Review of Empire Building Kit (EBK) for Week 6 (Learning Notes)

Chris Guillebeau is the author of The Art of Non-Conformity and Unconventional Guides. He runs a course called Empire Building Kit (EBK for short) that I purchased late last year.

This post is a mind map summary of my learning notes from week 6. Enjoy! Click on the link to see a large version of my Mind Map for Empire Building Kit Week 6 Learning Notes (opens in a new window/tab).

The main lessons for week 6 of Empire building Kit are:

• Don’t dismiss a market: It may seem insignificant to you but there is money to be made in every market. For instance, Lisa Sellman’s dog walking and pet care business pulls in over 100K a year. On closer look, these kind of businesses are not rare at all.
• Three Whole Days of Jonathan Fields: An hour long interview with Jonathan Fields where he primarily discusses markets. Tons to learn from the interview include how to identify pain that the market is going through, how not to spend too much time educating the market about their pain and using simple tools to verify whether a market exists for your product or solution.
• Importance of freebies: The discussion on freebies and how it can be used to build trust and value made me rethink certain aspects of my business. I’ll definitely be incorporating this learning point into my business one way or another.
• Persona: Writing a one page description of what my ideal customer would be like and how I can find someone closely resembling the persona in the real-world to garner feedback. Powerful stuff.
• Nothing is fatal: The last part was about another of Chris’ business disaster and how he came back stronger after having gone through the turmoil. A reminder that in business nothing is really fatal.

Next Steps

There are several things you can do:

• Share this mind map with friends if you have enjoyed it via Twitter or Facebook.
• Agree, disagree or have questions/comments then leave a comment below.
• If you have purchased EBK, I’d like to connect with you.
• Check out Empire Building Kit (aff link) where you can choose from 3 different versions to purchase.

See you again next week.

Week 5 Highlights from Chris Guillebeau’s Empire Building Kit (Learning Notes)

Chris Guillebeau is the author of The Art of Non-Conformity and Unconventional Guides. He runs a course called Empire Building Kit (EBK for short) that I bought a little more than a month ago.

This post is a mind map summary of the highlights of week 5 (time flies). Enjoy!

Click on the link to see a large version of my Mind Map for Week 5 Highlights from Chris Guillebeau’s Empire Building Kit (Learning Notes) (opens in a new window/tab).

The main lessons for week 5 of Empire building Kit are:

• Start-up does not mean risk. A successful start-up is possible while holding a full-time job and the case study of Tsilli Pines is a perfect example.
• Market rethink: It seems obvious but am I serving a need or a want? What are the emotional needs of my clients? If my market specific and targeted?
• Maximum exposure: Focus, energy, drive, attention and love to something that is taking off so that it gets maximum exposure and succeeds wildly. I’m doing that for Singapore Part Time Jobs where I upgraded the site, added new features and increased the price by 4 times and people are still posting jobs online. Thanks Chris.
• Productivity resources: I have just implemented LastPass and its doing wonders for my productivity. Saves time on rethinking passwords and entering wrong ones many many times or asking for email reminders. I feel dumb for not using it earlier but hey better late than never.
• Difference between security and risk. Kind of similar to what I read in Seth Godin’s wonderful book Poke the Box. A new business does not mean risking it all and security is not a job but an asset I build or acquire.

Next Steps

There are several things you can do:

• Share this mind map with friends if you have enjoyed it via Twitter or Facebook.
• Agree, disagree or have questions/comments then leave a comment below.
• If you have purchased EBK, I’d like to connect with you.
• Check out Empire Building Kit (aff link) where you can choose from 3 different versions to purchase.

See you again next week.

Chris Guillebeau’s Empire Building Kit: Insights from Week 4

Chris Guillebeau is the author of The Art of Non-Conformity and Unconventional Guides. He runs a course called Empire Building Kit (EBK for short) which I recently bought. This post is a little late because I was relaunching my part time jobs website. Nonetheless, this is the week 4 mindmap of my lessons from EBK.

Click on the link to see a large version of my Mindmap for Chris Guillebeau’s Empire Building Kit: Insights from Week 4 (opens in a new window/tab).

The main lessons of the week 4 (gosh can’t believe a month has passed by since I started this course) are:

• What lessons can I learn from existing successful lifestyle business through the case studies and how I can apply that into my business. There are 18 case studies, I got through 6 for this week and you can see in the mindmap what I learned from them.
• The main benefits of lifestyle business are tax deductions and most importantly, freedom. Freedom to choose your hours and freedom to work from anywhere but this freedom comes with its own set of responsibilities.
• Estimate market demand before working very hard on a product nobody wants. I learned a cool technique of marketing before manufacturing.
• The nuts and bolts of doing a survey to find out what the market wants. I love the tip on how to structure the survey to get effective response.
• Test the order process thoroughly as Chris discusses a funny but ironic case where he did not test out his order process causing his launch to falter.

Check out Empire Building Kit (aff link) where you can choose from 3 different versions to purchase.

Lessons from Week 3 of Chris Guillebeau’s Empire Building Kit

Chris Guillebeau is the author of The Art of Non-Conformity and Unconventional Guides. He runs a course called Empire Building Kit (EBK for short) which I recently bought and this is the week 3 mindmap of my lessons from EBK.

The main lessons of the week are:

1. Why franchising is a terrible idea.
2. Lessons from Nathalie Lussier and how she got people to pay for her passion for raw foods.
3. 5 steps to getting started on a new business and tons of ideas on improving an existing business.
4. Why competing on price sucks and competing on perceived value is the way to go.

Click on the link to see a large version of my Mindmap of Chris Guillebeau’s Empire Building Kit – Week 3 (opens in a new window/tab).

Check out Empire Building Kit (aff link) where you can choose from 3 different versions to purchase.

Week 2 Mindmap of Chris Guillebeau’s Empire Building Kit

Chris Guillebeau is the author of The Art of Non-Conformity and Unconventional Guides. He runs a course called Empire Building Kit (EBK for short) which I recently bought and this is the week 2 mindmap of my lessons from EBK.

Click on the link to see a large version of my Mindmap of Chris Guillebeau’s Empire Building Kit – Week 2 (opens in a new window/tab).

Check out Empire Building Kit (aff link) where you can choose from 3 different versions to purchase.