The $100 Startup

When I quit my lucrative but exhausting job as a full time OB/GYN, I wasn’t fully aware of the fact that I was about to become a somewhat reluctant entrepreneur. I didn’t have a business plan or even an idea of how my leap of faith would turn into revenue. I just knew I couldn’t do what I was doing one more day. The pain of staying put finally exceeded my fear of the unknown – so I jumped.

Because my hubby Matt is a stay-home Dad who works his ass off but doesn’t get paid, the responsibility for paying the rent falls to me, which was fine when I was making a six-figure income as a doctor, but left us hurting financially after I left my practice. For the first two years, I paid the bills between generating revenue as a professional artist and living off my retirement account (don’t try this at home!) Then I wrote a book that never sold, started a blog I didn’t try to monetize, opened – and then closed – an integrative medicine practice, and published two books that didn’t even come close to paying the bills.

Is Your Business Making Money?

In January 2011, I heard Marie Forleo say “If your business isn’t making money, it’s a hobby, not a business,” and I thought, “Oh shit. What am I doing?”

Lucky for me, this is when my friend Chris Guillebeau invited me to call him so we could strategize Lissa 2.0, which is what I spent the next month doing, with his guidance and the advice of a few other friends who lovingly but firmly kicked my ass (special thanks to Danielle LaPorte, Mama Gena, and Dana Theus).

In one year, I transformed my business from one that cost me $5,000/month to run but generated zero revenue, to a business that brought in more revenue in 2011 than my doctor job once did. Phew.

Don’t Do What I Did

Suffice it to say that the way I fumbled into the life of an entrepreneur who works from home (or Lake Tahoe or New York or pretty much anywhere with internet access) isn’t the best way to start a business. But what did I know? I was a doctor/ artist/ writer with no business experience. And although my hubby has an MBA from Dartmouth, he swears they teach you how to get a six-figure job in a soul-sucking consulting firm but never actually teach you to run a small business.

My business mistakes cost me a small fortune and all of my retirement account, but you don’t have to make the same mistakes I did. You also don’t have to pay big bucks to hire some business consultant to strategize how to transform doing what you love into a business.

The $100 Startup

Instead, you can just buy Chris Guillebeau’s latest book, The $100 Startup, which maps out how you can discover where your passion converges with what others care about, work from anywhere, live a life of meaning and purpose, launch a business with little cash output, and make a killer living doing what you love. (Um…who doesn’t want that?)

Chris has a dream – to visit every country in the world by the time he turns 35. He’s now less than a year away from his April 7, 2013 birthday deadline, with only eight countries to go, so you can be sure he’ll succeed in realizing his dream. But Chris does more than travel. As you can follow on his wildly popular and fabulous blog and see demonstrated from his business of selling Unconventional Guides, books, and tickets to his sold-out World Domination Summit, Chris practices what he preaches.

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Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Deborah D.

7:23PM PDT on May 3, 2012

I will request it from my library first, to see if it helps inspire my career 2.0

I do feel a bit like I just read an infomercial

May 3
send a green star

Laura H.

2:28PM PDT on May 1, 2012

So...another example of not paying for sex or for advertising? Yawn

May 1
send a green star

Celeste Y.

12:02PM PDT on May 1, 2012

Thank you Dr. Lissa, I think it is great to share something that has worked for you so beautifully and helped you to work for the greater good. I As a fellow Care2 blogger (my blog is entitled Celestial Musings and you can see we have much in common in our interests in the alternative health care model here: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/author/celestey)
I respect the spirit in which you have presented this opportunity to over 19,000,000 Care2 members and shared it’s potential value to everyone, if we just get out of own own way and see how we too might profit, as you have by exploring this small investment further. I welcome your full disclosure and am very happy to see you profit by sharing this. I will take a close look at it and contact you privately.
All my best, Naturally
Celeste Yarnall, Ph.D

Kelly B.

9:42AM PDT on May 1, 2012

huh. an infomercial that offers absolutely no information. sweet. thanks.

oh... do what you love and get paid wads of cash to do it? why didn't i think of that? :rolleyes:

Bruce K.

8:32AM PDT on May 1, 2012

Did you have to pay care2 for the ad time

Christine C.

5:36AM PDT on May 1, 2012

Thanks

Chi W.

12:13PM PDT on Apr 30, 2012

I'm saving my money to start The Phoenix Hydrogen Co-op. I well need to save $30,000 so far I have $4,200 and I have 103 fortnights to my business launch. Saving my money for my own business is half the fun
http://www.earthcyclist.org/english/solar.php