The $100 MBA Show

You’re making sales. You’ve got solid revenue. Now, it’s time to reinvest in your business. But what’s the best way to do so? Where can you spend your money so that it will have the greatest impact? Today, we discuss the best ways to invest in your company’s growth. We share the 3 best uses of your reinvestment budget, however big or small. These 3 investments have tangible, undeniable benefits, t...

With so many professional development opportunities available to entrepreneurs, it can be tempting to overspend on courses and coaching programs. So how do you know what’s worth your time and money? Especially when the price tag is big (like, four figures big), how can you be sure it won’t mean money down the drain? It’s Q&A Wednesday, and one listener is considering dropping 10 hard-earned G’s on...

In modern business, teaching is everything. Marketing, sales, and team management are all about your ability to educate both consumers and employees. Savvy digital-era customers don’t want a sales pitch, they want to be empowered. They want to know how and why products work, not just that they work. They don’t want to be told; they want to be shown. By infusing your business leadership with educat...

Your business is only as good as your team. So how can you keep your team at the top of their game? Jakob Heuser is an engineer and instructor who’s built successful teams at companies like LinkedIn and Pinterest. HIs human-centered approach to professional development starts with the learner and makes instruction more relevant and efficient. Today, he’s here to share 3 strategies any business own...

Business software: from CRM to CMS to accounting and more, running an agile, lean business requires some digital products. But after a while, those products can start to pile up. Next thing you know, you’ve got dozens of accounts, usernames and passwords you’ve long forgotten, and (worst of all) money pouring down the drain as you pay for products you don’t really use. It’s happened to all of us:...

An entrepreneur has to be a planner. We plan everything about our business, from our budgets to our marketing strategy to our launch. So why on Earth don’t we plan the one thing our whole business depends on? We don’t we plan the product? Product documentation is a crucial step that too many entrepreneurs skip. Articulating and writing down everything, from the purpose of the product to the design...

Are two heads better than one? In a lot of ways, we like to think so. It’s Q&A Wednesday, and one listener wants to know what advantages co-founders have over solo entrepreneurs. Our host Omar has run businesses without a partner in crime, so he knows what makes the extra support (and extra challenge) of a partner so valuable. Long story short: it’s not a requirement, but it definitely has its ups...

Sit down for this one: your “likes” don’t matter. One of the easiest traps for entrepreneurs to fall into is chasing meaningless forms of validation. It doesn’t matter how many followers you have, or how “big” your business is. What matters is whether you’re making progress towards your overarching goals. Unfortunately, distractions are around every corner. Real progress isn’t measured in hearts,...

Business, like life, has patterns. But just as those patterns can help you understand what’s likely, they can blind you to what’s possible. That might sound like a deep statement, maybe even a little philosophical for a business podcast. But this week’s Must-Read book, The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, is all about thinking deeper than ever before. And by peering into the true nature of thi...

What’s taking so long? If your customers are asking themselves this question, your business has a problem. Customer support is all about speed, especially for certain kinds of software products. Without fast, reliable support, your customers may not choose to remain customers for long. Instead, they’ll become part of your churn — the rate at which you lose existing business. Don’t let that happen....

“The money is in the list.” If you’ve done online marketing anytime in the current century, you’ve heard this maxim. And we can tell you from experience: it’s true. Your email contact list is the heart and soul of your marketing efforts. The bigger and more targeted your list, the more chances you have to convert. A well-constructed email list is everything to an online business, so it’s crucial t...

Does it take really take two to make a dream come true? Every podcast is different. But there’s no denying that sometimes, the dynamic between podcast co-hosts is the reason we keep listening. But is it necessary? Would your podcast do better if you brought in another voice? It depends. While two hosts don’t always make a podcast twice as good, certain shows could use a little host-to-host banter....

Everyone has to start somewhere. If you’ve never built a business before, can you really pull it off? Spoiler alert: the answer is yes. However, your odds of success will depend on your willingness to face certain hard truths, do some hard work, and otherwise face down some difficulty. That doesn’t mean it has to be endlessly stressful — it just means you have to know what you’re getting into. Tod...

Will it work? Every entrepreneur has to ask this question. Idea validation is the first step to founding a successful business, so it’s crucial to figure out whether your next product has real potential. Jeet Banerjee is a serial entrepreneur who’s built and sold multiple businesses, consulted for several more, and made his mark as an author and TEDx speaker. Today, he’s here to show us exactly ho...

Do you have the best employees? How do you know? Evaluating team members can be tricky business. Depending on the size of your team and the scope of their work, it can be difficult to know who’s doing what, and who’s doing it well. For our business, we have a special system created by our co-founder Nicole — one that you can use, too. Our system helps you gather the most relevant, useful informati...

Customer support via phone: has it gone the way of the landline? These days, calling up and speaking to a live support agent may not only be unnecessary, it may be detrimental to the quality of your customer service. With live chat and email available, a phone call isn’t always the most efficient. That said, we all know the feeling of “just wanting to talk to someone” when we’re having trouble wit...

We love podcasting. But we didn’t get into it just for kicks. The $100 MBA show has a purpose: to build an audience, and demonstrate our credibility to those who may eventually choose to do business with us. It’s our way of offering something to people as a way to start a conversation and build relationships. It’s fun, but above all, our podcast is a marketing tool. For Q&A Wednesday, one listener...

Ready to take the leap? Listen to this first. Leaving your 9-to-5 might be the biggest, most game-changing moment of an entrepreneur’s life. This is the moment in which you invest yourself fully into your independent goals, leaving the conventional life behind. It takes guts. It takes heart. But above all, it takes planning. Quitting your job should not be an impulse move. Today, we discuss how to...

We all remember Breaking Bad as the tale of a plucky (if desperate) “entrepreneur” of sorts. But the story of Walter White is just one chapter in an even more incredible rise to the top: the story of actor Bryan Cranston. Before he became The One Who Knocks, Cranston had to make a career decision to which many of us can relate: whether to take the safe, predictable route, or take a chance on his o...

Affiliate marketing can go either way. Done right, it can be a revenue-boosting, word-spreading win that moves your business forward. Done wrong, it can be a total scam. Today, we discuss what can go badly with affiliate marketing. Trust us; we’ve learned the hard way. There are a few all-too-common pitfalls, mistakes people unknowingly make that turn a good thing into a nightmare. We’ll show you...

Find your niche. That’s the motto of every smart entrepreneur, as we look to carve out our unique place in the market. Building a successful business involves a careful balancing act. On one hand, you have to be original; your product or service has to offer something that nothing else out there offers. But while you don’t want to reinvent the wheel, you also don’t want to alienate people with som...

Do you know where your money is? Accounting can be a little intimidating for those of us who aren’t mathematically inclined, or aren’t exactly experts in the latest tax and regulatory issues. It’s Q&A Wednesday, and one listener wants to know how we keep an eye on our funds, and what kind of resources we put into it. Spoiler alert: we have an accountant. Today, we discuss why we have an accountant...

There’s a difference between busy and burnt out. We get it: motivated, driven entrepreneurs aren’t scared of a little hard work. We want to tackle everything ourselves, because we’ve chosen independence as a way of life. But working for yourself doesn’t mean going it alone. If you try to do it all as your business grows, eventually you’re going to drop a ball or two. Today, we discuss how to know...

It takes some practice before you’re good at getting rejected. The more it happens, the better you are, the more easily it rolls of your shoulders. No, this is not one of those “fail up” lessons, where we tell how you should treasure every bad moment. We know rejection is painful, we know it’s frustrating, and we certainly don’t suggest you seek rejection as a way to grow as an entrepreneur. We si...

You’ve marketed. You’ve built your audience. You’ve grown your contact list. Now it’s time to sell. In Part I of our sales + marketing tutorial, we took you through the process of driving traffic to your website, capturing leads, and setting yourself up to move some product. Today, we discuss exactly how to convert those leads into sales, finally seeing bottom-line results. It’s all been leading u...