The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau book review

The $100 Startup: Fire your Boss, Do what you Love and Work better to Live more is a entrepreneurship book mixed with The Four Hour Workweek. The $100 Startup will tell you how to startup your own business on a little budget and how to succeed building your own business. This book tells you that you don't need a job and you can instantly change your life if you make your own business and do what you love and follow your passion.

Chris Guillebeau goes on to tell you how you do not need a masters degree and two PhD's to succeed and how the average man can build a business and work for him/herself. You do not n,eed to be a millionaire either as Chris tells the story of many people and shows case studies of average people starting businesses that have gone on to become really successful and have started their business on a budget of $100 (about £60 depending on the currency rate).

First you might want to know a bit about the author Chris Guillebeau. Chris is an American entrepreneur, blogger, and author who also published The Art of Non-Conformity. Chris was born in Portland, Oregon, USA and attended the University of Washington and graduated. Mr Guillebeau set out a goal to visit every country on the planet before 35. Chris achieved this goal and visited all 193 countries on the planet before he was 35.

The $100 Startup is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal Bestseller and is ranked #1 on Amazon in the Entrepreneurship category. The $100 Startup provides many inspirational and motivational stories that would inspire anyone to go for it and start their own business.

For his research during this this book, Chris found 1,500 bright people who started their businesses from scratch and earning $50,000 (which is about £30,000) or more who have started with a very little budget, often $100 or less. From the 1,500 entrepreneurs Mr Guillebeau narrowed it down to the best 50 and used them as case studies. He found that although the people had no special skills, but they did find their passion and make money from it thus changing their life completely and giving them complete freedom.

He complied it into one easy to read compact book and included all the valuable lessons from the people who turned their passions into glory, Its not that you have to be particularly skilled, you just have to go for it and create that product or service that you know people will want to be and gladly pay money for. Most of the people in his case studies don't have college degrees or have tons of money, yet they still make money of their businesses.

Chris Guillebeau writes in a very funny style that keeps the audience from getting bored. This is not once of those gimmicky self help books, this is one of the books that actually helps and will change your life.

The book is split into three parts:

• Unexpected Entrepreneurs - In this section he tells you how to turn your passion and what you love to do into what people want and would be willing to pay money for. Basically he tells you about monetizing your skills.
• Taking it to the Streets - This is the best section in the book in my opinion. In this section Chris shows you how to raise capital for your business, launching your business and how to get customers in. Some real good information in this section and worth referencing to every once in a while.
• Leverage and Next Steps - The last section is all about learning how to test pricing and positioning the business, creating a franchise out of the business and growing past your goals and knocking failure out.

If you want to start your own business and want to find out how to turn your passion in to your business then this book is for you. It includes some excellent information and is well written. The case studies included are inspirational and make you want to take action. This book might even change your life...