The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future

AT LEAST MONTHLY
 Connect with existing customers to make sure they are happy. (Ask:
“Is there anything else I can do for you?”)

---

  Prepare  for  an  upcoming  event,  contest,  or  product  launch  (see
Chapter 8
).
ONCE IN A WHILE
  Perform  your  own  business  audit  (see 
Chapter  12
)  to  find  missing
opportunities that can be turned into active projects.
  Ensure  that  you  are  regularly  working  toward  building  something
significant, not just reacting to things as they appear.
 
While  thinking  about  the  quote  and  drafting  this  chapter,  I  decided  to
conduct an unscientific experiment to measure paid ads versus free hustling.
Over the course of a month, I spent $10,000 on carefully selected ads and
sponsorship  for  my  Travel  Hacking  Cartel  service.  I  also  spent  ten  hours
hustling, writing guest posts, recruiting a joint venture with another service,
touching base with journalist contacts, and so on. Here are the results:
 
Ad Cost: $10,000
 
(+2 hours of setup)
    vs.    
Hustling Cost: 10 Hours
 
Zero Dollars
Number of New Customers: 78           Number of New Customers: 84
Estimated Value of New
Customers: $7020
         
Estimated Value of New
Customers: $7560
 
Approximate hour-per-hustle value: $756
Do we have a clear winner? I think so, but with a couple of disclaimers.
First, one could say that I had access to relationships that others don’t have
and  those  relationships  were  what  determined  the  high  hour-per-hustle
value. This may be partly true. However, the whole point of hustling is to
put your relationships to good use, whatever they are. Not everyone may be
able to earn $756 per hustling hour. However, some situations could have
produced an even higher hustling value.
It  is  also  true  that  hustling  time  is  not  unlimited.  If  I  had  $100,000  to
spend  instead  of  $10,000,  the  situation  might  indeed  be  different.
Combining hustling with paid advertising (again, carefully selected) could
be  a  viable  option  for  some.  The  point  is  that  hustling  can  take  you  far.

---

When  you’re  thinking  about  how  to  get  the  word  out  and  build  your
business, think about hustling first and paid advertising later (if at all).
One objection to the hustling and relationship-building strategies described
in this chapter is that they take time. Well, of course they do—they’re a big