The $100 MBA Show

You and your team: are you in it together? Recently, we made a significant decision. We decided to share our biggest, longest-term, most ambitious goals with our entire team — every single employee. While we used to reserve our Grand Plans for ourselves and a few managers, we decided it was time to put our cards on the table. Why did we do that? Should you? Today, we discuss the reasons for sharin...

Prepare for launch! Actually, scratch that. We need to start even further ahead, with a pre-launch strategy. It’s Q&A Wednesday, and one listener is wondering how to maximize their launch by marketing well in advance. This doesn’t just apply to the debut of your whole business; product launches, updates, and other milestones all require the same planning to get maximum results. A launch is an oppo...

Is hustling effective? Does more work mean more results? Maybe not. Today, we’re discussing the math on work hours. While it might seem logical to assume that more work = more success, that approach forgets a key principle of productivity: working smart, not just hard. Which brings us to the “standard” work week of 40 hours. Is independent success really possible within that limit? Do entrepreneur...

Sometimes, abandoning logic is the most logical decision. That’s the (somewhat controversial) premise of this week’s Must-Read book, Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss . While it’s tempting to think that fact-based, rational reasons are the most persuasive, the reality of business says otherwise.  In other words, appeals to emotion are more effective than appeals to reason. In business, this...

What kind of growth can you get for $300? The answer might surprise you, but only if you’re willing to experiment.  If your marketing budget isn’t exactly…flush, but you need a nice boost, it’s time to think outside that proverbial box. This is the beauty of entrepreneurship: how a little creativity can give you exactly the spike you need. And boy, do we have some bang for your marketing buck. The...

This is your year…unless it isn’t. We all hit January wide-eyed and full of big plans. But why do some entrepreneurs hit the goals they set, while others don’t? Why do some businesses actually make the progress their founders envision, while the rest of us keep dreaming?  What’s stopping us? Today, we’re discussing a few things that get entrepreneurs off track. Year after year, a few common pitfal...

Your co-founder wants in. You need them out. This is awkward. It’s Q&A Wednesday, and we’ve got a doozy. One listener co-founded a business a while back, but the co-founder in question took a back seat — only just maintaining their involvement while they pursued other things. Now, said co-founder wants to commit full-time to the business, and expects a full-time salary. The problem? The company ca...

To rebrand or not to rebrand? That is the question. Today, anyway. If you feel like you chose the wrong name for your business, or something about your business name is holding you back, it might be time to rechristen. But you can’t do so without considering the costs — and not just in terms of dollars and cents. Sometimes, it can be better to keep a…less-than-ideal name, especially if you’ve alre...

Skills don’t matter, without the right mindset. There’s a ton of advice out there about what to do if you want to start and run a business. But there’s not enough about how to be , mentally and emotionally. If your frame of mind isn’t optimized, it doesn’t matter how great your product idea, marketing strategy, or SEO is.  Call it woo-woo if you will-will. But there’s no substitute for an entrepre...

SaaStock rocked — and we brought back some lessons for you. This annual convention for SaaS (Software as a Service) businesses is a magnet for startups, freelancers, thought leaders, and entrepreneurs from around the globe. This year, our intrepid host Omar was invited to speak at the Sydney version of this multi-city international get-together.  The “Disneyland for SaaS professionals” did not dis...

SWOTing: it’s not something you do to flies. It’s a simple but powerful exercise anyone can use to refocus their business and plan for whatever comes next. A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis lets you look around the bend to the future of your business. It’s an easy way to assess exactly what your business has going for it, what it lacks, and how you can improve.  In ot...

Business draining you? Feeling exhausted? You’re not alone. But you have to fix it. It’s Q&A Wednesday, and one listener is simply out of gas. The freedom of entrepreneurship has a cost, and that cost is a workload and mental burden that few of the conventionally employed ever experience. How can we cope? How can we maintain our energy? We’ve been there. Our intrepid host Omar knows what it means...

You’re missing a huge marketing opportunity. That’s the case for most entrepreneurs with a business website, at least. Statistically, the “About” page is one of the most visited pages on a given website — second or third behind the home page, usually. And yet…so few people take advantage of this. “About” pages are almost never optimized for marketing. And that’s a gosh-darn tragedy. So often, we t...

What is company culture, why does it matter, and how can you build it? The answers to that and more come from one of Omar’s favorite business books ever: What You Do Is Who You Are by Ben Horowitz. Horowitz is a venture capital legend whose wisdom and experience is grounded in a street-level, practical approach.  But for all the actionable nuts and bolts, this book puts it all in a big huge-pictur...

Online courses: more popular than ever. A great source of revenue. A perfect way to monetize your expertise or passion. And yet… So many courses bomb. For every course that thrills its students and grows the business, there’s a ton that go nowhere. Our intrepid host Omar has created many, many courses over the years, and there’s a reason his usually succeed. It’s because of his background in educa...

2020 starts now. I know the ball hasn’t dropped yet, but if you want certain things to happen next year, it’s already time to take the first step. It’s time to plan out your entire year, right now, today. All of it. The best part? It won’t even take that long. For an hour or two of your time, you can reduce stress all (next) year long. There’s nothing like going into the year completely confident...

It’s that time of year. We don’t all celebrate the same way — or at all — but “the holidays” are a reality of business. Crucially, the holidays mean that your team will have personal and family obligations. Part of your job as a leader is to balance the needs of your business with the needs of your employees. You may even think about closing up shop temporarily. But should you? It’s Q&A Wednesday,...

Ever seen a win that — at first — looks like a fail? Elon Musk is the king of confounding expectations. When he unveiled Tesla’s take on the good ol’ ‘Merican truck, he did what he does best: surprised everyone, for better or worse. Even a demonstration of the Cybertuck’s, em… impact-resistant windows famously didn’t go according to script. And that’s perfectly on-brand for the guy who wants to co...

What’s your business worth? Even if you’re nowhere near selling your business, it’s important to know. And thanks to today’s special guest teacher, it doesn’t take long to find out. Ashley Micciche is the CEO of True North, a retirement advising firm. This means she takes the long view — helping business owners keep their eye on the endgame. Like any long-term goal, selling your business isn’t som...

Let’s start here: a retreat is not a frivolous expense. For teams of all sizes, a retreat can have an incredible, valuable effect on motivation, cohesion, and productivity. It’s the definition of the term “investment:” something you spend money on because it will be worth it in the long run.  But you don’t have to spend too much. Today, we’ll discuss how you can put together a retreat on the most...

There’s apps — and then there’s Chrome extensions. It’s a fantastic, emerging niche-among-niches. As Chrome becomes an ever more popular browser, the need for the Chromified version of this or that software become ever more important. Halfway between a cloud-based solution and a full-on app, Chrome extensions meet a need that’s more needed every day.  It’s Google’s world. We’re just living in it....

The first sign that you’re really serious about moving your business forward? You’re ready to hire a coach. A successful entrepreneur is two things: brave enough to try on their own, and smart enough to know their limits. The ones who make it know when to get help, when to invest in the experience and skills of others rather than trying to do everything themselves.  Whether it’s an employee or a c...

Yes, we all want our startups to be lean. Profit first, we always say. But like any fundamental truth, there’s an equal and opposite consideration you should never forget: You get what you pay for. Today, we’re discussing a few things you should never seek the lowest price on. Like a great pair of boots or the roof over your head, some necessities are better invested in for the long term, rather t...

The 90’s gave us a few classics: Nevermind, Clueless, flannel in general. But for entrepreneurs, one classic work defined a new approach to business and echoed into the next century — even as the Internet changed everything. That classic was Jim Collins’ Built to Last. This genre-defining tome was a deep, extended study of 18 companies (think Sony, Amex, etc.) that absolutely murdered it in their...

You’ve made the hires. You’ve got a great team ready to rock. So why are you still overworked? One of the trickier aspects of leading a growing business is handing off responsibility to new team members. For some of us, it’s hard because we don’t want to surrender control. But sometimes, we’re so eager to get things off our plate that we hand things off without making sure our new hire can take th...