>>Rachel: On video, so welcome everyone to
"Authors Talks".
Today we have Chris Guillebeau who is here
with us to talk about his book "The $100 Startup."
And essentially Chris comes to us as a writer,
a world traveler he has gone to 160 countries,
couple more left on the list.
He's also an entrepreneur and lifelong learner.
So in addition to his book Chris is also the
author of this blog and site "The Art of Nonconformity",
it's a great site to check out.
Today Chris is going to talk about how anyone
can start their small startup where you can
commit little time or money, maybe $100 or
so and wait to take the real plunge when you're
sure it's successful.
And the best part is if we can change our
own life, we can help others change theirs
which I think is a great sentiment.
So please welcome Chris.
[Applause]
>>Chris: All right, thank you so much Rachel.
Thanks googlers for having me, both those
who are here and those who are watching.
It's fun to be back, I was at the Mountain
View campus last time for my first book "The
Art of Nonconformity" and its fun to come
and talk about "The $100 Startup".
In the cab on the way over all the sudden
I had this surge of guilt as I was reminded
I haven't updated my Google+ page in a couple
of weeks.
I was like oh shit I feel really bad, I have
to come and apologize and beg forgiveness.
I can take the mic out?
Okay.
So first of all my apologies for that.
And second of all I don't want to lecture
for a long time so I'll just talk a little
bit about why I wrote the book and what "The
$100 Startup" is about, tell you a couple
stories from it, a little bit more about the
model and what I hope will come out of it.
But then we'll do questions and attempted
answers, QAA which sometimes goes better than
others, but I'm sure at Google it'll be great.
And then we'll just hang out if anybody wants
to hang out, I know lots of you guys have
to get back to work.
So first things first, whenever you undertake
a project, hey guys, c'mon in.
Whenever you undertake a big project, whether
in business or anything else I always think
it's good to define your own success.
I always think it's good to decide for yourself
what success is gonna look like as opposed
to someone else deciding for you.
And in the case of writing a book, it's really
good to understand to whom you're writing.
To understand you know who the audience for
this message is.
And it takes a lot of work to write a book,
so who do you really hope to reach with that.
And there's a long tradition in publishing
of authors complaining about their publishers
but unfortunately I had a very good relationship
working with Crown on this book.
And so it's not so good for drama, but it
is good for the editorial content of the book
because in the beginning of the research process
I got some really good advice from my editor.
And my editor said, you know Chris you use
this word entrepreneur a lot on your blog
and in your writing.
And maybe in some of the circles that you
travel in, maybe online, with your blog, maybe
elsewhere some people understand what you're
talking about.
But for a lot of mainstream America they have
their own conception of what entrepreneurship
is.
And a lot of people are actually intimidated
by the idea of entrepreneurship, and not everyone
is necessarily interested in entrepreneurship.
And for a lot of people when they think about
entrepreneurship, they tend to think of the
Silicon Valley model.
And they think of kind of moving and banding
together to form real company and pursuing
angel investing or venture capital.
And that's one model of startups, but that's
not really what the $100 startup is about
at all.
And then sometimes when people think about
"business," they think about things like wearing
a suit every day or playing golf or voting
Republican or all these different things that
you might associate with traditional larger
business.
And that's not what the $100 startup is about
either.
So essentially this book and a lot of what
I do with "The Art of Nonconformity," is for
those who are seeking freedom.
And it's for those who are hoping to have
more freedom and independence in their lives.
Whether it's people that are dissatisfied
in their work, people who have jobs they don't
like, obviously no one at Google.
But other companies elsewhere, people who
are dissatisfied and want to make a change.
But they don't necessarily know how to make
that change and they don't necessarily know
what the next step is.
And so there's a lot of resources that are
kind of general motivational encouraging people
to go for it and I think that's great.
But when you're ready to go for it, the next
question is where you going and how you get
there?
And so my hope with "The $100 Startup," was
to provide 300 pages of next steps and a very
specific model of checklists and case studies,
very data-driven approach, based on extensive
study that would tell people exactly what
to do and how to do it.
To establish their own small business.
And the second group of people that I'm writing
for in the book are those people who are just
now entering the job market, either just right
out of college or those who are unsuccessfully
trying to compete in a difficult job market.
People of all ages.
And right now we have a situation where a
lot of people, in many cases are competing
for few jobs.
And I don't know entirely what the situation
is here, I don't think it's quite as bad in
the Bay Area, but where I live in Portland
Oregon it's not unusual at all to go to the
coffee shop and your barista who makes your
coffee has a Master's degree.
Or sometimes higher.
So it's not unusual at all to find all kinds
of people who have this higher education but
they're not able to find work in the field
in which they've trained.
It used to be that when we meet people like
this, we might think that they've fallen on
hard times.
We might even think something's wrong with
them, they're not trying hard enough, they
should just work harder, they should get on
Linkedin, polish their resume whatever.
But I would suggest when we have situations
like last year in Portland there was a job
announcement for an entry-level receptionist
position.
It paid $14 an hour with no benefits and 300
applicants showed up to apply for that job
and interview.
Many of them have college degrees.
So essentially everyone is qualified or very
overqualified for that kind of job.
And I would suggest when we have situations
like that the answer isn't just try harder
for those people.
I would say that the answer for many of them
is actually found through creative self-employment.
And the answer is found through kind of taking
matters into their own hands and making something
for themselves that improves the state of
the world.
And this used to be seen as kind of a risky
thing.
Entrepreneurship used to be seen as kind of
a scary risky choice and there might be a
lot of rewards on the other side possibly
but there certainly is a lot of risk.
And I think during a difficult economy a lot
of people are reevaluating that and thinking
about where their security really is found
and what really is risky and what is really
safe.
And for a lot of people, especially if you
can start a business without investing a lot
of money and without spending a lot of time
in the planning stage.
I think in many ways that's actually the safe
conservative choice.
So that's the message that I'm hoping to bring
to people through the book.
And the best way to tell you more about the
$100 startup model is to tell you a couple
of stories from people who are in the book.
So when we began at research process I was
traveling all over the world, cast a really
wide net and said I want to hear from people
from all different backgrounds, from all different
countries, different ages, operating different
kinds of businesses who had all successfully
found this freedom.
Found this independence through starting a
successful business.
But we also had very specific characteristics.
So we said that the business has to make at
least $50,000 a year, and in many cases it
made a lot more but we just establish that
as the baseline so that we're not looking
at hobbies, we're actually looking at real
small businesses.
And the business owner had to provide very
specific financial information about how much
money they made and how much it cost to start
the business, mistakes along the way, what
went well, you know if they scale that business,
how do they do it?
And again the goal with that was to provide
a very specific resource as opposed to a general
resource.
Because often if you ask someone how their
business is doing, assuming it's a private
company or a very small business they might
say "Oh it's going well," but you have no
idea what that means so we wanted to be very
specific about that.
We also looked primarily at micro-businesses
or businesses that have five or fewer employees.
So I really am looking at this very very small
startup model, and in most cases or let's
say at least half the cases the business owners
were solo entrepreneurs.
So people who were just running their business
as just one person, maybe a virtual assistant
or something, but essentially it was just
themselves.
And then lastly we were looking primarily
at people who started this business without
a lot of advanced technical skills or without
a lot of special skills that couldn't be somewhat
easily acquired.
So for example we talked with a guy who opened
a coffee bar.
And before he did that, he didn't know much
about running a coffee bar but he was able
to acquire that knowledge.
On the other hand I had someone submit a survey
from Croatia who said that he had taught himself
dentistry.
And I said that's great, that's awesome, good
for you.
But I'm not gonna put that in the book cause
I'd probably get sued.
So again no special skills or least no skills
that couldn't be easily acquired.
So we received maybe 1500 submissions, lots
of data and surveys, and then from there kind
of narrowed down to the 50 to 70 most interesting
or most poignant stories I felt kinda reflected
the times in which we live.
And then that's constructed around a narrative
in the book that tells the story of how these
people found that freedom through small business
and then hopefully a blueprint for how readers
can do the same thing.
And one of the first people that I talked
with, in fact the book begins with the story
of Michael Hanna.
And Michael was a 25 year veteran sales professional.
He worked in media sales and he'd always been
a good worker, got good performance reviews,
really helped his firm a lot.
But one day three years ago he went to work
and while he was planning his schedule, his
meetings, his pitches he received a message
from his boss asking him to come and see her.
And he went into his boss's office and he
noticed that she didn't make eye contact with
him.
And she said Michael as you know the industry
is in kind of a decline, we had to make some
hard choices.
And Michael said at that point it was like
everything happened in slow motion for him.
And he said, you know I had heard stories
of other people who had lost their jobs, been
laid off.
This has happened to some of our colleagues,
it wasn't a complete surprise but until it
actually happened to me I had no idea what
it felt like.
And someone from HR came in and they gave
him a box, and he had to pack up his things
and leave right away.
And on the way home, he called his wife Mary
Ruth and he said, "Honey, I'm sure it's gonna
be okay but I'm just letting you know I've
lost my job today."
Everything was okay for Michael in the end,
but not in the way he first expected.
So Michael thought, okay this is a shock but
I'll regroup and I will just get another job.
And so he started trying to line up interviews,
talk to his colleagues and former colleagues,
he used LinkedIn, he did all the things he
was supposed to do.
And he got some interviews, but what he discovered
pretty quickly was he wasn't the only one
looking for work first of all.
And second of all because his industry was
in a decline there weren't really any companies
that were hiring.
So Michael began to get a little discouraged.
And one day a friend of his who owned a furniture
store called him up and his friends said I
know this is kind of random I have a truckload
of mattresses I don't want maybe you could
take these and sell them one at a time on
Craigslist or eBay or something.
So Michael called Mary Ruth again he said,
"Honey it's a long story but is it okay if
I buy some mattresses?"
And she said, "Okay, whatever Michael."
So Michael buys the mattresses, but instead
of selling them through craigslist Michael
had this other idea.
While he had been driving around to all these
fruitless job interviews he had noticed a
car dealership that went out of business.
So Michael contacted the developer thinking
that he could probably rent that space very
cheaply because there weren't any other car
dealerships coming to town during this economy.
So he was able to get this space.
And Michael didn't know anything about running
a mattress store, his impression was that
mattress stores were kind of high pressure
seedy places you didn't really want to go
to them.
So he decided to create an unconventional
mattress shop.
And he made a family-friendly space where
people could bring their kids, and there was
a play area and there was a coffee area.
And then Michael started the world's first
mattress delivery by bicycle service, which
you can look up on YouTube.
It's very popular bringing mattresses all
over town.
And this was 2 1/2 years ago, and now Mattress
Lot is a $1 million a year business.
And I talked with Michael recently right before
the book came out, and he said, "You know
if someone had said to me a couple years ago
that I'd be running a mattress shop, I never
would've believed it at all.
But I really love what we're doing, and we're
really making a difference in our community
and the whole family is involved and I feel
like I'm actually creating security for myself
through this."
And the other thing he said was, "That day
that I got laid off, it was a shock.
It was bad.
But it turned into probably the best thing
that ever happened to me, so I'm so glad that
happened that caused this transition."
And as I traveled the world and interviewed
lots of different people, I heard a lot of
stories like Michael's.
And they didn't all involve being laid off
or fired or something that difficult, but
in most cases they did involve the person
kind of stumbling into their business project.
Or not necessarily beginning with a hugely
strategic plan, they were just kind of pursuing
an opportunity and seeing where it led.
And so I learned to kind of alter the questions
that I ask people in response to this phenomenon.
So I talked with Susannah Conway in England.
And Susannah was a former journalist, she
was also a photographer.
And at one point she decided to create a photography
course at first just for her friends and family
and then everyone signed up that she knew.
And she wasn't a famous blogger, she didn't
have thousands of followers on twitter or
Google+.
But she did have a Facebook account and she
offered her course to anyone who was connected
with her, and everyone signed up.
And Susannah ended up creating a $90,000 income
out of this project which is more than she
had made as a journalist.
And I talked to her and said, "Was there anything
that you didn't foresee when you were starting
up?"
And she said, "I didn't know I was starting
up.
I just thought I was doing something for fun
and everyone liked it and I ended up creating
this business model around it."
And then I talked with Benny Lewis who's originally
from Ireland, and Benny is now a full-time
professional language hacker who travels the
world learning foreign languages and teaching
people through this method he's devised.
And at the end of one of our conversations
I said, "Is there anything else I should know
about your business?"
And he said "Yes, please stop calling it a
business I'm just having the time I life.
I'm just doing something that I really love
to do, but I found a way to connect that with
something that's desired by the marketplace.
Something that other people also value enough
to pay for."
And that's how he's able to make good living.
One way or another, everyone that we focused
on in this study and everyone who's in the
book as well as many of the people in the
broader community that I am fortunate to work
with, they've all found a way to merge that
question of passion and skill with the question
of usefulness.
With the idea of making something that not
only they're excited about but also other
people are excited about and willing to pay
for.
And they found out how to do that in different
ways.
There is a story about a guy who's a full-time
CFO for a University in Virginia.
And he likes his job, he has no plans to leave,
he's relatively happy there.
But he's also been very passionate about travel,
and he and his wife have often traveled first-class
or business-class around the world using their
frequent flyer miles.
And for years he always helped his colleagues
with this, and his colleagues would ask him
I want to go to Paris with my wife can you
help me?
And he did this for free.
And then two years ago he decided kind of
on a whim to create a very very basic website
offering this as a service for anyone else
who wanted help booking their frequent flyer
tickets.
And he said, you know if you have miles and
you're not sure how to use them, I'll advise
you on your itinerary, I'll even phone the
airline for you, whatever you want will make
sure you have the trip.
And long story short two years on this is
now $100,000 a year side business.
And so Gary Leff this guy still works as a
CFO but for about one hour a day he operates
this business that brings in $100,000 a year.
And Gary says, "I like my job, I have no plans
to leave but it's actually a very good feeling
to go to work because you want to go to work
as opposed to going to work because you have
to go to work."
And he said, "It is a good job, but if something
were to ever change then I have this security
that we've established on the side and I could
go full-time with this."
So people apply this model in different ways.
Some after losing their job, some continuing
in their job, some making a gradual transition.
But again all in pursuit of freedom.
And they all did so for the most part without
spending a lot of money.
Almost everyone in the book spent less than
$1000, about half of the stories are $100
or less.
I think the average startup cost was something
like $432.
We decided that $432 startup didn't sound
as good as $100 startup we went with that.
But the whole point is not a lot of money,
not a lot of special skills or skills that
couldn't be otherwise acquired.
Last story, I talked with Sarah Young in Portland
Oregon who opened a yarn shop at the height
of the recession.
So she opens this retail business in a nice
location just as everything else was closing
down.
And Sarah didn't have a lot of business experience
and so I asked her, "What were you thinking
in doing this?
You weren't an entrepreneur."
And she said, "Well I wasn't an entrepreneur
but I was a shopper.
And I knew what I wanted and it didn't exist.
And I thought I wasn't the only one, and so
that's why I decided to create Happiness."
And some of you may have seen the video book
trailer for "The $100 Startup" and in that
trailer Sarah is there in her store and she
tells the story of her first $1000 day.
She tells the story of making $1000 for the
first time and calling her dad on the phone
and saying, "Dad, we had $1000 day at the
store."
And she talks about just how empowering that
felt.
Well we made that trailer a few months ago,
and right before the book came out I went
back to her and said, "Are there any updates?"
And she said, "Well we just had this big festival,
we had lots of knitters come to town and we
had our first $10,000 day."
So Happiness continues to grow and it has
five employees now.
And it is doing very well.
So again I share all these stories in the
book and in the talk and through our other
work with the goal of inspiring readers to
take action.
And as I said in the beginning, I think it's
important to define your own success with
any project whether it's a book or business
or anything else as opposed to someone else
defining that success for you.
And so in the case of "The $100 Startup" I
think the book will be successful if it does
a couple of things.
And that first thing is inspiration combined
with action.
I hope that people will read the book and
say not only was it a good book, but I hope
they read and say, "I read this and then I
went and took action on it.
And I started my own little micro-business,"
or "I improved the one I had," or "I helped
someone else with theirs."
I really hope that that inspiration will be
combined with action.
Because I talk a lot about freedom.
And the question I would have to all of us,
or to anyone who's watching is do you have
enough freedom in your life?
And are you doing most of what you love most
of the time?
All of us have things that we have to do from
time to time and that's okay, but most of
the time are you doing something that you
find meaningful, that's challenging and rewarding?
And then because freedom and responsibility
are correlated are you making the world a
better place?
Are you giving enough?
Do you feel like you're doing enough for yourself
and for others?
The second thing that I hope for is education
for all those people who want to start something
but don't know what those next steps are.
The book has lots of examples and checklists
and case studies and one page business plans
and promotion plans.
Again just kind of helping people take those
next steps.
And then the third and final thing that I
hope will come out of the book is I hope it
will create a sense of urgency among those
who read it.
Because we do live in this remarkable beautiful
age where we're all connected and we can come
together today but we can also go and reach
tens of thousands of people all over the world
based on shared ideals and shared values.
And that I think is very unique because micro-entrepreneurship
in different ways has always existed, since
the beginning of commerce.
You know that's micro entrepreneurship is
not new.
I used to live in Sierra Leone.
And I would drive my Land Rover in the interior
of the country and go to the village and in
West Africa almost everyone is an entrepreneur.
Because everyone is buying and selling and
responsible for their own well-being and there
is no formal economy for the most part.
But the difference is in West Africa you can
pretty much only buy and sell in the village
with your neighbors or with people in a very
small circle for the most part.
But all of us have the chance to connect with
people all over the world based on those shared
ideals or values or worldview.
And I think that's very unique.
And so I like something that Steve Jobs said
before his death.
He said "Your time is limited so don't waste
it living someone else's life."
And as I worked on the book and talked with
everyone whose stories are in the book I found
that those stories were a testament to that
ideal.
Testaments to the idea that we can do something
that we love, we can make the world a better
place, we can earn a good income from it.
But we can pursue things that are meaningful
most of the time.
And I'm really grateful to be here at Google
today and thank you so much Rachel for arranging
this.
And thanks to all of you both here and elsewhere
for sharing the space with me, thanks.
[Applause]
So should we do some questions?
>>Rachel: I have a question.
>>Chris: Yes Rachel.
>>Rachel: You didn't plant me out here.
>>Chris: I didn't.
>>Rachel: So can you talk about, from your
pool of applicants and the survey people who
either dropped out of college or high school,
what is the ratio there, did you find trends?
>>Chris: Yeah great question.
Yeah of course.
So the question is people who dropped out
of college or high school versus those who
stayed and were there trends in terms of the
people who are in the case study.
I think it was quite varied.
There were a lot of people who did have advanced
education.
There were other people who had very little
higher education.
So I'm not sure if there was a trend.
I guess if there was a trend, it was a trend
towards independent learning of some form.
A trend towards risk taking.
And again earlier I talked about risk and
kind of define that a bit differently because
I don't necessarily think entrepreneurs are
risk takers or mavericks.
But I would say that in a lot of the people
that we talked with there was a, more of a
history of international travel for example.
More of a history of living in more than one
place for example.
Maybe just being exposed to different ideals.
But within the education itself I would say
there were all kinds of people.
There were high school dropout to PhD's who
left their field to do something else.
>>Male number one: Along the same lines were
there any trends with regards to say people
like the mattress story who did it out of
necessity versus the frequent-flier story
where he was just sort of doing it as a side
hobby.
>>Chris: Yeah great question.
So was there a trend in terms of people making
this switch out of necessity, like the person
who was laid off versus the person who was
deliberate in staying in the job and establishing
a side income?
I would say it was more common for people
to make a transition out of a transition.
And I would say it's more common for people
to be faced with a change or to have some
kind of change imposed upon themselves and
then to make that change.
And that's because you have to.
You have this imperative.
And so it creates a dramatic story and it's
interesting.
But what I find in some ways is almost more
interesting is those people who don't have
that imperative but then kind of take it upon
themselves to go and establish the side income.
So we had both sides.
I think the related question is sometimes,
for those people who are in a job and no plans
to leave the job for awhile but they do want
to establish something on their own what do
they do?
And I tend to find a lot of those people kind
of remain in paralysis.
Because everything's going okay.
And so everything's going okay and they're
busy because we're all busy.
And I do feel it's good for those who want
to create this side income or side project.
I do feel that it's good to be more active
about that and to focus more on action than
planning.
Like almost no one in the study had a 60 page
business plan.
Almost no one in the study borrowed money
from the bank.
There was a couple of exceptions out of 1000
stories, but almost everyone just kind of
bootstrapped and found a way to get to market
quickly.
So regardless of the situation I would say
that the lesson is the same.
Yes sir.
>>Male #2: I had a question about choosing
the right idea.
I think that, I'm just out of college last
year.
And I think a lot of my fears in college and
even now about starting our own business is
finding that idea that really resonates with
us as well as others.
I think that there was a line that you used
that said that finding your passion that's
doing something that no longer is a job, no
longer feels like a job.
We also have the example with the mattress
salesman, that doesn't seem to be his passion.
He wasn't like I'm gonna sell mattresses so,
>>Chris: Correct, correct
>>Male #2: So where is that line about market
opportunities and about your passion?
>>Chris: Where is that line about the market
opportunities and your passion?
You said a few other things, but I'm just
gonna kinda go off that point.
So the whole thing about following your passion,
there is a survey on a blog I read recently
the question was what is the most overrated
phrase to see online?
And follow your passion was like number one
or number two.
It's really fascinating because there's like
two sides to this.
Not everything that we are passionate about
is going to make a good business model.
And in fact there's lots of things that we're
excited about, or passionate about that no
one else is gonna care about enough to value.
You know as I said in the book I used to be
very passionate about playing video games.
And I was a really good Halo player.
But no one came along and offered me a check
to do that right?
I had to find a way to create value in my
business like everyone else.
So not every passion can be monetized, however
I think when you look at successful people
certainly everyone in the $100 startup model.
But almost, I won't say everyone a lot of
successful entrepreneurs they have followed
their passion right?
They have done something that they're excited
about.
But just as with those pursuing the smaller
model, they have found a way to make it useful
and to connect with people and deliver something
that's valuable.
So in terms of the mattress guy, no he wasn't
passionate about mattresses per se.
I guess what he discovers that he was passionate
about community and he was passionate about
small business and the role that his shop
could play in that.
And doing the fun things like delivering the
mattresses on the bicycle, and just kind of
making business fun.
So in terms of ideas which you mentioned earlier,
one thing that's helpful if you're trying
to figure out which skill do I have or which
passion do I have that could also be interesting
to other people?
So like the frequent-flier tickets as opposed
to playing Halo.
One thing that's helpful is to focus on the
questions that people ask you.
Because people probably ask you a certain
number of questions about specific topics
frequently.
And if you think about it, what is it that
people always ask me about?
That is often a sign that you are perceived
authority in something.
And also that that information is valued and
desirable.
So with the frequent-flier guy, he discovered
his colleagues kept asking him how do you
do this?
And this whole thing is confusing to me.
And when I call the airlines I don't get good
information.
So he would explain that and go into it in
detail.
And then finally he figured out that most
people don't actually want to do that themselves,
they just want to have the outcome.
So he was able to create a business out of
that.
So I would go back to passions and skills
and then think about which of those are then
useful or interesting to other people.
And the same was true with Benny Lewis, the
language hacking guy.
He was passionate about learning languages,
and he describes himself and in fact I mentioned
it as a full-time language hacker.
But essentially he's not being paid to learn
languages; he's being paid to help other people
do that.
So that's also a key distinction.
And Rachel mentioned I'm on this quest to
visit every country in the world, every once
in a while I read these blog posts that say
you know Chris Guillebeau is paid to travel.
I'm not really paid to travel, like I'm glad
people like the blog and they might enjoy
it, but no one pays me to travel.
I have to create a specific business model.
Thank you.
Yes hi.
>> Female #1: Hello.
We're any of your case studies about entrepreneurs
who created nonprofits?
And if so, what was that sort of process,
how does that differ from the other type?
>>Chris: Yeah a very good question.
Were any of the case studies about nonprofits?
And if so how does that differ from other
kinds of businesses?
So for the most part in this study I'm focusing
on for profit small businesses.
Because again the whole goal is providing
freedom and independence for that entrepreneur
or micro-entrepreneur.
There are a lot of people who then created
that freedom for themselves and then used
the time that they had or the resources that
they had to devote more to their nonprofit
causes as well.
But what I was interested in, probably more
than strictly nonprofits, I was interested
in those who took a hybrid approach, which
we're seeing more and more.
Like with Kiva for Toms Shoes or something
like that where it's like a for-profit company
or organization with a cause.
Or something this kind of merging the two
things.
So there were a couple of stories about that.
One of them was Selena and Khary Cuffe who
I believe they live in Los Angeles.
And they had traveled a bit on the continent
of Africa.
And in South Africa specifically, South Africa
is known for its wine industry and great wine.
But due to all the effects of apartheid, most
of the vineyard owners were white South Africans.
And there was a very small number of vineyards
that were owned by black South Africans.
And so Selena and Khary started this business
called Heritage Link Brands that imported
wine from South Africa from black-owned vineyards.
And so they basically created a business around
this.
I mean I think it's a low seven-figure business
now.
They're importing wines to the US and I think
Canada and probably some other places too.
So it's a business, but it's a business with
a deliberate social cause.
And it's a business to uplift a population
that wasn't previously served well.
So I was interested in the approaches of combining
both profit and nonprofit.
Thank you.
Yep
>>Male #3: Chris I have a group of friends
that follow you very closely.
Actually myself one of them as well.
And we were chatting the other night after
having all read your book.
And there was a topic that came up recently
that had to do with just the fear of having
a great jobs, having that unconventional desire
to do something different than your jobs.
He actually works for a large corporation
and felt that wasn't enough.
Then went to like the rock stars start up,
and now he still is in that situation where
it's not driving that freedom that he's looking
for.
>>Chris: Right.
>>Male #3: And he just coming up with these
reasons to what he wanted to do and how he
wanted to do it.
And the thing that was holding him back was,
what do I do if in a month or two I can pay
my rent?
Because I want to walk into one of them and
say I'm done, Then I want to be able to start
my business and go for it.
But that fear is something that constantly
holds us back, and I know that something you
hear all the time.
>>Chris: I do hear that all the time.
And the question was about fear and if you
have a good job, but you have this desire
for freedom what do you do and how do you
reconcile these things.
And you have a good salary but you have this
desire to do something different.
I do hear that all the time, I often hear
it from people who write in, especially from
the large companies, Microsoft and other places,
never here of course.
And it's phrased almost always exactly like
that.
You know I have this desire to do something
but I have this.
And sometimes it's from people who have families
or other real responsibilities and obligations.
I think the wrong advice to tell those people
is quit your job now.
You know quit your job, just go for it, it's
gonna be okay.
I think that's the wrong advice.
I would also say, I mentioned paralysis earlier.
What often happens is that they get stuck
because they can only envision two alternatives.
They can only envision staying in this job
which may have served me for a time and maybe
its okay but I'm ready to do something different.
And this general idea of freedom or working
for myself.
But they don't really see how to get from
here to there and they don't imagine all the
points in between.
So I would say to that person why can't you
start now?
While you have this job.
And why can't you begin taking those steps
now.
Because that fear is real, but there's nothing
to inhibit you from taking action now.
And people often ask sometimes they say well
I got this really busy job and I'm working
50 or 60 hours a week and I have no time.
Well a couple of things, one we all make time
for what's important to us.
So if this is important to you then you can
make some time.
I also think it's an advantage when you have
limited time to pursue your micro startup
because then you can only do things that matter.
And if you have 40 hours a week to work on
it, you can probably think of all kind of
things that are irrelevant to the business
model.
But a business essentially is just three things.
It's a product or a service, a group of people
willing to pay for it, and a means of getting
paid.
So if you focus on those three things and
go from a general offer, general business
idea to a specific offer as soon as possible.
There's a one-page consulting guide in the
book, how to get your website up, how to one-page
promotion plan, what to do every day to get
the word out.
If you just start that now, I feel that that
is so much healthier, and I feel like it generates
more security.
And if you had something that's making even
a thousand dollars a month or something then
I know that's not a lot of money but it's
much easier usually to grow a business that's
making some amount of money than it is to
start it from the beginning.
So I feel like one of the ways of dealing
with that fear is to start now and to have
something so then maybe you don't have the
hundred thousand dollar a year side income
like the frequent-flier type.
But if you have something that so much more
easier to envision, the possibilities as opposed
to just saying yeah go for it, let me quit
my job at the greatest company in the world
or something to go and do something that's
kind of uncertain.
And some people do that, but maybe it's easier
to do both for a while.
That's great anything else, are we good?
>>Male #3: I was gonna asked if you could
briefly touch on how you went from your first
book to the idea for this book.
It sounds like much of the messaging is the
same.
I haven't read this one yet.
But I was wondering how you sorta went from
that one to one that was more focused on taking
action and creating a side business.
>>Chris: OK, so how did I go from book number
one which was "The Art of Nonconformity",
to book number two "The $100 Startup?"
What was the process?
So they're actually quite different.
The first book was much more general, much
more about world view.
A lot of stories of like challenging authority.
Some more information about travel which this
book doesn't really touch on.
So "The $100 Startup," is much more specifically
focused on this idea of establishing freedom
through a micro business.
And it's also based on, I guess I would also
say it's based a lot more on data and on the
study.
That came about in part from the first book
tour.
I went to every state and every province in
Canada and along the way I just met a lot
of people who fit this unexpected entrepreneur
model.
And I heard a lot of stories, and I started
getting more e-mail.
And so that's when I thought we need to tell
the story well.
So my main goal in writing the book was to
tell these stories well hopefully.
To do honor to them and then to provide that
narrative or that blueprint that other people
could follow.
So it came about mostly organically, just
as I traveled and I heard from different people
that I'm connected with.
Great.
>>Rachel: anybody else?
>>Male #3: Can you do one last question?
>>Chris: Sure.
>>Male #3: I haven't read the book yet, but
a lot of the stories you mentioned were very
individual.
And this person had an idea or has a situation.
What about in other industries that require
more cooperation.
[Inaudible] Do you have any examples of partnerships
in general?
>>Chris: Great so most of the stories that
we've touched on are fairly individual and
wondering about partnerships.
And opportunities to leverage knowledge and
connectivity.
That's a great question.
I would say I probably have my own individual
bias towards solo entrepreneurs and those
people who just kind of establish things on
their own.
One because that's what I know.
I don't know the big startup model, I don't
know that traditional business model that
we talked about in the beginning.
I just know my own history of always being
self-employed, of always kind of hustling
to make my own way.
And so that's the world in which I'm most
comfortable with.
And those of the stories that I'm probably
best at telling and analyzing.
I would say though that everyone that we looked
at in the book, we also had a number of partnerships.
Lots of husbands and wives or couples operating
their business together or two business partners
operating it together.
But I really wasn't looking at like a model
of 10 people or more than that building an
actual company.
So in terms of the partnerships, there's some
information about partnerships, about how
that works and how it doesn't.
About using the strength of one person to
remedy the weaknesses of the other.
But for the most part I guess I'm much more
interested in that individual focus of freedom.
Just because that's what I know.
All right, thanks again guys thank you.
[Applause]
>>Rachel: Thanks Chris.
>>Chris: Thank You.
