I posted this on Facebook yesterday:
Number one question about running a business from anywhere that you have for me – GO!
It gone one heck of a response, and the most common answers are the exact ones I want to continue to answer on my blog like:
- Do you need a product/service when you first go live? Or is it ok to ‘build the tribe, sell them stuff later’ ~ Sarah McKay
- How do you decide what products to create? – Amanda Cook
If you’d read my post Four Steps To Figure Out What You Are Meant To Do In Life When You Have No Idea At All then you’d know what I recommend you do.
I show you how to uncover your sweet spot, and turn it into a profitable business idea.
That’s exactly what these people below, have started to do in the space of a few months, when I asked them to step up and submit their idea for the $100 Change Scholarship.
I hope their stories prove inspiring to you – no matter what stage you’re at.
Background on the $100 Change Program
Eight months ago, I couldn’t have imagined how much impact the $100 bill given to me at the World Domination Summit would have, not only on me, but on the lives of people all over the world.
I designed my $100 Change Program, a digitally delivered eCourse, to get you to take action and make your dream idea, project or business a reality in 100 days or less.
The amazing feedback, sense of community, and bonding that came as a result of those who joined the program and shared their journey in the Facebook group, was both moving and inspiring.
So when it came time to hand out scholarships – as part of the non-profit initiative of the program, choosing from applications full of creativity, passion, and potential wasn’t easy.
But after much careful consideration, watching their videos and reading through their stories and ideas, the winners were chosen.
Applications had to be engaging, concise, and have a clear sense of ‘why’.
(To read more on how to craft your why and the reason it’s so important, read my guest post on Think Traffic).
In order to receive a scholarship you had to:
- Submit an application that showed you had an idea for a business or project that was either going to turn a profit or make an impact in the world.
- State your mission and top three goals
- State what plans you had in place to launch and market your initiative
- Suggest what platforms, tools and systems you’d need to launch, as the bare bones minimum
- Provide a break down of your launch profit goals and budget for the scholarship money
I also asked for what areas you needed help with – which is where my personal mentoring sessions came in.
These individuals who were each given funding of $500 to apply to their idea and take the leap into entrepreneurship. Currently they are in the midst of their journey of implementation.
What were their ideas, where are they now, and what can you learn from their journey? Here are four of them for you to learn from and support.
1. Claire Kerslake – Renew
Claire, the founder of Love Life with Diabetes, is on a mission to inspire a movement where individuals take charge of their health and avoid the limits of chronic disease.
She is creating a 6-week online program called Renew to help participants release weight, cultivate health and create wellness.
Her digital program contains training videos, audio recordings, worksheets and email support. Among many topics, the program speaks to creating new habits, how to stress less, and the art of incorporating habits exercise into your life
Challenges: At the beginning, Claire was challenged with maintaining the right mindset to believe in herself and her worth and launch her first program.
She was also struggling with creating the content in between her full time job, setting up the membership site, an advertising campaign, and outsourcing the tech stuff she didn’t need to spend time on.
Updates: So far, Claire has written five modules for her Renew program and shot all the videos. She’s crafted and designed the opt-in page, and has had two guest posts accepted to help promote it.
Her next step is to complete the program creation, hire the right person to put the modules of the program into an eBook, test out her launch process and then hit the GO button.
2. Gary McElroy – House My Dog
Once Gary realized that pet owners often struggle with where to take their pets while they’re on holiday, he had a vision of creating the Airbnb for the pet world.
His initial plan is to start in the UK and spread through Europe as the venture becomes profitable.
Challenges: Gary was very aware that he would need insight on topics like marketing, the ins and outs of SEO, and website design.
Updates: Since deciding to create this business, Gary has decided on a name, HouseMyDog, and has registered the company and the domain.
He and his business partner (and son) have hired web developers and a graphic designer and they’ve even obtained a 15,000 euro investment, through a government funded local enterprise board.
Market research has been completed and the target “go live” date is the 2nd or 3rd week of May 2013 – I’m very excited for them.
3. Kris Leon – Better Future Abroad
Kris has always loved to travel and give back at the same time, so when he noticed that there was a gap in the marketplace for a service like this, he decided to take action.
His vision is to create a global tribe of people who want to explore a new culture while giving back to the community in areas that they’re passionate about through a website called Better Future Abroad.
Challenges: Initially, Kris knew that he would need advice on how to build a tribe, how to do effective market research and how to position himself in the marketplace.
He also need to manage this new project with his full-time job, transferring from his full-time job to working solely on this venture, and project workflow.
Updates: On our mentoring call Kris and I nutted out hybrid model that will work to set him apart from the existing `Volunteer Abroad’ organizations, and flip the current process on its head.
Now he has the challenging task of making this a reality, and brining on board a team to make it happen in the next few months.
4. Janet Brent – e-KART
Janet sees poverty first-hand every day living in the slums in Manila, Philippines.
With the push of the $100 Change Initiative, she realised that she could offer a solution to these problems through her talents as a graphic designer and aspiring entrepreneur.
Inspired by the cart vendors in her neighborhood, she has envisioned an online platform called e-KART (stands for Kids Art Recreation Therapy), where you can purchase inspirational stationery and journals showcasing their work.
A percentage of the profits will then go towards social outreach initiatives to bring creativity workshops and mentorship programs to slum kids in developing countries, starting with the Philippines.
Challenges: As the excitement of her new idea enveloped her, she began to be intimidated by a number of gaps that she wasn’t sure how to fill. The first gap was the logistics behind world shipping, the legal aspects, the accounting, and gaining complete clarity around her idea.
Updates: As with any major initiative, it can be hard to focus in on where to start and what the key priorities are.
So Janet went away to create her 1 Page Business Plan of my BYOB template to solidify her idea and is currently working towards her launch deadline.
What’s Next?
I’m happy to announce that the spread of the $100 Change Initiative reached far and wide, and well beyond the scholarship winners.
All in all, there were over 20 articles written about it, 120 change-makers that came on board, over 1,200 tweets shared, and a still active Facebook group with 141 members offering advice and inspiration to each other every single day,.
More importantly, countless numbers of connections have made between community members and further ventures are in the works between members. Plus a bunch of us are meeting up at the World Domination Summit in July!
The inspiration and the mentorship is never-ending too! If you didn’t get a chance to get in on the greatness back then, you can still enroll in the eCourse or grab the book of inspriation by going to this page.
In the comments below, tell me the one idea that you would love to see come to life and one challenge that’s holding you back.