I am a big fan of Tim Ferriss, the author of the book 4 Hour Work Week. This #1 New York Times bestseller (which I listened to via my Audible.com app) teaches aspiring entrepreneurs how to escape the 9-5 rat race, live anywhere and join the new rich.
Based on his review, I got my new logo designed at $99 logo for my startup – at a great discount as compared with ad agency prices.
>Looking for the 99designs Tim Ferriss discount code, visit site 99designs/tim
His online podcast called – The Tim Ferriss Effect – has been downloaded over 150,000,000 episodes. His message of designing your life by starting your own business has resonated with our generation.
Additionally, he has filmed an Emmy award-winning television show called the Tim Ferriss Experience. All episodes are available for viewing on iTunes. The Tim Ferriss podcast is generally the #1 most listened podcast on Apple and has also been rated tops over 300,000 other podcasts!
Tim’s Top 5 Startup Tips
Tim Ferris has partnered with 99designs to help entrepreneurs get started faster and succeed better. Tim gives these 5 tips as the most powerful for startups.
- Have no competition – What? Sure in a perfect world you would be the only widget maker in the world. That is just not going to happen. What Tim means is to create a totally new business model instead of following existing norms filled with lots of tough competitors. Think about how you can make a whole new industry that never existed before. This is what startup success such as Uber has done with taxi service and with Airbnb did with accommodations. Then you will have no competition. That is until the copycats enter the market but you will be so far ahead and the established leader you will stay on top.
- Find Your Diehard Fans – Expand your reach, market buzz, and referral business with fans. Find and work with people who love and want to support your company mission. They will be a small army of ambassadors in person and online.
- Don’t be the low-cost option – If your company can only compete by slashing prices you will fail. Major companies, with far greater buying power and cash than you will drive you out of business fast. To succeed companies need to fulfill a need and serve a definite purpose or else shut their doors. Also, any customers gained by low prices will be quickly lost to the next lower priced product.
- Subtract before you add – When things are not working in your business, it is natural to try to add more labor and money to the problem. Often that compounds the trouble because the issue was more likely not lack of resources. Try to analyze where the problem originated and remove the unnecessary and obstacles.
- First impressions count – Customers will make snap judgments about your company and products in seconds. Don’t blow it by having anything less than professionally designed logos, marketing materials, and websites. Make sure all these impressions send the message that your firm is professional and ready to do business. Luckily, the crowdsource site 99designs offers talented designers from around the world at affordable prices.
Another vital point that Tim suggests is not to quit your day job. He rightly counsels new entrepreneurs to first be willing to build their business during evenings and weekends before taking the plunge. Not only does this reduce the pressure of generating cash in your baby startup it also builds you as an entrepreneur.
Being a business owner will require endless work hours, late nights and frustrations. Creating a company and working a full-time job will expose you to these situations and teach you how to handle them in a way that supports your business and personal goals.
Too often I see people romanticize being an entrepreneur before actually attempting to become one. Tim Ferris says, “If you are not willing to do that, you shouldn’t be an entrepreneur.” Wise advice from my favorite entrepreneurial guru.
My favorite recent podcast is #318 – One Person Businesses that make a Million Dollars a Year. Funny while writing this post I saw that it was sponsored by my recommended online legal services LegalZoom. Inspiring with great takeaways.
One of the most prolific and successful entrepreneurs, Tim Ferris, he knows what it takes to build powerful brands. He uses and recommends 99designs for great logo design at affordable prices. In fact, he used 99designs for many of his startup business logos and book covers. He says, “I have used them for years to create some amazing designs. When your business needs a logo, website design, business card, or anything you can imagine check out 99designs.com”. Since he is a fast moving entrepreneur he impressed me with the quick turnaround time at 99designs.
Check out this 99designs website design review of my experience getting a logo made using crowdsource contests.
In fact, he has used them for book cover design for his recent bestseller titled, The 4 Hour Body. Plus he uses them for display advertising and illustrations. Often he used the one on one projects to work with specific designers on projects.
Some people come to this page looking for this URL 99designs/tim
How to Start a Business Tips by Tim Ferris
Here are Tim’s quick tips to make your small business launch and succeed:
- Get Super Fans – find the people that will become your best customers and promote your product to their tribe.
- Don’t Cost Less – never compete on price alone. You need a value proposition and point of difference that erases pricing resistance.
- Lean Means Business – don’t try to fix your startup issues with more people or money. Often greater focus will improve efficiency and resolve problems.
- Forget competition – develop a business that has no competition by innovating a new product category or dominating an existing one.
- Make a Great First Impression – snap judgments need to go in your favor. So win over buyers with quality logo design, websites, and brochures that communicate your businesses professionalism.
Brand Building by Tim Ferriss
Learn from a man whose book has been translated into 35 languages and has become his own lifestyle design brand and a household name.
Some people credit him with creating the concept of a personal brand, an individual person becoming their own brand. When asked by 99 designs blog about this he replied. “Did Thomas Edison or Henry Ford have good personal brands? One could argue they did, but it wasn’t a goal. In my opinion, a good personal brand shouldn’t be the goal; it should be a side-effect of having good goals and acting consistently.”
On July 30, 2018, he posted a great long-form interview on his blog – #330 which is rare these days, in which he took questions and offered his expert answers. Lots of different questions were asked including my favorites:
- How to stop caring so much what other people think of you and your business plans. Stop the herd mentality madness!
- How to think like an entrepreneur and take risks that build your business and career
- Ask better questions of your clients, employees, and dates too!
- Sometimes silence works better than words
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