Table Of Contents

Preface .................................................................... 8
Who Is This Book Intended For? ................................ 12
Goals of the Book ....................................................... 14
Terminology ............................................................... 18
Section 1: Wannapreneur to Entrepreneur ..............24
Chapter 1: Starting a Business .................................... 25
Why Do You Want to Start Your Own Business? ...... 27
Why Did I Want to Start My Own Business .............. 31
Understand What Drives You .................................... 35
Chapter 2: What will you do?...................................... 40
The Day to Day Grind ................................................ 42
Long Term Business Goals ........................................ 44
Chapter 3: Founders and CoFounders ........................ 48
Why Start a Business by Yourself ............................. 51
Why You Shouldn’t Start a Business by Yourself ..... 53
Bad Reasons to Look for a CoFounder ...................... 55
Chapter 4: Fears We Have ........................................... 57
Dealing with Competition ........................................... 58
Competition is Not Inherently Bad ............................. 64
Fear of Failure............................................................ 66
Fear of the Unknown ................................................. 69
Overcoming Inherent Biases................................. 73
Fear of Taking Risks .................................................. 76
Section 2: Developer to Entrepreneur ....................78
It’s Not All About the Code ......................................... 79
Value Based Thinking ................................................ 81
Chapter 5: Motivation and Decision Fatigue ............... 85
Dealing with Motivation Problems .............................. 85
Solving Motivation Problems ...................................... 90
Schedule Planning Recommendations ....................... 92
Chapter 6: The Power of Focus .....................................95
Productivity Hacks ..................................................... 98
The Pomodoro Technique ...................................... 99
Getting Things Done ............................................. 99
Don’t Break the Chain ........................................ 100
Other Strategies ................................................. 101
The Psychology of Forcing Functions ....................... 102
Chapter 7: Time Management and Planning ...............105
Setting Goals ............................................................ 106
Daily Goals ......................................................... 106
Long Term Goals ................................................ 107
Goalsetting Summary .............................................. 109
Chapter 8: Time Tracking...........................................110
Time Tracking Tools ................................................. 115
The Psychology of Time Tracking ............................. 118
Chapter 9: Building Systems ......................................119
Don’t Do the Work .................................................... 121
Software Automation ............................................... 121
Human Automation .................................................. 122
An Example of How Human Automation Works 124
Example System: Daily Development Process ... 126
I Do, We Do, You Do ........................................... 128
A Shortcut to Training Time ................................ 130
How to Let Your Business Build Itself ................ 132
Chapter 10: Marketing for Entrepreneurs...................134
Learn to Think Like an Internet Marketer ............... 134
Make Your Customers’ Lives Better ......................... 136
Overcome Your Fear of Internet Marketing ............. 137
Internet Marketing is Science, Not Voodoo .............. 139
Section 3: Building a Product ...............................141
Types of Products..................................................... 143
The Basic Process .................................................... 146
Chapter 11: Idea Generation ..................................... 148
How to Apply These Concepts ................................. 150
Look for Existing Problems ....................................... 152
Choose a Market to Serve ........................................ 155
Choose a Product to Copy ........................................ 157
Listen to Prospective Customers .............................. 158
Look for Complaints ................................................. 159
Scratch Your Own Itch ............................................. 161
Pick an Enemy ......................................................... 162
Get Creative ............................................................. 163
Core Business Function ........................................... 164
Chapter 12: Idea Filtering .......................................... 166
Niching Down ........................................................... 168
Pros, Cons and Disqualifiers .................................... 171
Universal Pros .................................................... 171
Universal Cons ................................................... 176
Disqualifiers ....................................................... 180
Scoring Your Ideas ................................................... 186
Chapter 13: Idea Validation ....................................... 190
Minimum Viable Products ........................................ 192
An Example of What an MVP Looks Like ................. 194
Applying the Principles of MVP ................................ 197
Chapter 14: Idea Execution ....................................... 208
The Challenges of Executing on an Idea .................. 210
Product Implementation Timeline ............................. 225
Reducing and Cutting Work ..................................... 230
Chapter 15: Outsourcing 101 .....................................232
Outsourcing Guidelines ............................................ 233
Where to Hire Contractors & Freelancers ............... 241
Basic Hiring Process ................................................ 243
Managing Contractors & Freelancers ...................... 254
Letting People Go ..................................................... 259
Questions Entrepreneurs Have ................................ 261
Section 4: Marketing Your First Product .............. 264
Why Build a Marketing Plan .................................... 267
Essential Elements of a Marketing Plan ................. 269
Goal .................................................................... 270
Milestones .......................................................... 272
Positioning Statement ......................................... 276
Value Proposition ................................................ 277
Motivations ......................................................... 278
Objections ........................................................... 279
Ideal Customers ................................................. 281
Competition ........................................................ 284
Tactics ................................................................ 286
Marketing Plan Execution ........................................ 290
Section 5: Routine Maintenance .......................... 291
Physical Maintenance .............................................. 294
How to Use Forcing Functions ................................. 297
Intellectual Maintenance .......................................... 300
Mastermind Groups ................................................. 304
Personal Retreats ..................................................... 311
Epilogue .............................................................. 317
Closing Thoughts .......................................................318
Additional Resources .................................................319
About the Startups For the Rest of Us...................... 320
About FounderCafe .................................................. 321
About MicroConf ....................................................... 324
Acknowledgements ....................................................326