Yol · 12 Stations · 12 days · Startup › Small Business
Start Your Business
An owner of a small, profitable business started with what they had: customers talked to first, a price set on value, profit taken from the first sale, and one system written down so it runs without them.
Twelve Stations, one a day, from six books: starting with what you have, the convergence, customers before product, build-measure-learn, the technician trap, pricing and the first sale, working on the business, profit first, staying small on purpose, systems you can hand over, keeping customers, the first-year plan. It ends with a paying customer and a one-page plan.
The road, station by station
01Start with what you have
~4 minfrom Rework
Today’s Station — start →
02Find the convergence
lockedfrom The $100 Startup
03Talk to customers before you build
lockedfrom The Lean Startup
04Build, measure, learn
lockedfrom The Lean Startup
05The technician trap
lockedfrom The E-Myth Revisited
06Price it on value and sell it
lockedfrom The $100 Startup
Milestone
The first paying customer
An offer written on one page, the first customer conversations held, a price set on value and a launch sent with a date. It is reached when one person has paid: not a plan, but a business with a customer.
07Work on the business, not in it
lockedfrom The E-Myth Revisited
08Take profit first
lockedfrom Profit First
09Stay small on purpose
lockedfrom Company of One
10Systems you can hand over
lockedfrom The E-Myth Revisited
11Keep the customers you have
lockedfrom Company of One
12Your first-year plan
lockedfrom The $100 Startup
Milestone
Destination: An owner, not a technician with a job
A one-page first-year plan, profit taken first from the first sale, one system written down so someone else could run it, and a weekly hour on the business, not in it. Not someone who bought themselves a job; someone who owns a business.