The $100 MBA Show

Which Spice Girl are you? Which Skittles color matches your personality?  Take our quiz and find out! Many, many companies and websites use quizzes to capture email addresses. But for all their silliness, is there a serious lead generation strategy here? We’ve been researching this method in-depth recently, and we thought we’d share our findings.  Today, we discuss how quizzes work, how well they...

Nobody likes a huckster. There’s an unfortunate trend in the online course business: hype-heavy “personalities” trying to seduce their audience with flair instead of substance. In this week’s Q&A, one listener wants to know how to sell a course on its merits, with a marketing strategy that’s more genuine, more serious, and more respectable. We agree with our listener. If you want to project value,...

All things come to an end, including employment. When the inevitable parting of ways occurs, you shouldn’t just wing it.  For the sake of your team, you need a plan. Today, we discuss what procedures your business should have in place when someone moves on, retires, or has to be let go. Intentionally managing the effects of a departure on your team is smart business, and reinforces the kind of tho...

Every entrepreneur tries to validate their product idea before they try to sell it. But what about validating your potential business model? Today’s special guest teacher, Justin Lokitz, believes that business model validation is just as important as product idea validation. And just as the idea validation process can reveal tweaks or alternatives that improve your initial idea, your business plan...

If there’s one quality every entrepreneur needs, it’s decisiveness. Going into business for yourself is a bold decision, the first of many. As an entrepreneur, you’ll have so many important decisions to make — and you don’t have time to mull them over for too long. For every huge call you have to make, there’s another one coming just around the corner, so confidence is key. With the stakes high, d...

Sales is changing. As business models evolve, and lean startups do more with fewer people, is the dedicated sales team a thing of the past? It depends. Today, we discuss when businesses need a full-time sales team, regardless of the product. In some cases, the ROI simply isn’t there. In others, it’s well worth the investment. We’ll help you decide whether your business would thrive best in a tradi...

Mastermind groups are all the rage, but are they worth the (sometimes hefty) price tags? This week’s Q&A comes from a listener who has an opportunity to attend a pretty exclusive Mastermind, at a pretty substantial cost. At $5,000, it’s worth taking a moment to make sure it’s a good investment.  Fortunately, our intrepid host Omar has participated in enough Masterminds to develop a way to gauge th...

Is your business leaking? We’re gonna say it: Customer retention is just as important as customer acquisition. If you’ve got a churn problem, the time, money, and effort you put into attracting and converting is being wasted.  Let’s put a stop to that, now! Whether you run a subscription or service-based business that depends on monthly revenue, or you just want to keep your customers coming back,...

Your product might be the most important employee. There’s a new approach to product development and marketing. Rather than focus on features, or even benefits, this new outlook takes it a step further. Your product has a job. The customer is the employer. Your success will depend on what kind of “employee” your product is. If it sounds outside the box, it is. The approach is all laid out in a dee...

At this point in the content marketing game, video isn’t an option: it’s a requirement. Video content works to help you build an audience. As we like to point out, YouTube is technically the world’s second-largest search engine after Google. But we also know how difficult, intimidating, and time-consuming video production can be. We’ve struggled with equipment, software, and all the rest. So we de...

For entrepreneurs, time is the single most valuable resource. So how can you get more of it? Executive assistants are not just for Fortune 500 CEOs. Any time you can get work off your plate, it’s an opportunity to spend more time doing more important things. To hire an assistant is to buy time — and that’s always a fantastic investment. Today, we’ll explain how to go about finding the right assist...

Go it alone, or get some help? Every entrepreneur has to ask this question, and the answer isn’t always obvious. It’s Q&A Wednesday, and one listener is weighing the ups and downs of full independence. When you “bootstrap” your business (as we did), you have total freedom, and total control. No investors, no loans, nada. You answer to no one, and can take your business in any direction you wish. ...

If a question seems scary, it’s probably worth asking. So be honest — are you really happy? This deep, fundamental question is a must-ask every so often. When you first get into independent business, the initial excitement is great. But that early buzz fades, and as the long-term reality of entrepreneurship sets in, you have to self-examine. The good news? If the answer is no, you can fix it. Mayb...

Your team won’t improve on its own. That’s the task of leadership: to get the best from your team by helping them grow. Sarah Wirth is a professional development expert with extensive coaching and corporate experience. Today, she’s here to show us how to deliver the kind of feedback that gets results — but doesn’t alienate your employees. It takes some skill to be supportive and critical at the sa...

When you’re starting a business, there’s a big, fundamental question you have to ask before you do anything else: build the audience first, or the product? There are advantages to both options. In fact, we’ve built businesses both ways, and seen all the ways each approach can go right and wrong. In the end, we learned that it all depends on the kind of business and the circumstances in which you’r...

Considering a team retreat? We just got back from our first, and we learned a ton. We took the whole team to Bali, Indonesia for some work, play, and all-around bonding. From all over the globe, our remote employees flew in and met face-to-face for the first time ever. Organizing the trip was no small feat, but it was worth every minute of planning and every company dime we spent. Today, we discus...

Webinars work! When it comes to connecting with an audience, converting them into customers, and keeping them around, you can’t beat the personal touch of a webinar. But if you’re new to the webinar game, should you jump right into live webinars? Or is it safer and smarter to use the pre-recorded version at first? It’s Q&A Wednesday, and one listener wonders if automated webinars are better for a...

Are you missing out on millions of potential customers because you don’t speak their language? Whether you sell books, courses, or even services, translating your content could open doors. But the time and effort required might not make sense, depending on the business. Today, we discuss when investing in translation can net serious returns. It’s a big world out there, and you may be able to serve...

What if your product could do the sales and marketing for you? That’s the premise of this week’s Must-Read book for entrepreneurs, Product-Led Growth by Wes Bush. It ranks pretty high on our all-time list of great business books, because it explains a breakthrough marketing strategy in a way that’s highly readable, fun, and immediately applicable. As captivating as a good novel, this absolute must...

The toughest part of being a leader? Leading. It’s one thing to have a vision, and the ability to pay people to carry out tasks. Anyone can do that. But truly building a motivated team that can sustain a business long-term takes something more. It takes genuine, emotional buy-in from the employees. So how do you make that happen? Today, we explain how your job as a leader is to make every person f...

As we like to preach, exchanging time for money is just about the worst deal in business. No other kind of entrepreneur understands that better than the celebrity chef. From Ramsay to Oliver to Ray, these entrepreneurs used their talent to generate passive income, rather than just punching the clock in a restaurant forever. They stopped selling their time, and started selling their knowledge, expe...

Hate public speaking? You’re not the only one. It’s Q&A Wednesday, and we’re helping one listener who’s got a perfect opportunity to raise brand awareness, gain credibility, and get that all-important exposure. Thing is, it means talking in front of people. For many of us, there’s nothing more intimidating. Is there any way out of it that doesn’t hurt the business? Public speaking is neither natur...

The key to sustainable small business: minimum profitability. The $5k per month mark is a crucial one, known as the “escape velocity” at which revenue generation is strong enough to actually, truly sustain a company. If your business can make it to $5k quickly, you’ll know for sure whether it’s a winner, or if it’s time to pull the plug and move on. The faster you get there, the sooner you’ll reac...

Social media marketing: we all have a vague idea that it can work. But without a good strategy, it can be a massive waste of time and resources. Today, we’ve got a guest teacher who can help. Nancy Gathecha is a Germany-based consultant and author who knows how to get the most out of social media, without investing too much. She’s here to share 5 simple practices that’ll help you get results witho...

If you’re not on YouTube, you’re not marketing. YouTube is the second biggest search engine in the world, after Google. And just as every entrepreneur seeks to climb the ranks of the Big G, you should be putting content onto humanity’s favorite video platform. The only problem: there’s a ton of people doing exactly that. Today, we discuss how to stand out, find your niche, and claim your own corne...