Financial Freedom Recommend Reading

Here’s a short list of books I highly recommend, on the topic of financial freedom.

Be practical when reading these books.  I often don’t agree with the authors’ worldview or motivations, and honestly, I don’t care about them.   I’m focused on getting practical knowledge that I can use for my own purposes.

With that said, here are some great books for starting your journey to financial freedom:

Walden by Henry D. Thoreau

(Read the section on “Economy”)!

The 4-Hour Workweek  by Tim Ferris

(The title provides you with a worthy goal

Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

Cash Flow Quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki

(Will teach you financial literacy and how to gain financial freedom)

The E-Myth

(Great general overview of how to own a business instead of it owning you)

Web Copy That Sells

(Great if you’re going to do a web-based business (which I highly recommend))

Permission Marketing by Seth Godin

(Learn how to market in an ethical way that people will love)

Purple Cow by Seth Godin

(Learn how to be remarkable with your business)

Your Portable Empire by Pat O’Bryan

(Learn how to create passive income and live a mobile lifestyle)

Those are good places to start your education.   Of course, just reading isn’t enough.  You have to take action.   I think the best way to start is online because the cost of starting is so incredibly low.

My business started with $200.  I could have done it for nearly free if I had wanted to.

The beauty of online business is that you can start them as “Beta” prototypes.   In other words, you put them together quickly and cheaply and start fast.    Then you endlessly test, improve, get feedback, and evolve your business over time.

My first site was butt ugly… and I had a paltry few lessons to start with.  And the lessons had sketchy audio and were very limited.

But no worries–  I clearly labeled it a “Beta” site and explained that it was in “testing” mode.  I charged only $7 for membership at first.   To my utter astonishment, I got customers.  I added more lessons, and raised the price to $17.

I started a Google Ad campaign with a budget of $1 a day.  I tested the ads and compared ad cost to money made each day.   When I was making more than I was spending, I raised the ad budget to $5 a day…  waited a week.  I was still making more than I was spending on ads… so I increased the budget to $10 a day.  (I now spend nearly $400 a day).

The product (my lessons) likewise evolved.  I experimented with different lesson types and discovered the ones that students liked best.  Over time, I developed a very powerful teaching system.

Finally, the site and the business itself evolved.   I eventually changed from a membership site to a straight product sales site.   I hired a company to (still cheaply) design a custom website for me.   That helped to boost income.   Just recently, I had the whole site re-designed again  (for a higher… but still reasonable price).

All the while I have learned a tremendous amount–  from trial and error, from experiments, from customers’ feedback,  from business books and CDs, from other website owners, from blogs and podcasts.

So what’s the point I’m making?

The point is:   Just start.

I was totally clueless and nearly broke when I started.  I had NO idea how to build a successful business.  I just had a burning desire to be free,.. and I loved teaching English.  The rest, I learned along the way.

You can do this too.  Start a BETA website this month….    using a cheap or free website template…  and PayPal for accepting credit cards.    Make your cheap, fast, raw product or service.

You don’t need to be perfect when you start.  You don’t even need to be good.   Hell, if you really feel bad about it–  charge just $1 in the beginning.    Decide to learn everything as you go.

This is the Hobopoet way–  the opposite of the “Business Plan” approach.

Start cheap.  Start ugly.  Start clueless. Start micro.

Then evolve.