The $100 MBA Show

“Start small” should be the mantra every new and aspiring entrepreneur lives by.  …and when we say “small,” we mean small. Before you try to tackle any huge or long-term business goals, it’s crucial to start developing the skill of producing something valuable, and selling it for a profit.  It’s exactly like lifting weights — you don’t try to put up big numbers in the first week. Instead, you star...

Is a  dot-com better than a dot-co or dot-anything else? The right .com domain name — as in the one that best matches your brand name — can be hard to come by. But with so many other options, what’s the big deal about .coms anyway? It’s Q&A Wednesday, and we’ve got a listener with a content business (a blog and paid newsletter) who can’t get their hands on the perfect .com domain. Should they suck...

When entrepreneurs think of Twitter, they usually think of marketing. But they should also think about product development. Why? Because people love to complain, especially on social media.  And when they complain about certain challenges — and certain products — you get free insight into how your business can solve the problems no one else is solving! In other words, Twitter is 100% free market r...

Maybe you haven’t started your business yet. Maybe it’s brand-new. Maybe it’s established and producing results. Whatever the case, the question is the same: what’s your next move? For an answer (well, 5 answers actually), we turn to Patrick Bet-David’s Your Next Five Moves, an eye-opening business strategy book that takes a unique approach to the entrepreneur’s journey — and definitely belongs on...

Everything starts in your mind. Have you ever heard advice that sounds generally true, but too broad, obvious, or simple to actually take action on? Does the above seem like that kind of advice? Often, the problem isn’t with the advice. It’s that we’re not really putting it into practice. Today, Omar shares what might be the single most important principle he lives by — one to which he credits his...

A company with a great product has every chance of success. But a company with a great community has even more potential. Recently, we launched a new online space for users of our online teaching and marketing platform, WebinarNinja. We wanted to bring our incredible collection of teachers, coaches, marketers and more together to network, share ideas, and find support. …but it wasn’t easy. Today,...

Somehow, this is our 2000th episode! But like every podcaster ever, we started with nothing. No content, no listeners, and no guarantee that our show would catch on. So how’d we pull it off? Today, Omar shares the most important lessons from 8 years in front of the mic! The truth is, we didn’t always have an iTunes-award-worthy podcast. To get from cringeworthy to binge-worthy took heaps of effort...

Dreaming of entrepreneurship, but not sure what kind of business to get into? That’s an easy one: start by producing and selling content.  Today, Omar explains why the content model is the best way to get your entrepreneurial career off the ground. No supply costs, no previous experience necessary…no-brainer! All you need to get started is your own expertise. But a content business isn’t only grea...

What’s a customer worth — exactly? Literally! Each customer is worth a specific dollar amount to your business, over the entire time they pay for your products or services. And of course, each customer costs your business a specific dollar amount to acquire. In other words, your overall success is the difference between your customers’ Lifetime Value (LTV) and their Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)...

Nervous about your next (or first) webinar? Don’t be! Can things go wrong? Yes. Lots of things! But not if you prevent them. The key is to get all those worst-case-scenarios out of your head and into an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure).  Then, you can just execute. Today, we share a simple (and downloadable) checklist for a worry-free webinar. From technical to emotional and everything in betwee...

Almost no one “makes it” overnight. If you’re a rational, pragmatic aspiring entrepreneur, one of your first questions is also one of the most common (and important): when can I expect success? In a world without crystal balls, there’s no 1,000% answer. But there are rational timelines, and effective ways to map them out. Good ol’ Omar would know — he’s done it. Today, we help you get a reliable i...

If cutting prices is your go-to sales move, you’re in for trouble. It’s Q&A Wednesday, and we’ve got an online coach and course creator who wants to boost sales, but doesn’t want to devalue the product. And we couldn’t agree more!  Discounting is a strategy of last resort. It has a rapidly approaching point of diminishing returns. In other words, it’s not a good long term approach. It’s a race to...

Not every crisis is avoidable. But almost all have a silver lining. Today, we reorient your perspective on crises from “avoid and survive” to “expect and take advantage of.” That’s not to say you should look for trouble, or neglect the rational measures every business takes to prevent problems. But at some point, you’re almost guaranteed to face a serious, even existential snafu.  The way you resp...

Yes — your team’s wellness is your responsibility. As a business leader, you have to take an active role in ensuring that your team is positioned to do their best work. That means taking steps to promote physical, mental, and emotional well-being.  If you don’t, employees and their work will suffer. It’s a simple equation: if employees aren’t encouraged to take care of themselves, they’ll assume y...

Long-term goals can be tough to track.  Whatever you’re trying to achieve in life or business, the bigger goals have to be broken down — and progress towards them made visible. Or in other words, measurable. Today, Omar shares one way to see if your needles are actually moving. You’ve heard of the technique before (quite often, probably). But in this episode, you won’t just learn why you should do...

What can you learn from Superbowl ads? Companies spend absurd amounts of money, literally millions for less than a minute of airtime — which means they want the absolute best ROI per second.  Therefore, Superbowl ads are the prime example of how to get the most out of even the tiniest moments of consumers’ attention. For a small business, the principles are the same, just scaled down. And as we kn...

It’s a great feeling: earning real traffic on the strength of your content. Now, it’s time to cash in. It’s Q&A Wednesday, and we’re helping one listener figure out how to leverage their hard-earned blog following to generate some well-deserved income. After writing extensively about tech products without taking a dime, they’ve finally got enough eyeballs on the domain to make a move. But what’s t...

Don’t think of your day job as an obstacle to starting your own business. Think of it as a stepping stone. Depending on the specifics, you can use your 9-to-5 to gain exactly the experience you’ll need as an entrepreneur. Today, Omar shares how his experience as a longtime teacher was valuable preparation for full-time entrepreneurship — because he went out of his way to make sure it was. Learn ho...

We study the psychology of finance. We study the psychology of relationships? But why don’t we study the psychology of both? One of the best thought leaders in personal finance joins us again for another extended interview: Ramit Sethi, author of the best-selling I I Will Teach You to Be Rich and founder of the finance-education empire of the same name. In this episode, Ramit and Omar dig deep int...

Ready to rock on your own? If you want the freedom of entrepreneurship, but don’t see yourself running a team — for now —  there are lots of ways to generate income all by your lonesome. Today, we discuss which business models work best for the solopreneur, and help you decide which path is suited to your goals and talents. Whether by freelancing, selling information-based products, and more, ther...

Are you bringing in the same amount of money as last year? …and the year before that? If you’re spinning your wheels on revenue, it’s time to try something new. But what? Today, we explain how breaking out of a revenue rut is less complicated than you might think. It doesn’t take sophisticated marketing or a massive sales bump. In fact, it all comes down to 3 factors you can manipulate with relati...

One of our favorite insights comes from Jim Rohn, who said that everyone is the average of the 5 people they spend the most time with. That’s perhaps even more true for entrepreneurs. Starting your own business takes a certain kind of personality. It’s a very different approach to life, one that works best if it’s supported by like-minded friends and colleagues. It’s Q&A Wednesday, and we’ve got a...

It’s time for you to let you go. Seriously — there’s incredible value in learning how to step back from your own business.  Why? Maybe you’ll want to sell one day. Maybe you’ll want a less hands-on role. Maybe you’ll take a month (or 6) off!  …or maybe, you’ll want to make your income 100% passive. There’s a million good reasons to find out what taking your hands off the wheel would look like, eve...

Can fiction offer practical business advice? It sure can. That’s what Omar discovered when he (finally) read George S. Clason’s The Richest Man in Babylon, a tale set thousands of years ago with made-up characters sharing lessons about life, business, and wealth. This powerful book offers 7 principles, or “cures” to poverty, that are just as valid in the real world as they are in the fictionalized...

More research and preparation went into this episode than any we’ve done before. It’s that important. Break out the notepad, and get ready to learn what is inarguably, logically the single best way to become wealthy. It’s not about inventing a magic product, or manipulating the system in some way.  It’s about a slow, steady, tortoise-and-hare build to a financial situation in which you’re no longe...