Author: Omar Zenhom

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MBA906 5 Things I Learned From 5 People in 2017

Post author By Omar Zenhom
Post date December 18, 2017

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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MBA905 Solopreneur vs. Entrepreneur

Post author By Omar Zenhom
Post date December 11, 2017

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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The Entrepreneur’s Guide To Approaching Product Hunt

Post author By Omar Zenhom
Post date December 4, 2017
No Comments on The Entrepreneur’s Guide To Approaching Product Hunt

Product Hunt isn’t a household name, but its growing influence is impossible to ignore. Its impact on a certain segment of the market makes it especially crucial for entrepreneurs. This segment is one that most of us should lust after: early adopters. It’s a community of savvy, open-minded consumers constantly looking for the next great solution. If they believe in your product, you’ve got an inestimable leg up.

The site is usually compared to Reddit, appropriately. Users discuss various products in a linear format, up-voting the products they like and down-voting the ones they don’t. The more upvotes your product gets, the higher it (literally) rises. If it rises high enough, the multiplier effect kicks in and your product takes off. The community values feisty startups and creative thinkers, and prides itself as being a true meritocracy. If you’ve got the goods, Product Hunt users will reward you.

A Little History

Product Hunt was founded in 2013 by Ryan Hoover, an infectiously enthusiastic millennial entrepreneur who decided to parlay his love for innovative tech into something marketable. His Reddit-style approach to tech review was backed by the powerful and influential startup incubator Y Combinator, and quickly took off. By 2014, Mashable described Hoover as “The 27-Year-Old Who Tells Investors and Reporters What’s New in Tech.”

Since then, PH has been acquired by AngelList. Its community continues to grow in its influence on the market, but the beauty is that it hasn’t been hijacked by powerful corporate interests. Anyone can submit a product, and only the judgment of the community— not advertising or marketing— determines how high it rises.

The site divides submitted products into four categories: tech (including software, apps, and hardware), games (on various platforms, including mobile), books, and podcasts. The best become “Top Hunts” for the day (each day’s “Top Hunts” are archived), and the best of the best become “featured” products.

Getting Your Product on Product Hunt

All you have to do to submit something is sign up and provide the name of the product, a tagline, and a URL. It’s that simple. Whether or not a product actually gets reviewed by the community, however, is up to Product Hunt’s team. They sift through the submissions and approve or reject each, usually within 48 hours.

This brings us to the tough part: most submitted products never make it to the discussion. Product Hunt gets hundreds of submissions daily, and they only post what the team considers to be the cream of the crop. That generally adds up to about 1% (yes, one single percent) of what hits their inbox. Literally almost everyone gets rejected.

Don’t let that discourage you. If you believe you’ve got something good, there are a few strategies and resources to increase your odds of being in that 1%:

Be scrappy. Product Hunt isn’t about helping big companies advertise. They’re about rewarding pluck and merit in entrepreneurs who need (and deserve) a helping hand. If you’re the “little guy,” you’re not at a disadvantage.

Only submit finished products. No prototypes, no beta versions. Only submit completed products that are on the market and available to the public. If the product is worthy, the team and community will want to help. But you’ve got to have been selling it yourself first.

Have your own presence. If the only place you sell your product is on third party platforms like Etsy, you’re not likely to make an impression. Make sure your website is eye-catching and has creative, original copy.

Be original. When 99% of submissions are headed for the scrap heap, the only way to be noticed is to be different. Whatever you’re selling needs to be cutting edge. The best way to approach Product Hunt is from well outside the box.

Once Your Product Is Up

With your product up and eligible for review by the community, you’ve got to get in on the conversation. What’s most important to remember is that you cannot— cannot— advertise. This is a community, not an ad space. If you want to convince anyone on Product Hunt to give you upvotes, you’ve got to do it as a genuinely respected member of that community.

Start early. Join PH well before you submit a product, and start interacting. Make yourself known as a functioning user with something valuable to say about different products in your industry. Be genuine. If you show up to the forum with nothing to offer but a pitch, you’ll get nowhere. It’s better to already be a known (preferably trusted) quantity.

When your product is up, simply comment to say that you’re available to answer questions. No pitching. Obviously, encourage your own followers to join Product Hunt, but be very clear with them in saying that you’re not asking them to flood the forum with compliments. Even your own loyal fans should be asking questions or commenting on specific features of the product, not flattering you. An army of supporters artificially inflating your rating won’t be appreciated by the community, and you won’t last long.

Lastly, be sure to offer some special incentive to Product Hunt users. Whether it’s a bonus or discount is up to you, but showing the community some love goes a long way.

Whatever you do, don’t approach Product Hunt as something you can simply use (or, goodness forbid, hack) to boost your sales. You can’t. The only “trick” to getting something out of the community is to be a contributing member with a genuinely great product.

For further help with Product Hunt, I strongly recommend listening to Ashish Walia of LawTrade’s interview with Top Hunter Bram Kanstein. I also recommend picking up The Product Hunt Handbook by Justin Jackson. With an original product and a willingness to engage the community, nothing is impossible.

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MBA904 5 Businesses You Can Start Today

Post author By Omar Zenhom
Post date December 4, 2017

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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MBA903 Not Selling During Holidays?

Post author By Omar Zenhom
Post date November 27, 2017

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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MBA902 Better to Hire Early or Late?

Post author By Omar Zenhom
Post date November 20, 2017

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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MBA901 Why I Quit Social Media

Post author By Omar Zenhom
Post date November 13, 2017

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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