription giveaways.

We can’t wait to tackle 2018 with you. Learn how to maximize your success with effective bonus offers, so you can make the new year all yours. Click Play!

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It’s that time of year!

No, not that.

Even better: it’s time to reveal this year’s 5 lessons from 5 of the greatest business teachers around!

Every year, we choose 5 entrepreneurs whose unique approaches, strategies, and styles inspired us, educated us, and made us better business people — whether they knew it or not. Some of them we know personally. Some of them, we’re just fans of. But whatever the case, their choices informed our business, as well as the personal entrepreneurial development of our host, Omar.

We learned from them, and so can you.

These 5 special individuals have no idea we’ve been studying their work so intensely. We have no arrangement with them to be the subject of this podcast, for sponsorship or any other purpose. In fact, they don’t find out how much they’ve taught us until the day the episode airs!

They are simply the people whose examples were of the greatest genuine value to us — and we’re hoping, to you.

Some are writers. Some are software developers. One is a comedian who started with nothing but a YouTube channel. But all of them are dynamic entrepreneurs. All of them have taken on their own business development with creativity, flexibility, and ingenuity. They’ve done something different.

They’ve all done something completely their own, but with implications for anyone who wants to learn entrepreneurship.

Each of these 5 incredible game-changers has a unique twist on independent business, one that allowed them to stand out from the crowd. Their accomplishments were not insanely well-funded or corporate-backed ventures. There are people whose success was derived directly from their willingness to find new roads, to do what true entrepreneurs do: give the market something it was missing.

By forging their own approach, these great teachers (whether they meant to teach or not) are the year’s best examples of the founding principle of The $100 MBA: that being true to your own vision will reveal your value to consumers.

Tune in. Hear what our 5 inspirers have to teach us about marketing, selling, innovating, managing, and all the rest. Take what we’ve gotten from them, as we pass it on to you. Learn from the best, just like we did. Click Play!

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$100 MBA Essential Guides

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There’s more than one way to start your own business. When plotting out your entrepreneurial path, it’s important to establish something early on: what kind of independent business person you are.

Would you make a better entrepreneur, or solopreneur?

Maybe you’re the type to go it alone. Maybe your product is best produced, marketed, and sold by its creator. In that case, solopreneurship might be the path for you. If you love leading a team, and your product requires diverse skill sets to bring to market, entrepreneurship could be the way to go.

It’s important to start thinking about this now, especially if you’re at the beginning of your business journey.

Your own talents and skills, plus the nature of your product and business goals, need to be carefully considered. Many factors determine the best way forward, and it’s crucial to choose correctly.

That’s what today’s podcast is all about: helping you decide what will work best for you.

Let’s be clear — neither solopreneurship nor entrepreneurship is better or worse. Neither is easier or more difficult. These are two very different, but equally valid, ways to build a business. In fact, our host Omar has found success with both approaches, depending on the kind of product and the goals for the business.

Some entrepreneurs even start as solopreneurs, building their brand on their own until it grows to the point where it takes a team to scale up. Some solopreneurs go it alone all the way to the top, reaching 6-figure incomes without hiring a single employee.

As they say, it all depends.

Both options have their advantages. Both have their challenges. Today, we want to explore all the ups and downs of both, so that you can apply this knowledge to your own business ideas. By understanding the strengths, risks, and unique factors of each approach, you can optimize your chances of success. Whichever you choose, though, it’s important to choose as early as possible.

This episode offers a comprehensive explanation of solopreneurship, its practical differences from entrepreneurship, and concrete, actionable steps you can take to move forward with this information in mind.

We don’t just want to help you get started; we want to help you get started with every possible advantage. That begins with defining your approach to business with clarity, specificity, and forward-facing vision. With that accomplished, you can move on to building your audience, creating your product, and shaping your strategy towards achieving the lifestyle you want.

Tune in, compare and contrast these two approaches, and get ready to take action. Click Play!

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So you want to start your own business. What’s taking so long?

Here at the $100 MBA, we battle a myth. We battle it day in and day out, because it’s the one thing holding more entrepreneurs back than anything else: the belief that you need huge amounts of funding, education, time, or resources to start a successful business.

It’s not that you won’t ever need things like knowledge or capital. You just don’t need as much as you might think to get started! You can begin the journey any time, including right now, and gather those things along the way. All it takes is a little guidance, and the will to move forward.

So many people want to be independent entrepreneurs, but too many people overestimate the obstacles to doing so. You don’t need a huge budget. You don’t need the experience of an expert. You don’t need a degree. You don’t need “passion,” or some Earth-shattering product idea.

You just need to take the first steps.

You can build a business right now, today. What business will depend on you, but there are a few categories of business that anyone can establish with minimal resources and experience. We know — we’ve built these businesses ourselves. Today, we’re sharing 5 specific types of businesses that you can start with nothing but a laptop and decent wifi.

The greatest preparation for entrepreneurship? Just plain doing it.

We talk all the time about the MVP, or Minimum Viable Product. It means that every product has to start somewhere, that it can’t be perfect before you get the ball rolling. The same applies to entrepreneurs. If you want to be in business for yourself, the most important thing you can do is to get started! You don’t need the features of a long-established career to begin one. Sometimes, you just have to stop packing and get on the road.

Whether it’s service, creative, or educational, there are countless ways to leverage your talents into a real-world business. With this lesson, we offer 5 examples. We discuss why you don’t need to wait for conditions to be “perfect” to start a business, how to find your niche, and how to find your first clients.

Tune in, hear how jumping into entrepreneurship really works, and decide how you can start your independent business journey, right this minute. After the lesson, stick around for a very special, very important announcement for all our listeners. We can’t wait to share this lesson, and we can’t wait to share this week’s exciting news.

Let’s kill the excuses. Let’s kill the doubt. Let’s get going! Click Play!

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Every business is different. So why assume that what works for some businesses will work for yours?

It’s pretty standard practice in most industries to ramp up sales for the holidays. After all, it’s the most wonderful time of the year — to generate revenue. The big holiday sales push is so commonplace, we just assume that it’s a smart, effective strategy.

Let’s stop assuming.

For some kinds of businesses, it might be smarter to consider something different. Something outside the box. Something downright radical: taking the holidays off.

Crazy, right? In retail, suggesting we take a holiday break would be enough to get you pilloried. But for small service businesses, a little holiday hiatus is not just harmless; it could actually increase your profits.  A strategic holiday shut-down is an opportunity to retool your product, push for a pre-holiday sales boost, and recharge your whole business.

It’s counterintuitive, but that’s what makes it so brilliant.

Great entrepreneurs don’t chase the crowd. They find the underserved market, they seek the niche, they go where other businesses aren’t going. And while most companies are decking the halls for the holiday sales explosion, lean, smart, small-time entrepreneurs think differently.

On this episode of The $100 MBA Show, we’ll discuss how to plan and execute a strategic holiday sales break. We explain exactly why this strategy works, how to determine if your business would benefit from it, and how to execute it. We detail the exact steps you should take to temporarily shutter the sales end of your business, and quietly prepare to come roaring out of the gate in the new year.

Our experience building small businesses has taught us the value of thinking differently. Bucking the holiday trend of pushing for sales might sound like anathema, but we’ve seen it work. By closing your doors for a bit, you can start the new year with a burst of activity, well-rested and equipped with a fresh influx of new customers.

This holiday season, let’s think outside the tastefully-wrapped box. Learn how a little downtime can create an upward trend. Click Play!

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Total Recall: My Unbelievable True Life Story by Arnold Schwarzenegger

Entrepreneurs On Fire

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Is it time to hire?

As your business grows, this can be a tough question. As entrepreneurs, we all want to be proactive. Why wait ‘till tomorrow when you can do it today? But when it comes to personnel, it’s not quite so simple. Growing your business is about many things, not the least of which is timing.

No one can hire the people they need at the exact moment they’re needed. So the question is: should you hire late or early?

Is it better to have the people you need in place before the work rolls in? Or should you save the capital until the investment is absolutely necessary (not to mention guaranteed to pay off)? What’s worse: spending money you don’t have on people you don’t need, or scrambling to handle the workload with inadequate staffing?

What’s the lesser of two evils?

We’ve been entrepreneur-ing for some time now, and we’ve got pretty strong views on this topic. Today on the podcast, we’re weighing the pros and cons of both early and late hiring, and explaining why we consistently choose one path over the other. While no two businesses are alike, we think our reasoning can help any entrepreneur, whichever policy they prefer.

It’s advice worth hearing.

To help you with your hiring plans, we discuss all the factors that go into this important decision. What positions are truly necessary? How much momentum and revenue is required to make a new hire a safe bet? How much work is too much for a solopreneur or small team? Most importantly, how can you establish a new position in a way that lets your new employees hit the ground running?

Whatever you spend on your team, it needs to be money well spent. On this episode, we’ll teach you how to project timeframes, analyze the cost/benefit ratio of every new hire, and scale up while keeping your business lean.

We’ll help you hire with the timing and finesse every entrepreneur needs to make strides without losing ground.

There’s a risk in every decision. Nowhere is that more true than when it comes to the timing of your hires. Tune in, hear how we’ve dealt with this deeply important policy question, and decide if our logic applies to your business. We offer detailed insights, plus practical exercises you can use before you decide to hire.

Make sure that every investment is a worthy one. Click Play!

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Are you addicted to social media?

More importantly, is social media having a negative impact on your business? There’s lots to love about Twitter, Facebook, and all the rest. For business owners, social media is an undoubtedly useful tool for outreach and marketing. But many independent business people — myself included — think there’s a fine line between useful and necessary.

I’m not the only one who thinks that (depending on the business) social media is often wildly overrated. Its power to grow your audience and generate leads is far more limited than many new entrepreneurs realize. While there are those who’ve built their followings primarily through social media, those are exceptions, not the norm.

I like to say that your business isn’t done on Facebook, or Snap, or any other social media platform. It’s done on your webiste, in your store, in the space you create.

To really take this principle for a test run, I made what some would consider a pretty radical decision: I quit social media. Indefinitely. For the last several weeks, I’ve suspended all my social media accounts. And you know what? I can’t say I miss it.

Again, I’m not here to bash social media. It’s valuable, it’s useful, and its effects on society are better discussed by sociologists than business people. I may even return to social media once this experiment has yielded all its results. But I’ve found that since I kicked the habit (and it is a habit), both my business and personal life have demonstrably improved.

Today on the podcast, I discuss what exactly was behind my decision to quit social media. I describe my motivations and inspiration for this experiment, and what I hoped to get out of it. I also discuss what I have gotten out of it so far, from increased emotional well-being to greater focus and productivity.

In fact, I’d argue that leaving social media has actually helped my marketing efforts, by allowing me to focus on marketing strategies with far greater ROI.

Social media is a boon in many ways, but it is undoubtedly a habit, one with the potential to create addictive, distracting patterns of behavior. In this episode, I even propose a short experiment for you, the listener, to decide if backing away from social media could be beneficial. Maybe a social-free life isn’t for you, but it could be worth finding out.

Tune in, hear my 3 specific reasons for giving social media a break, and consider my results. A healthier, more focused, balanced approach to work and life might just be the outcome. Click Play!

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Deep Work by Cal Newport

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What do you want?

It’s the most basic of questions, underlying the motivations behind everything we do in life and business. What’s it all for? Why are we striving to make our businesses successful? What’s the point of profit?

For all of us, the money isn’t the answer. It’s the means to achieve the answer.

That said, we shouldn’t abandon all thoughts of quantifying our personal definition of success. No, money can’t buy happiness. But it can give you the freedom and resources to do whatever it is that does make you happy. That’s a quantity worth calculating. How much money, exactly, do you need to live the life you want?

Do you want to travel? Support a family? Drive your dream car? Order the appetizer? Whatever it is, there’s a number attached to it. The life of your choosing can’t be defined by money, but it can be enabled by a concrete number.

On today’s podcast, Omar introduces a life/business planning exercise by which you can nail down your personal number. Using this simple but thoughtful process, you can legitimately determine what the life you want will cost— and start moving towards it.

This isn’t about dreaming. This exercise is an act of doing.

By quantifying the key to your goals, you enable yourself to take concrete steps towards attaining them. In fact, after you do the math, you may find that your goals aren’t as far off as you think!

Too many people define their life goals to broadly, carrying nebulous ideas of how much money they need. Yes, we all want to be “wealthy” or even just “comfortable.” But we can do better than that. We can define what specifically we want, and work out a realistic price tag.

Doing this exercise can radically alter your approach to business. By defining your personal goals in terms of exact numbers, you can focus your business goals on achieving those numbers. The number is a bridge between your dreams and your reality. By seeing your business is the means to cross it, your focus intensifies.

It’s not about making the most money; it’s about making the right amount. By plotting an actionable path to your goals, you can achieve what too many people in business forget about: working to live, instead of living to work. Find out how.

Special thanks to all our listeners as we celebrate this, our 900th episode! It’s a good one: Click Play!

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I Will Teach You to Be Rich by Ramit Sethi

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What to say about Steve Jobs? He’s the first person that comes to mind when you think of the word “entrepreneur.” He changed the world we all live in, by virtue of his commitment to a business vision. Much has been written about, by, and for him. What can you, as an entrepreneur, learn from the legend?

Now, we have the ultimate guide to his life and career: Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, the most complete, relevant biography for any entrepreneur who wants to take lessons from the life of the iconoclast.

Isaacson’s biography is the latest addition to our Must Read list, and the subject of this week’s podcast. With so many books about business and entrepreneurship (not to mention about Apple and Jobs specifically), we like to highlight the ones that can best impact your growth as a business person. In this episode, Omar breaks down the key takeaways from this incredible (and incredibly long) book.

It’s a page-turner, and good thing — there are quite a few pages to turn. This fascinating biography paints a narrative of struggle and innovation, of idiosyncrasy and vision, of controversy and perseverance. Despite how close the biographer was to Jobs, his access didn’t spoil his objectivity. This is no work of flattery, but an honest, revealing exploration of what made Jobs so…Jobs.

Innovators don’t happen by accident. They build and define themselves as they create and grow their businesses. Jobs may reign as the greatest example of that spirit of his generation. None of us will ever be Steve Jobs, but all of us can benefit from the fearless dedication to innovation that drove his life, through all its ups and downs.

To learn those vital lessons, we highly recommend this book. For a succinct breakdown of those lessons, tune in to Omar’s synopsis. You’ll be glad you did. – Click Play!

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What’s the best return on investment? What’s the most valuable thing an entrepreneur can gain from any expense?

Time.

Time is the greatest ROI. Some say time is money, but money pales in comparison to the value of time, the one resource you can never replenish once lost. A goal of every entrepreneur should be to free up as much of their time as possible: time better spent innovating than managing, moving forward rather than treading water, or even just spent living and enjoying the freedom entrepreneurship offers.

So how can we get more time? Outsourcing.

The smartest, boldest thing you can do as an independent business leader is to get things off your own plate. Spend your money to free up your time by zeroing in on the most time-consuming tasks best left to others. Not only will this allow you to focus on the leadership aspects of your business, it may significantly improve the quality of your product. Why be the jack of all trades when you can hire a master of each?

On today’s episode, we discuss the top 5 tasks you should consider outsourcing. By utilizing team members, freelancers, even affiliates, you can stop working and start leading. Free up time, headspace, and personal resources to make yourself more effective than ever. Minimize stress and focus on the creative, exciting parts of running a business. Through outsourcing, you and your business can become more agile than ever.

What about the cost?

That’s the best part: today’s global marketplace is teeming with talent, available to work remotely from all over the world. With the prevalence of skills in everything from content to accounting, it has never been more affordable to outsource.

This is especially important as your business grows, and your success forces you to scale up. As your business gains momentum, your leadership will be far more important than your labor. Not only that, but the odds are that for each of these 5 tasks, you can find someone who can do it better than you can!

That’s been our experience, anyway. These 5 areas aren’t just tasks we recommend outsourcing, they’re tasks we’ve outsourced ourselves! It’s worked for us, and it can work for you. Find out how- Click Play!

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For a predictable revenue stream, nothing beats the subscription model. Customers sign up to pay a fixed rate, monthly or annually. The business owner gets to map their budget and growth goals with greater confidence and stability. Everyone wins. But unfortunately, this model doesn’t work for regular old e-commerce…or does it?

Typically, the subscription model applies to services, especially of the SaaS (Software as a Service) variety. The SaaS model is all the rage, one of the most lucrative ways to harness the Internet for a passive revenue stream. Wouldn’t it be great if e-commerce businesses could enjoy the same benefits?

Impossible, you say. I don’t sell a software, or a service. I sell clothes, or shoes, or hamster grooming products. My business just isn’t SaaSy enough for this model.

Think again.

You can convert your e-commerce to the subscription model, and enjoy all the stability of a SaaS business. You simply have to sell, package, and deliver your product like a service. You wouldn’t be the first. Great subscription services deliver physical goods to customers around the world every day— from Dollar Shave Club to Amazon Prime to Blue Apron.

This isn’t just a trick to gin up some extra income from your customers. It’s a way to reward your best customers by offering them something valuable: membership. Membership is a whole ‘nother level of brand loyalty, one that customers enjoy. More than ever, consumers like to identify with brands to which they’re loyal, especially small-business brands that declare their unique and discriminating tastes.

People love the extra personalization of membership, and they love having products curated for them, rather than just buying them. It’s a service in the truest sense: you not only provide the product, you essentially do the shopping!

On this podcast, we teach you exactly how to move your e-commerce business into the SaaS model. It’s not for every business, but so many purveyors of physical goods can use this method to substantially increase revenue. We discuss how to implement the service, market the service to your current customers, and integrate the revenue into your budget.

This model can work, as a replacement for a-la-carte shopping, or as a valuable supplement. Tune in to our in-depth lesson, hear how it’s done, and see if you might give it a try. Click Play!

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Most people think that being an entrepreneur means starting a business. But there’s another option, an alternative path to independent success: buying a business!

We don’t often think of this option, but with some capital and a smart purchase plan, it can be the right move. Pre-owned cars and homes can be great investments, so why not businesses? So much of the work that goes into building a business is done already. And while there is other work to be done when buying as opposed to building, that completed work represents a huge advantage.

So what does it take to be a successful business buyer? That’s the topic of today’s deep-dive lesson. We begin with the two essential questions every would-be entrepreneur should consider before they reach for their checkbook. First, is buying the right option for me? Second, what’s the right business to buy?

We detail where and how to find businesses with great potential, how to evaluate them, and how to determine what they’re worth. We walk you through the essential steps of identifying the right business, assessing what success you can reasonably expect, and calculating a fair price based on those expectations.

Whether you want the freedom and independence of profiting on your own terms, or the intrinsic creative joy of building a new brand and forging independent success, purchasing a pre-established business might just work for you. People are selling businesses every day, for reasons that don’t necessarily reflect a lack of success. Even failing businesses can make fantastic investments, if you’ve got the skill set the seller lacks!

All told, it’s worth considering.

The infrastructure is there. The overhead is established. The initial customer base doesn’t need to be chased down. Even if you plan on making drastic changes, starting with all the established baselines of a pre-owned business is a massive advantage. With today’s lesson, we’ll help you determine what a business is worth, what it should cost, and how much you should have in the bank when you take the reins.

Entrepreneurship is all about possibilities— especially the ones that people overlook! Tune in, learn how to evaluate the possibilities, and see if this entrepreneurial alternative is right for you. It just might be! Click Play!

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So you want to be an entrepreneur. Honestly, who doesn’t? Who hasn’t occasionally dreamed of that freedom and self-determination? Who isn’t intrigued by the thought of making their own living on their own terms?

Of course, dreaming is one thing. Doing is another.

That’s what we’re here for: to help you become one of the “doers” who actually takes concrete action. And that’s why this week’s special guest teacher is here: to share her incredibly valuable experience on the subject of breaking into entrepreneurship.

Dorie Clark knows more than most about transitioning from conventional employment to entrepreneurship. She literally wrote the book on it, and she’s written another one that hits the shelves this week. Today, Clark offers a special preview of Entrepreneurial You: Monetize Your Expertise, Create Multiple Income Streams, and Thrive. Her years of studying independent success and profiling great entrepreneurs has given Clark unparalleled insights. She’s here to share them.

On the podcast, Clark discusses 6 specific principles that make the difference between considering entrepreneurship and actually doing it. These 6 strategic concepts allow you to hone in on what actually creates independent wealth. With so much to know, being able to focus on what really matters is crucial. These 6 things are the pillars that can turn the desire for entrepreneurial freedom into something real, feasible, and sustainable.

These are not hacks. They’re not tricks. They are instructions. Honest, practical, actionable instructions that you can apply today. With Clark’s extremely well-informed advice, you can start laying the roadmap for your own success right now. Clark has found success over years of study and experimentation. She’s lived the trial and the error. Now, let her experience increase your chances of making it.

Stick around after Clark’s lesson for two fantastic bonuses: Our host Omar offers his own tips on building and sustaining entrepreneurial momentum— after all, he knows a thing or two about independent success himself! And, Dorie Clark would like to offer all of our listeners a special free download, one that can jumpstart your journey to entrepreneurship today.

That’s right: Free Gift!

There are no shortcuts. As Clark and Omar detail in this lesson, entrepreneurial success is earned, not taken. We’re not here to sell The Dream, and neither is Dorie Clark. What we can offer is the truth about exactly what it takes to do business— your business, your own way. It’s not easy, and it’s not quick. But it is possible. With some honest effort and the right guidance, you can do this.

Tune in. Hear Clark’s advice and Omar’s analysis. Get your free gift. Go forth into the future you make for yourself. Click Play!

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Worst. Boss. Ever.

We’ve all had a terrible boss. As entrepreneurs, we never have to have one again. But as our independent business grows, how can we avoid becoming one? That’s the topic of this week’s deep-dive lesson, and it’s one worth exploring. Do you have the courage, the honesty, and the wisdom to ask yourself the question:

Am I a terrible boss?

Right off the bat, let’s be realistic: you’re probably not. But just as realistic is the probability that you could be a better one. We could all improve, in whatever we do. But it’s especially important for entrepreneurs to stay on top of their personal development as leaders.

Your business depends on your ability to lead your team. As we expend our mental capital on product development, marketing, budgeting, and all the rest, we can forget this. We can neglect a skill that’s just as important to develop as salesmanship or technical expertise. We can forget to strive to be the best boss we can be.

Our team suffers as a result.

When our team suffers, the work suffers. When the work suffers, the business grinds along at a fraction of its true potential. It’s incumbent upon every entrepreneur to give their customers the best experience possible— but it’s just as incumbent upon them to give their employees the motivation they need to create that experience. There are ways to achieve this. There are strategies to ensure it.

We’re here to share them.

Fortunately, being great at bossing is just like being great at anything; you can learn how. You can practice. You can consciously develop the ability you need to lead. On this podcast, we explain how to evaluate and develop your leadership skills. We share our experience as bosses, and offer specific, actionable tips on how to be better.

We discuss the biggest pitfalls common to new bosses, the balance between high expectations and empathy for your employees, and how to be open to improvement. We offer examples of bosses to emulate, and reflect on the unique position of company founders.

When you’re the boss, the stakes are high. Tune in, and learn how to maximize your potential as a leader. Learn how to earn the loyalty and dedication from your employees that gives your business the edge. Boss “like a boss!” Click Play!

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Must Read: Total Recall by Arnold Schwarzenegger

Must Read: Shoe Dog by Phil Knight

Must Read: Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance

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The product is never perfect. Smart entrepreneurs realize that in order for a business to grow, the product has to grow with it. But what if you could direct (or at least guide) the evolution of your product? What if you could time that evolution, and set goals for certain improvements? What if you could see the development of your product in the future, as you move your business forward into it?

Enter the Product Roadmap.

Increasingly popular as an organizational, motivational, and even marketing tool, the Product Roadmap can be applied to any kind of product (even a service). It is what it sounds like: a visual representation of the planned development of a product. You literally map out your own goals for your product, from the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to the top-of-the-line game-changer you ultimately strive to create.

By aligning what your product could be with feasible timelines, you can turn possibilities into an actionable plan. These Product Roadmaps can be internal, strictly used to keep you and your team focused on your long-term product development goals. Or, they can be publicized, doubling as a marketing tool that lets your audience in on the process— even soliciting their opinions on what your product should do.

But for all its usefulness, is a Product Roadmap right for your business?

That’s what today’s podcast can help you determine. Today we discuss what a Product Roadmap is, how to develop one, and when it’s most applicable and helpful. With this lesson, you’ll learn exactly when Product Roadmaps are most effective.

We speak from experience. From our clothing line to The $100 MBA to our webinar software service, WebinarNinja, we’ve built plenty of products: some with roadmaps, and some without. We know their value, and their limitations. Our experience using Product Roadmaps can give you exactly the insight you need to determine whether it’s a good fit for you. In the right situation, the return on investment can be substantial.

A Product Roadmap can be an efficient repository for all your product ideas, even the most ambitious ones. It can allow you to branch out creatively, fearlessly saying “yes” to everything, and creating an action plan to make things happen. It can help you understand your own product better, and effectively prioritize all the development possibilities.

By establishing goals, deadlines, and expectations, a well-crafted Product Roadmap can keep your team’s work aligned with your overall mission. It can keep that work in context, from here to wherever you want to be.

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A successful business has many components, but all of them fall into one of 3 main categories. These 3 branches of business are the basic aspects of commerce. They are the pillars that hold up any company, big or small. And like any tripod, without each leg in place, the whole thing comes crashing down. By understanding the 3 branches, and applying appropriate levels of focus to each, you can give yourself the edge that means the difference between success and failure.

You can ensure that your business has a fighting chance.

It all comes down to these: smarketing, product development, and customer service. None of those are likely to come as a surprise, even if you’ve never heard the term “smarketing” before (that’s sales + marketing, the line between the two being a blurry one in the greater scheme of things). But too many entrepreneurs focus on one or two at the expense of the others. While they excel in one arena, they drop the ball in another. Their businesses suffer as a result.

This is a choice.

Proud tradespeople and artists devote themselves to their craft— their product— but put little time into marketing or customer service. Born sales people love the dance of securing customers and making deals, but allow the quality of their product to be sub-par. Devoted, loyal entrepreneurs put customer satisfaction above all else— including the acquisition of new business. As great martial artists are known to say, a fighter’s strength is his or her weakness. By relying too heavily on what comes easiest, some entrepreneurs never develop into well-rounded business people.

You can do better.

On today’s podcast, we discuss the importance of each branch in turn, and the vital role each plays in the development of a successful business, no matter what kind or what size. Going further, we discuss how to prioritize these branches at different points in the growth of your business. While one may be paramount at the beginning, another may become more important later on. Knowing when to focus on which branch is key to leveraging your efforts and maximizing your growth.

Beyond that, knowing which aspects you excel at (and which ones you don’t) is crucial to your development as an entrepreneur. With self-awareness, honesty, and the willingness to shore up your weak points while nurturing your talents, you can be the entrepreneur whose ideas go the distance. While a thousand great business ideas go no further than talk, a balanced approach to the 3 branches of business can turn the dream into a reality.

Tune in, listen to our in-depth explanation of the 3 branches and how to properly utilize them. Hone your skills, and learn how to apply your precious time, resources, and effort where they count the most. Be one of the entrepreneurs who make it. Know what forces need to be balanced, and how to balance them. Succeed. Click Play!

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No man is an island, or so they say. By the same logic, no entrepreneur succeeds entirely on their own.

Independent business doesn’t mean going it alone or taking a solitary approach. It just means you get to choose the terms upon which you partner with others. When you do, you further your success, and theirs. Mutually beneficial partnerships can fast-track the growth of your business by allowing you to access new markets. They can also plant the seeds of lucrative long-term business relationships.

The bottom line: why market alone?

That brings us to today’s podcast. We’ve got a special guest, Dale Beaumont of Brin.ai. Beaumont is one of Australia’s most successful young entrepreneurs, having started several million-dollar business and written 16 best-selling books. But he didn’t do it alone— he strategically partnered with other business people he could trust to help maximize his potential. In doing so, he accessed markets and customers that might’ve taken exponentially longer to reach. Beaumont is here to share his 7-step plan for establishing mutually beneficial marketing partnerships.

This man knows what he’s talking about.

Unlike joint ventures or affiliate marketing, marketing partnerships aren’t about sharing profits. They’re about sharing audiences. By cross-promoting with another trusted brand, you can find customers more quickly, more cheaply, and more efficiently. Through mutual value-sharing, two businesses can multiply their credibility. That means less time and money spent on things like advertising, which serve the same function at a much higher cost— and a much lower return on investment.

For great examples, look no further than the big boys of business. Every McDonald’s happy meal is a promotion for another major company like Disney. Ford sells Eddie Bauer edition vehicles, while Subaru sells LL Bean versions. All over the business world, creative leaders find ways to multiply the effect of one company’s marketing by that of another.

Here at The $100 MBA, we’re no strangers to marketing partnerships. Whether we’re co-hosting an event of webinar, guest-blogging, or guest-podcasting, bringing the value other thought leaders offer to our own audience makes sense. Our audience is happier and better informed, and we get the opportunity to demonstrate our value to their audience as well. Everyone wins! Following Beaumont’s lesson, we’ll offer our own 3 extra tips for optimizing marketing partnerships, in addition to the step-by-step plan from our guest.

Don’t go it alone. Learn how to take the fastest route to growth. Learn Beaumont’s steps, take our tips, and find the partners who can take your business where you want it to go. Click Play!

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