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Solopreneuring Lessons Learned - Phoenix Startup Week
This document provides lessons and advice for solopreneuring or starting a solo business. It discusses that while co-founders are optional, help is still required from mentors, community, or virtual staff. It emphasizes finding problems where your business can create value in areas like information overload, the education crisis, or workforce issues. The document recommends bootstrapping your business by leveraging crowdsourcing, multiple revenue streams, and reducing expenses. It also covers hacking marketing through social media, blogging content regularly, and targeting the right audience. Finally, it discusses getting official by incorporating your business as an LLC, reserving domain names, and setting up basic online infrastructure like a website and business bank account.
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Solopreneuring Lessons Learned - Phoenix Startup Week
- 1. HacksSolopreneuring “You're only givenone little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it.” - Robin Williams Guy Bieber, Founder Karmas LLC 2017/02/21 Copyright 2017 Karmas LLC
- 2. Guy Inspire ✦ BeInspired ✦ Create Amazing Experiences Futurist & Innovator CTO & Labs Entrepreneur & Author Connect to Your Potential I am here to serve and inspire you today...
- 3. Hacks and Lessons 1.HackingYou: Why, Mindset, and Fun! 2.Co-founder Optional, but Help Required! 3.Where’s the Business? 4.You Can (and Should) Bootstrap 5.Hacking Marketing 6.Getting Official 7.Throwing the Book at It 8.Hacking Speed: Minimum Viable Desirable Product 9.Pay it Forward
- 4. Hack 1. Hacking You: Why,Mindset, and Fun! Regular Day Job VS Day, Night, and Weekend Job You need to love it, if you’re going to do it!
- 5. Emotional Risk 1. Quantityovercomes Rejection • People: 5 positive - 1 negative = 0 • Startups: 1 YES per 100s of NOs 2. Failure -> Experiment and Learning 3. Growth Mindset -> There will be obstacles but you can figure it out. 4. Focus: what and when Entrepreneurship is hard! You better bring the Joy and Fun!! Hypothesis: I can create value/serve people, have more fun, & meet my financial needs. Financial Risk 1. A business exists to serve / create value for others. 2. Money is an artifact doing 1 well 3. Know your runway 4. Scrappiness = Happiness 5. Progress obliterates Anxiety We all have limited resources and unlimited resourcefulness.Learn to shake it off!!
- 6. Bucket List Downside • Lose 1or 2 years of high salary job • Need to live cheap • Have to get a job Decisions! Decisions! “Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.” - Goethe Upside • Help many people • Work on that Bucket List • Learn a ton (10x + MBA) • Own my destiny; More joy • Earn Financial Freedom
- 7. My name is_______ and I can do anything!!
- 8. Do • Research• Write •Prototype• Blog • Market • Business Model Learn • Inbound Marketing • Heroku, Restlet, Angular, ML • Wordpress • Restlet • Photoshop, Illustrator • Publishing, Scrivener Business = Product + Fit + Marketing + Sales Get Creative• Funding• Marketing Automate • Social – Buffer • Mailing – Mailchimp • Incorporate – IncFile • Grammarly Delegate • VideoLoco • Fiverr • Upwork • eBricks. GeShiDo Basics 1. Capture 2. Eliminate, Prioritize, Plan 3. Offload – Automate and Delegate 4. Do - Learn, Systems, and Creativity 5. Reflect and Optimize
- 9. Elon Musk’s To-DoList Solve Renewable Energy 1. Launch the biggest factory on the planet 2. Redefine solar power and storage Solve Transportation 1. Launch the new Tesla with autonomous driving 2. Get the first Hyperloop working Create a Backup of Humanity 1. Make rockets reusable and get to Mars. 2. Plan a colony on Mars. Remember whatever you are doing, your to-do list is easier than...
- 10. Lesson 2. Co-founder Optional, butHelp Required! I get by with a little help from my friends…
- 11. https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/26/co-founders-optional/ You must havea cofounder to be funded. Companies raising more than $10M 1 2 3 4 >= 5 Companies with a successful exit 1 2 3 4 >= 5
- 12. You can doit all yourself. • Mentors – Entrepreneurs with mentors raised 7x the capital and grew 3.5x faster (Smartcuts). • Community • Task / Project Based Help • Virtual Staff / Staff – We all hope to grow big enough that we need some help Know when to ask for help and be grateful. Solopreneuring != Going it Alone
- 13. Lesson 3. Where’s theBusiness?
- 14. Information Crisis • MassiveQuantity • Quality Issues • Humans haven’t evolved to consume information faster 2x Information Every 1.5 Years Education Crisis • Cost versus Payoff • Half Life of Knowledge • Need Continuous Learning Models Cost of a Degree: +1127% since 1978 Work Crisis • Workforce Engagement • High Skill Shortage • Med / Low Skill Overage • Productivity and Creativity Demands • Need cheaper ways to improve life situation • Good versus Bad Automation • Push to Freelancing and Creating your own work. 87% Disengaged at Work
- 15. Almost any problemcan be solved by learning, doing, creating, and the right mindset. Help people reach their potential faster.
- 16. Step 1: Research100s of books, 1000s of articles, & many Courses DOING MINDSET GROWTH Creativity
- 17. How to consume10x information: Words Per Minute -> Insights per Minute • Right Content: Find -> Select -> Deconstruct -> Sequence (material beats method) • Layering: Description, Abstract, Talk, and then Audiobook depending on insight density. • Format: Video or Audio (forget speed reading; accelerated format) • Rate 1x to 3x: The max rate you can create reusable knowledge • ABCs: Always be Capturing, Connecting, and Compressing. • Bonus: Always be researching. Have a sentence about why you saved a link. 20% Effort 80% Results Pareto’s Law and the power of selection
- 18. Step 2: ~400pages of notes Step 3: A Really Big MindMap Step 4: Condense into 5 Infographics
- 19. Step 6: BusinessModel CanvasStep 5: Personas
- 20. Step 7: ResearchedDelegation Services
- 21. aText Skitch Step 8: ResearchedAutomation Tools
- 22. Missing • Recommendations • Delegation •Automation • Learning • Machine Learning • Triggers Team / Project Management Step 9: Looked at and used the Competition Time Analysis Project Organization Time Tracking
- 23. Seven Questions forDisruption – Peter Thiel 1. Engineering Question – Discover the fastest, cheapest ways of doing and learning. 2. Timing Question – Crisis in information, education, work, and automation. 3. Monopoly Question – Niche the market initially. 4. People Question – Using the crowd. 5. Distribution Question – Application through app stores. Book through Amazon. Affiliates for content, courses, automation, services, and mentoring. 6. Durability Question – People will always need to get things done and learn. 7. Secret Question – Amplify people through automation and delegation. This is the beginning of Jarvis.
- 24. Lesson 4. You Can(and Should) Bootstrap Bootstrap: Originated in 19th century US (particularly in the the phrase “pull oneself over a fence by one’s bootstraps”), to mean an absurdly impossible action. - Wikipedia
- 25. Why Bootstrap? • Themore investment you take the more it is like working for someone else and the less potential rewards. • You can make a much better funding deals once you show market traction. • It is not as expensive as you think to start an online business. In fact, you can get a lot for free. • It reduces complexity. You can focus on satisfying your customers and employees without worrying about what investors want. • Multiple Revenue Streams help – Book, Speaking, Service • You need to plan your runway and manage expenses.
- 26. Hacking Crowdsourcing • Youcan do multiple campaigns • Look at similar campaigns that were most successful • Expect 2 months of prep for a 1 month campaign. • You need a great video • You need to do your own marketing – People that will donate on the pre-launch – People that will share the launch – Ads and landing pages • You need to line up some PR to write about it • Have your updates ready pre-campaign. • Back other projects!!! https://adespresso.com/ academy/blog/facebook- ads-for-kickstarter-guide/
- 27. Hack 5. HackingMarketing Start Marketing Early… Marketing is user research…
- 29. TheGuyBieber ThePotentialBook.com karmas.co K K KK G G G G G G P K P P My Social Landscape K G G G What is the most important brand: you, your business, or your product? Hey you got all this book content, blog it. You create the businesses, and the business creates the product… G
- 30. Getting the rightaudience… 1. Target: Characterize your customer… 2. Find: Find the people on twitter that have your customers 3. Steal: Steal their customers • Look at their feed. Comment and like others comments. • Search for their hashtags and twitter handle 4. Get Trendy: Position messages that around what is trending 5. Get Live: Simultaneously tweet to live conferences target. 6. Automate: Save time and maximize your social channels • Buffer, Mailchimp, Tweetful, Instagress 7. Blog Weekly: Learn Inbound Marketing. 8. Story: Tell your story. Share interesting stuff. • SUCCESs – Simple, Unexpected, Credible, Concrete, Emotional, Stories 10x my social media footprint in 3 months 300 -> 3k twitter followers (top 1%)
- 31. Create Content ConceptManual Delegate Automation Attract Problem Clarifying Content • Net Promoter Score, Tasks, Project, Time Saved • Time to Next Delight: Content, Automate, Delegate, Systems • Promote / Mentoring Volunteering • New Doing Paths • New Learning Paths • In App Chat • Success Stories • Recommendation Promotions Delight Delight Convert Solution Clarifying Content • CTA Get App • CTA Get Book • Email Follow-up • Social Follow-up Close
- 32. Feedback Growth Hacking Mail Campaigns SocialAutomation Marketing Tool Chain Tweetful TheGuyBieber K G KK G P K G Twitter Dashboard K P Publish Content GK P K G P K G Instagress Hey you should try People still like mailing lists. Make one. G G G
- 33.
- 34. What’s in aName? • Corporate Names • Domain Names • Social Accounts Incorporate LLC + EIN Name Business Domain Name Website & Email Bank Account Social Accounts Social Automation DoSystemize Automate Delegate KeyForm Corporation
- 35. Incorporation • When shouldyou incorporate? – Taxes: Before the end of year 1 so you can deduct from your taxes – Travel, Training, Cost of Goods, Development, Internet, Phone, Home… – Investing: Retirement Advantages SEP-IRA (20% of income up to $54K and the company can match) – Name: To lock in a name – Selling: You need to sell product and corporate protections. • How should you incorporate? – Going for VC funding – Delaware C-Corp – Double taxing (corporate + individual) – Bootstrapping – LLC – Can be taxed like – Sole Proprietorship (individual) – S-Corp (individual + distributions (no SS or Med tax)) – C-Corp (corporate + individual) • It’s a high class problem if you have to restructure to a C-Corp to take funding.
- 36. Websites made cheapand easy… 1. Dreamhost + Wordpress + Google Analytics • Dreamhost: Free SSL, free email, and free Wordpress hosting for the price of a domain name. • Free: Google Analytics and Wordpress 2. Themeforest for cheap, powerful themes • Salient or Be Theme are nice 3. Wordpress Must Have Plugins: 1. EWWW Image Optimizer 2. Google Analytics Dashboard 3. Really Simple SSL 4. Spam Protection by CleanTalk 5. WP Super Cache 6. Yoast SEO 4. Free Images: Pixabay, Unsplash, Google 5. Performance Testing: Pingdom, website.grader.com Use Dreamhost, Wordpress, and Themeforest.
- 37. Hack 7. Throwing theBook at It
- 38. Hacking Super-Credibility 1. List:Make a list of people whose endorsement would help your launch. Include A and B players. 2. Write: Write a compelling general letter, keep it short, and make it as easy as possible for them to help. Provide something they value or speak to their values. 3. Customize: Customize for each person. 4. Connect: Hack your connections – Guessing Email addresses is easier & more effective than you think – first.last or first – @company_url, @gmail.com, @charity_url – LinkedIn – just wait 5. Follow-up / Give Back: Make request and only one follow up. Always offer to give back. 6. Create Extra Email Accounts: bookings@... You need other email accounts to look credible.
- 39. Hacking Networking onLinkedIn 1. Connect: Connect to everyone you meet in person. You never know who you can help or who can help you. – People they interviewed, people they hire, etc. 2. Introduction: Linked in shows you all the people that are connected to you and someone you are trying to connect to. 3. Group Message: If you join a group that they are part of you can group message them for free. 4. Follow Then Connect: If you follow people on twitter and start commenting you can make an introduction on LinkedIn more easily, especially if they ever comment back.
- 40. Lesson 8. Minimum ViableDesirable Product SCRAPPINESS = HAPPINESS MVPs V1 is about speed and cost V2 is about architecture V3 is about profit V4 is about scale
- 41. Rough Angular Prototypes Gowith the larger ecosystems. There is more free and cheap stuff. You’ll get there faster. Rough Wizard of Oz Prototypes
- 42. API Design ToolChain Data Model Rest API Development REST API in SWAGGER Angular JSON Model Client SDK Restlet is the easiest way to develop you APIs and generate code. Server SDK
- 43. Dev Services Karmas App (JS) Native ChatApp NewExist Device HostedService Architecture Affiliate Content, Automation, & Services ML Architecture Amazon S3 ?Amazon Machine Learning Trigger REST REST SMS Anonymized Data SMS Adapter REST Nextmo, Twilio, Plivo, AWS SNS, Tropo • Amazon • Audible • Getabstract • Blinkist • YouTube • TED • Fiverr • Upwork • Google Calendar • Linkedin • Facebook • UI: Angular • Chatbot: Superscriptjs • Chat: ?Candy-chat • Storage: Html5 local storage • Diagram: html5 canvas • Charts: d3js.org Architecture Karmas Watch (IOS, Android) Later ?? • XMPP Chat Server? Bucketeer Karmas Service Karmas Learning Data Heroku is easier to setup and manage than raw AWS.
- 44. Tool Chain Testing Deployment Configuration Management Developer Collab Marketing Automation Operations Monitoring Password Sharing Website FileSharing Continuous Integration Continuous Delivery Continuous Deployment Continuous Feedback Accounting Automation R&D / Production HR Gusto TodoDoneLater Tweetfull Instagress Salient Theme -> Be Theme
- 45. Lesson 9. Pay itForward If you are lucky enough to do well, it’s your responsibility to send the elevator back down. - Kevin Spacey
- 46. In the spiritof making Phoenix the most generous startup community in the World… 1. 25% off Potential: For Phoenix Startup Week $19.99 -> $14.99 2. Mentoring: Help You get a Mentor – Read Potential – Send your 3 most important lessons – Send me what you want from a mentor – I will help find you a mentor or mentor you if we are a fit (targeting mentoring 3 to 5 startups this year) 3. Investing in You: I believe in you, so if you complete number 2… – First 100 people will get a 100% refund on the book – That personally costs me 30% per book, but you are worth it!! I BELIEVE YOU HAVE POTENTIAL!!!
- 47. Think differently. Shockeveryone.Do the impossible.
- 48.
- 49. theguybieber@karmas.com Inspire ✦ BeInspired ✦ Create Amazing Experiences Thank You @theguybieber Guy Bieber, Founder of Karmas LLC karmas.cothepotentialbook.com Connect to Your Potential When you need the Guy: Copyright 2017 Karmas LLC