Entrepreneur Book Review: 4-Hour Work Week

Timothy Ferris' "The 4-Hour Work Week" is one of the rising stars in today's entrepreneurial literature world. But is it worth the hype? Today, this start up blog is going to take an in-depth look into this freedom guide and determine if its contents are of any value to the aspiring entrepreneur. This review is NOT intended to determine the books value overall, but instead through the lens of an entrepreneur looking to start/expand a business venture or use it to achieve some form of a personal goal i.e becoming a millionaire.

Does The 4-Hour Work Week Apply to Entrepreneurs

Well, the short answer here is yes. And I wish I could leave it at that, however, I want to warn some of you about the pitfalls of this book if you have a start-up driven mind. To get started, I have a tendency to read everything. I'm awful at picking items that are unnecessary or not applicable to what I'm trying to get out of the book. Mr.Ferris does little if anything to help me here. I found myself enjoying the thoughts on something I found some value in (Like his strategy for outsourcing) and out of nowhere I'm learning how to ask my boos to let me telecommute. The layout was lacking in terms of separating business ownership advice from employee advice. Hopefully you're better than me at skipping the fluff, but if you read anything like I do your brain is going to be crammed full of unrelated info.

What Does The 4-Hour Work Week Get Right?

Let me start with a disclaimer here. Mr. Ferris' objective was never to help you become a millionaire. What he is attempting to do is allow you to join a class of individuals that he refers to as the "New Rich", which have a boatload of time to explore the world and pursue their passions. It's more lifestyle design than income or business creation. With that being said, his ideas aren't bad. The best aspect of the book I drew out (considering I'm a business owner not an employee) was the fact that outsourcing can be extremely cheap and efficient if you invest the time in finding the correct virtual assistants. If you're looking for a way to free up time and have work that can be outsourced, Mr. Ferris is going to show you how to do that in the most cost effective manner possible. He also gives some tidbits on the correct types of business' to pursue, how to do a little market research, and a lot of info for employees looking to telecommute. All this can be found else where leaving the valuable and unique info limited to essentially outsourcing.

Is The 4-Hour Work Week Worth It?

"Worth it" is going to be a very subjective matter in reference to this book. If you're starting a brand new venture, have no prior experience, and really want the end game to be a low to middle income venture that requires minimal work, then spending the $20.00 and the 3 hours it takes to read it will help you get pointed in the right direction. If you decide to pick i up, great. But I feel your mindset should resemble something more like the one set up by MJ Demarco in The Millionaire Fastlane. Now, if you're already in business, want to streamline some aspect of it in hopes of focusing your time and energy on growth, this book will provide little entrepreneurial benefit. At the end of the day, this book is a fun read and great for the niche Ferris targets, but few readers will likely fall into that category.

On Page SEO Basics

The world of SEO is filled with confusing and non-self-explanatory lingo that can leave any novice in a world of hurt. Our goal at this Start Up Blog is to help break down those confusing terms and help you get more traffic to your website or blog. Below are the basics needed to begin finding success in "on-page" SEO techniques, that is, items that influence the search engines that are completely within your control. That me reemphasize that:

COMPLETELY WITHIN YOUR CONTROL!

That means there is no excuse to get these ones down correctly and allow "off-page" SEO techniques that chance to really boost your traffic. Lets get started:

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On Page SEO Basics Tip 1: URL

Believe it or not, you can begin ranking for a few low traffic keywords simply by getting these three things correctly. It's amazing how many people simply skip over this stuff, and then proceed to smash their heads into their keyboards in frustration when they fail to rank. Make sure your URL is clean, and has your keywords in it. For example "http://www.ourexamplewebsite.com/page1.html" is going to have a hard time outranking "http://www.ourexamplewebsite.com/keywords-for-article.html". Notice the use of hyphens. By placing a hyphen where a space would normally go (if you were typing text instead of a URL that is) the search engine can determine were words begin and end instead of reading it as one giant unpronounceable word.

On Page SEO Basics Tip 2: Title Tag

Once you've got your URL down correctly, proceed to make your title clean and friendly. This is one section that is neglected on a daily basis, and the default title is left doing nothing but killing your chances at organic traffic.Don't believe me? Run a Google search for "'Default Page'" and take a look at the quantity of results. This proves just how neglected the title tag is, and also shows how it can help your SERPs (Hey, those pages are ranking for "default page" aren't they?). Be sure to have something along the lines of title Your keywords/article name here /title

On Page SEO Basics Tip 3: Meta Tags

Once upon a time, meta tags were all the hear and should of on page SEO basics in the SEO universe. You simply stuff the meta description and meta keywords full of whatever you wanted to rank for and BAM. You were there. Search engines caught on and no longer give much (if any) weight to these meta tags, but they do still serve a purpose. When your page pops up on a search engine, the txt below your title is you . Be sure to have this tag in your head. Another similar concept that helps with visitor confidence and indirectly SEO is a favicon. If you don't have one, take a look at our Favicon Help video and make it accurately reflect what your page is all about. This helps pull n traffic that is interested in your content. 

On Page SEO Basics Tip 4: HTML/TEXT Ratio

Have you ever been in the depths of the internet only to stumble onto a page with next to nothing to offer you, but a very nicely designed page? It sucks, and search engines know this! If you want better ranking make sure your page has actual content in addition to its fancy layout. The technical term for determining if your page meets this requirement is your HTML/Text Ratio. To find yours, download an SEO tool bar like SEOQuake (Only for Firefox). Almost all of them have a "Diagnostic" tool that will tell you this ratio. Although the ratio itself isn't all that important, it can help decipher is your page is bloated with code (Like 5% or something similar). This can cause search engines problems and prevent you from reaching your traffic.

On Page SEO Basics Tip 5: Headings

Headings, (h1-h6 tags) are a vital part of markup that allows you to construct a proper page. But, arguably more importantly, headers put emphasis on information that helps search engines decipher what you page is really about. Be sure to use plenty of headings to markup your page correctly, and put keywords into the h1, h2, and even h3 tags. Keep the heading clear and concise and avoid fluff that can be misconstrued and used to show your page for irrelevant keywords. This ensures your page is easy to understand and search engines are indexing your pages with the intent to show them to the correct audience.

On Page SEO Basics Tip 6: Alt Atributes

Alt attributes are used for images to help people with handicaps (both physical and technical) to understand what the images on your page is about since they cannot see them themselves. Placing these is a common courtesy you should take to help ensure the web is accessible to everyone. As an added bonus, by adding an alt attribute to your images, you can get better SERPs. Alt attributes should clearly define the image in as little verbiage as possible. Do not keyword stuff here! Putting unnecessary keywords in your alt attributes is frowned upon and can even hurt your SERPs. Simply having these will do the trick!

On Page SEO Basics Tip 7: Flash

Flash is bad. Trust us on this one. Awhile back, every website and their mother had a flash based landing page. It was all the rage. The only problem was the search engines could read what the flash meant and it caused pages to simply not be ranked. As fun as flash can be, it is an unnecessary waste and creates more problems than it's worth. Avoid it, and your on-page SEO is already one step ahead of any page that does use it. This one is key to on page SEO basics.

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Armed with these 7 tips, you're now ready to begin optimizing the fully controllable aspects of your page in regards to SEO. If you're looking for more, there's quite a few other items that go beyond the scope of this particular article (Microformats, XML Sitemaps, robots.txt, ect) and we'll be sure to get out a more advanced article to take a look at down the road. For now, a good place to follow up is picking up a book on SEO such as SEO Made Simple. If you need help figuring out what keywords to focus on you can alo take a look at our Keyword Tutorial. To keep up to date with Start UP RPM be surte to follow us on Twitter @StartupRPM. Best of luck!

25 Entrepreneurial Quotes

Motivation is one of the most powerful internal drivers toward success. To help the aspiring entrepreneur hone their inner voice into a reinforcing system for their quest to become a millionaire, this start up blog has compiled 25 entrepreneurial quotes. Enjoy!

"The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity."-Peter Drucker

"I've always been an entrepreneur, but it's never been about the money. I like a challenge, the harder the better." -Terry McAuliffe

"Whether you think you can, or you think you can't - you're right." -Henery Ford

"A savvy entrepreneur will not always look for investment money, first" - Daymound John

"Entrepreneurial profit is the expression of the value of what the entrepreneur contributes to production." - Joseph A. Schumpeter

"An entrepreneur assumes the risk and is dedicated and committed to the success of whatever he or she undertakes." -Victor Kiam

"When I finished school, I took my entire life savings - $5,000 - and invested it in a business. I was young. I was inexperienced. But I was an entrepreneur, and I was proud. And in six weeks, I was broke." - Mark Warner

"Stay self-funded as long as possible" - Garrett Camp

"We also get thousands of suggestions. The default answer is always no." - Jason Fried

"You need to be surrounded by good advisors but you also have to trust your instinct" -Chris Hughes

"Timing, perserverance, and ten years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success" -Biz Stone

"If you aren't getting rejected on a daily basis, your goals aren't ambitious enough" -Chris Dixon

"When you innovate, you've got to be prepared for people telling you that you are nuts." -Larry Ellison

"Friends don't always make the best business partners" -Chris Cambell

"The lean startup method is not about cost, it is about speed" -Eric Ries

"An entrepreneur must pitch a potential investor for what the company is worth as well as sell the dream on how much of a profit can be made." -Daymound John

"Always deliver more than expected" -Larry Page

"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follow" -Steve Jobs

"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing" -Walt Disney

“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” -Ralph Emerson

"The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary."-Vidal Sassoon

"Opportunity is missed by most because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."-Thomas Edison

""I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed."-Michael Jordan

"Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up."-Thomas Edison 

"Some people dream of great accomplishments, while others stay awake and do them"-Anonymous

There you have it! Start up RPM's list of 25 Entrepreneurial Quotes. Hope that helped light a fire under you and get you moving towards entrepreneurial success! Have one you think should of been on the list? Leave it below as a comment! Don't forget to follow us on Twitter for more entrepreneurial tips tricks news and reviews! Best of luck!

 

 
 

Millionaire Book Review: $100 Start Up

It's been awhile, but another Start Up RPM Book Review is here! Today we'll be taking a quick glance at Chris Guillebeau's $100 Startup. There's a lot to like here as Chris puts down on paper his 50 best startups that meet 3 seperate criteria:

 1. The Startup must have annual revenue of at least $50,000 a year

 2. The business must have been started for a relatively small amount. (No, every business was not started for $100 or less. Some of the examples has start up costs in the thousands.The majority of them were around $500)

 3. The owners were able to provide some form of financial data/proof.

Chris states that over 1,500 business' were considered to be included in the book, but he ultimately trimmed the fat down to just 50. The $100 Startup does not have any international bias' including business' from all around the globe. These ventures have an extremely diverse range in function ranging from a couple that prints maps to a guy that sells excel advice.

What does the $100 Startup bring to the table?

The book does a great job delivering on the "feel-good" mentality that Chris seemed to be going for. If you want a motivational push, reading about people that feel ass backwards into a successful entrepreneurial venture can often do the trick! These 50 different stories all seem to have extremely humble orgins and can help you eliminate the unproductive internal rhetoric holding you back. Suddenly, "I didn't attend an Ivy League school..." and "I don't have $10,000 sitting around..." becomes less of an obstacle.

The $100 Startup also laces its pages with some relatively good business advice. He goes in depth on some pricing techniques that after reviewing, seem reasonable and supportable. His calls to action are great, which technically ties in with the "feel-good" aspect, but there is no better advice a wantrepreneur can hear than "GET GOING!". Finally he dicusses how to avoid over analyzinf the intricies of starting up, and encourages entrepreneurs to focus on the bottom line. Profit.

What Will I Feel the $100 Startup left out?

As fun of a read as the book was, there's just to much feel good! If you know nothing about entrepreneurship, business, or making money in general than this may be a great entry point, but the "fluff" to valuable content ratio felt way off. I, for one, don't feel like I gained any extremely novel and valuable information that I can apply to my ventures. The book is a great motivator in the sense it helps you see what can be (The end), but it doesn't give you the definitive steps that these 50 startups took to get there (the means).

The second concern unearthed by the end of this book was the type of business' the author choose to use in persuading his readers to startup. He primarily focus on one or two man operations with smaller revenue streams than  a household cold pull in a 9 to 5. Where's the multimillion dollar company that started with $100 in the bank? That's the story I wanted. $50,000 a year in revenue, after expenses and taxes, is realistically like $20,000 or less. No one will become a millionaire at that rate.

Overall, the book is worth reading if you need to relax, find motivation, or just want to kill time on an airplane. If you're ready to dig deep and really push forward on your business venture, give this one a pass. Not to take anything away from Chris Guillebeau (I hear he's a great guy) but this is a read for those that want to be entertained or motivated, not to learn and grow. Best of luck!

Time Doctor Review

In our earlier article, Productive Entrepreneur Tips , we touched upon a few different ways you can get the most bang for you minute. But we failed to address one key adversary in the war against time-killers. That dreaded foe? The Internet. Ah yes, the tool that has birthed more millionaire in the last 2 decades than all of history combined, is also the single largest source of time wasters . Social media, sports updates, news, cats, you name it. It's all there ready to consume your most valuable asset: Time. Luckily, there is an alternative to letting the internet turn you into a mindless time wasting zombie. That alternative, is Time Doctor

What Can Time Doctor Do For Me?

Can it get any easier?

Excellent question. The service is designed to help create a productive working environment when in front of a PC. As simple as that. A user can click on a "Go" button and a "Break" button that sets off a timer letting you know how long you're worked on a certain task. It then logs that information in a personalized database for you to review and determine how your time was spent. But the service doesn't stop there. It tracks how long you used certain types of applications (i.e. email, text-editor, photo editing software, etc.) as well as your time spent on certain sites (we're looking at you Facebook). Based on the information it receives, it recommends way you can trim the fat on your working session and become a lean mean time efficient machine.

What Can Time Doctor Do For My Business?

Although the application is great for solo workers, its primary focus is filling if as a full fledged time tracking system for employers. The service allows an owner to add employees under his/her plan and monitor where there time was spent while working. You get a clean interface that clearly demonstrates who is currently doing what, what they've done previously, and where they may have strayed away from actual work for a minute. In addition to this, you can opt to take screen shots of yourself or employees at selected intervals. This helps reassure that the service is reporting accurate data, and that the employee hasn't found a way to cheat the system.

Ok, great. But How Do I Know It's Safe?

Having initially had some major concerns here as well, I took it upon my self to guarantee I wasn't throwing away my personal information to some cyber black market. Luckily, I found the security behind Time Doctor to be extraordinary. In addition to encrypting all transferred information, the information is stored through Amazon servers which gets a giant green check-mark in terms of customer safety. Features like screen shots are completely optional, and an employee can be given the right to delete screenshots if they feel something done on their PC should not be shared with the company. All in all, this start up blog feels safe using the system after extensive research, and so should you!

The service is incredible, efficient, and effective, so you'd probably expect to pay a hefty start up cost and a substantial subscription fee for its usage. Incredibly, the service is a mere $5 a month for individuals with no start up costs, and business solutions clock in at an even better value. They provide a free trial, and the software is extremely light. If you want to tackle the "internet addiction" that is holding so many of our potentials back, the be sure to take a whirl with Time Doctor. Best of luck!

How to be a Hustler

You want to make the sale? Do anything you can to pull in some money? This Start up blog is going to take you step by step through how to be a hustler. There's no quicker way in the entrepreneurial world to become a millionaire than by adopting the antics of a bona fide hustler. At it's core, a hustler is the ultimate sales person. They've got a deep arsenal of sales tactics that can turn even the biggest skeptic of your product into a believer. Although the turn can carry some less than positive connotations, this guide is here to show you how to master the art of hustling not the industry. So without further ado, you're crash course on how to be a hustler:

How to be a Hustler Step 1: Know your product.

Consumers are tough. Lets be honest. The tough sales are gonna have curve-balls flying at you asking you to hit a home run in a park with a 2 mile radius. If you're packing a 16 inch plastic bat, you're done. What you need is a steel infused Louisville slugger with about $10,000 worth of steroids pumped into you. Just substitute the curve-balls for crazy questions and the bat and steroids for product knowledge and confidence and you're well on your way.  A skeptical customer is going to try and knock you off your feet, but if you know your product front and back and place up most confidence in its ability to provide, you're well on your way. To often the would-be "hustler" can't be quick on his/her feet and demonstrate the knowledge it takes to win over those fiery anti-customers from hell. Research your product religiously, anticipate the hard-line Q&A sessions, and believe that what you're offering will solve a need and you'll be the convincing sales person everyone wishes was on their team.

How to be a Hustler Step 2: Don't take "no" for an answer

Now I'm not trying to be cliche here, but persistence is often considered the attribute that seperates the "wantrepreneur" from the successful "entrepreneurs". "No", "No thank you", "I'm not interested", even the mild mannered "I'm busy right now" are all unacceptable answers to a true hustler. You're there for one thing, and one thing only. Make the sale. One key thing to notice is the headline doesn't say "only accept 'yes' for an answer". Even I'll admit, that would be ridiculous. The difference is to make a connection if the sale isn't an option. Offer a business card, set up a future meeting, ask them if you can bring them product 2.0 in a few months with the improvements you know they want to see. Heck, just a confirmed "I'll call you if I'm interested", if a vast improvement over "no". Leave that sales pitch with something of value and you'll find that some of those temporary "no's" turn into some of your most long standing "yes'".

How to be a Hustler Step 3: Keep your door open.

One of the best hustlers I've ever met taught me a very  valuable lesson early on in my entrepreneurial endeavors. "There's always room for a compromise." I was very hard-nosed in my prices and refused to negotiate, costing me a large percentage of my potential sales. Years later after taking this advice to heart, I modified my pricing scheme. Instead of charging $50.00 for my product, I charged $60.00. When someone refused, I gave them a "special offer" because I liked them. You guessed it, $50.00. The technique worked flawlessly, I instantly saw huge returns on my new pricing scheme. The customers that would of bought hands down at $50.00 now paid 20% more and the customers that were on the edge at $50.00 originally were now gifted an incredible 16% discount. Hustling at it's finest.

With these new tools, anyone can begin to reset their mindset to that of a hustler. Apply these at your 9-5 to impress the boss or as an entrepreneur to inject some life blood into your company (sales of course). Thanks for reading and we hope your learning on how to be a hustler lead you to become a millionaire. Leave a comment with your advice and follow us on Twitter to keep up with the latest entrepreneurial info!

Shark Tank Review

Kevin O'Leary?

This start up blog is bringing you our Shark Tank Review and is going to give you an in depth look at ABC's exciting venture capital reality show which is entering its fourth season. The show features five multi-millionaires or billionaires entertaining investment offers from entrepreneurs looking to grow or build their business. The cast is currently made up of Mark Cuban, Robert Herjavec, Barbara Corcoran, Kevin O'Leary, Damond John and Lori Greiner who are all very successful in their own right and can bring a lot to the table for these wantrepreneurs.If a pitch is received well, the business owner is given a chance to hop on the fast track to become a millionaire, however, if they fail to deliver they will be dismissed without an investment offer (although they probably will get one down the road with all that free publicity).

Now, the show is interesting, original, and in some cases very informative, but is it accurate to the real world of venture capital? The resounding answer from ANYONE who has even sniffed a venture capitalist firm or a successful start up is a resounding no. Lets start with the valuation. Our Shark Tank Review may seem a little harsh, but where is this show finding these idiots? Who would value their company not on industry multipliers, no on revenue, but on last years net profit! I can't believe what a steal these investors are getting. I want to find a reason to be mad at the "sharks", but their valuation system is just gobbled up by these nincompoops salivating all over themselves at an offer of $50,000 for a 51% stake in their company that turned $10,000 of revenue into $100,000 in the last year (an actual accepted offer by the way). I can't wait to see how many of these companies are bought, hit a sales peak in 12 months, and are broken up by the new majority owners.

The occasional competitive or cooperative environment that will occasionally take place between the Sharks when a high value pitch is made is also an exhilarating aspect to the show. This Start Up Blog realizes that this aspect is probably good for a reality show, but I can't help but think about what a real entrepreneur would do if he was invited to meet with a venture capitalist and that scenario erupted. This unfortunate fact is that must venture capitalist are completely unified from the start and make one offer on a much more formal scale (Although, if I ever have enough capital to invest I might just have to bring the "Shark Tank" model into the real venture capitalist world).

Despite the negative connotations of this shark tank review, the show is AWESOME . They really are investing in these companies and entertaining America while they do it. It's giving a lot of entrepreneurs that would never have a shot the ability to establish some free air time on a major network. What an exciting way to reach new customers. And, at the end of the day, having Mark Cuban on your side might be worth a little undervaluation of your business. I wounder how hard one of his partners would have to work to bundle Dirk bobble heads with their product. Instant winning combination, and a sure fire way to become a millionaire. Regardless, check out the show if you've get some free time as it is a pretty cool way to here about some unique ideas lighting up the entrepreneurial world.