Minimalist Business Product Launches: Strategies for Success

Proven launch strategies used by successful micro-business entrepreneurs.

Written by Everett Bogue | Follow me on Twitter.

I have a long standing tradition here at Far Beyond The Stars of doing my best to be as helpful as possible to the readers.

I believe this is one of the single most important reasons that Corbett Barr of Think Traffic identified Far Beyond The Stars as one of his explosive growth case studies.

I don’t pay attention to stats that much, but I got momentarily excited that Corbett had pegged my subscribers-per-month growth in the range of blogging greats as Adam Baker, author of Unautomate Your Finances, and Glen Allsopp, author of Cloud Living. Wow.

Anyway, this is why I’ve decided to write a post on how to create your own successful minimalist business product launch, instead of simply talking about my own. If you’re not interested in how to launch a product, and simply want information about Minimalist Business, scroll down to the bottom of this post.

How to blow people out of the water with a minimalist business product launch.

Instead of telling you how I’m going to do a launch on Monday of my new e-book, Minimalist Business, I’ll tell you how you can make your own minimalist business product launch better.

I’ll also point out which launch strategy I’m going to take, so you have some idea of what’s going on Monday.

A big part of running a minimalist business is facilitating a quality launch. If you launch the right way, a couple of hours of effort will propel your work to success. If you launch poorly, there’s a big chance you’ll have to cold call people to make individual sales.

Cold calling isn’t a minimalist business strategy, it’s a counterproductive strategy. We definitely don’t want you to have to do that.

Many of the readers here at Far Beyond The Stars are also going to be launching their own minimalist business products sooner or later, so I want to make sure you have the tools to make them successful.

Strategies for Minimalist Business Product Launch Success:

1. Born to be freemium.

One of the most powerful launches that a minimalist business can do is to release a completely free product.

When your business is small, and you don’t have a large readership, it’s important to build credibility in your niche and also good will from the people who will be reading your work. The most important way to do this is to release a free product.

One of the best examples of a free product that contains massive amounts of value for readers is Chris Guillebeau’s A Brief Guide to World Domination. With this free product, Chris established his credibility online as one of the masterminds of digital product distribution and working online from anywhere.

How many people do you think read Chris’s free e-book and were so inspired that they went ahead and purchased his more extensive products such as An Unconventional Guide to Working for Yourself, or Art + Money? I imagine quite a few. Why wouldn’t you? After reading his free products, you can’t help but come to the conclusion that Chris is one of the foremost experts on working for yourself using the Internet.

One of the most important elements of a minimalist business is establishing enough credibility with visitors to your home-base (usually a blog) that they know for certain that buying your premium product will contribute value to their lives.

A free product can go a long way towards proving to the world that you have knowledge to contribute.

The old mentality to business was to withhold value until someone paid for it. This is no longer a smart business model, because there’s so much free value available on the Internet that readers aren’t going to pay before they see the value anymore.

Pay your value forward, and the people who you help will support you.

Benefits:

  • Easier to publicize and distribute a free product.
  • Long-term gains in readership and authority.

Downsides:

  • No publicity if the product sucks.
  • No direct income generation.

2. Reward your current supporters.

Many people think you should launch a product after you’ve developed a significant readership. This is true, of course! When you have a large audience you’ll definitely be able to support yourself with a premium product.

However, only a lucky few have a large audience to start off with. The rest of us won’t be in this situation, so we need a better strategy than simply waiting to be famous. Fame doesn’t come from waiting around.

I only had around 700 subscribers when I launched The Art of Being Minimalist in February.

Contrary to what I’d read everywhere on the web, I found that once I launched the product my popularity began to skyrocket.

I have a couple of theories about why this happened:

  1. Having a premium product establishes you as an authority in your niche.
  2. Having a premium product gives supporters a way of supporting you (so I didn’t have to spend time doing other work).
  3. Having a premium product allows you to support your supporters through affiliate sales, this creates a stronger community.

Given these findings, I believe that when your readership is small, it’s in your best interest to release a product for free for 24 hours to the readers who support you now. Then start charging for the product.

This strategy rewards your existing community for sticking with you through the awkward adolescent years of your minimalist business. It also gives them an opportunity to see how valuable the information in your product is, so they can advocate for you.

Obviously, if your product contains no value (believe me, there are plenty of these out there.) This strategy will definitely not work.

If you release a bad product and your readers aren’t enthusiastic about it, they’re not going to support it.

They call it democratization of media for a reason. People vote with their money for the work that helps them the most. This is why The Art of Being Minimalist completely supports my lifestyle, because it’s a quality work — I continue to get enthusiastic emails from readers after they’ve finished telling me how the book changed their perspective on freedom.

I’ve seen many other similar blogs launch products that didn’t quite live up to expectations of their authors — these products don’t support their authors.

Quality work markets itself. Bad work vanishes into the ether. This is the way the world works in the online age.

The lesson here is to offer your free product for 24 hours to the people who support you, and ask them to honestly tell you if they believe in what you’re doing. If they’re into it, you will have no problem achieving world domination.

If your current readers give you a luke-warm reception to a free product, then maybe you should kill it now and go back to the drawing board until you can write something that authentically helps your readers.

On Monday, my friend Sam Spurlin of The Simpler Life is going to be launching his e-book using the above strategy, based on my input. Be sure to check it out, and get a copy while it’s free for 24 hours.

Benefits:

  • Initial spike in publicity.
  • Eventual profits.
  • Large group of possible affiliates.

Downsides:

  • If the work isn’t quality, no one will be tricked into paying for it (which isn’t a strategy anyway.)
  • Your existing audience will get the product for free, so profits have to come from new community members as they discover you.

3. Publicly create your product.

One of the more innovative strategies that I’ve seen lately is the way that Leo Babauta is creating his newest e-book, focus: a simplicity manifesto in the age of distraction.

He’s simply writing the book in a public venue, so people can read and comment on the work until it’s done.

The transparency of this strategy creates good will with potential buyers, because they can read and enjoy the quality work before paying actual money for it.

I imagine once Leo finishes the book, he’ll package the e-book and sell it like he does with A Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life. Once he does this, his readers will be able to support the work that went into creating this quality work.

I have no doubt that I will pay money to read Focus once Leo finishes it, even if I’ve devoured most of the pages before hand. The reason is that the book has already contributed incredible value to my life, before it was even finished. Creators who contribute value deserve our support.

Benefits:

  • Quality assurance, if no one enjoys the book while you’re writing it, who will enjoy it when you sell it?
  • Feedback during creation.
  • Consistant publicity.

Downsides:

  • Less control over launch, information is already free.
  • No big launch payday.

4. Perfect is the enemy of done.

Some projects are simply too large and important to wait until they’re completely finished. The reasons for this can vary immensely.

You might need reader feedback in order to know exactly what pieces are missing. The project might be so ambitious that you will never finish unless you just set ship date.

The great thing about the Internet is that you can revise and update products. There’s no permanent copy that can’t be changed after you push it out. This fundamentally changes the way that media is produced, and I think we’d be wise to start embracing this change.

We’re used to the idea of physical books being produced. Books need to be done when they’re sent to the printer, because no one can fix them after they’ve been sent to Barnes and Noble. With digital media, this isn’t the case.

When software companies release products, they know there will be bugs that they haven’t identified. There will be missing features that either weren’t finished at the release date, or they didn’t know the feature needed to exist.

Chris Guillebeau used this strategy with his launch of the Empire Builder Kit last month. He released the kit for 24 hours to his current supporters. For a project as big as the Empire Builder Kit, a launch like this is key. It limits the amount of people who will purchase the product to a smaller amount, and also to people who are already familiar with your work.

This gave Chris a month to revise and update the product with feedback from the early adopters. On May 18th he’ll be re-releasing The Empire Builder Kit, at a slightly higher price (I think) than the original release.

The early adopters will receive a revised copy with all of the kinks worked out, and people who missed the initial opportunity will be able to pick up a copy.

This rewards the people who helped him make sure the final product was perfect, because they were able to pick up the product at a reduced price before it went out to a wider audience.

The other benefit of this plan, is it gives the early adopters a month to plan their own affiliate launches of The Empire Builder Kit.

Because Chris offers a 50% commission on the kit, his supporters only need to sell two copies to their supporters in order to make back the money they spent in their initial investment in quality work.

Benefits:

  • Reader feedback and profits.
  • Ability to make product better after launch.

Downsides:

  • Product might not be “done” at launch.
  • Possibility of disappointing buyers, if the work isn’t done enough to contribute value.

The strategy for the launch of Minimalist Business.

As you may have guessed, I’m taking strategy 4 “perfect is the enemy of done” for my initial launch of Minimalist Business.

I wrote about this in more depth earlier this week, but the reason is simple: Minimalist Business is an incredibly ambitious project.

The ultimate goal is to teach anyone who’s willing the skills necessary to establish a one-person location-independent micro-business that will support their existence through automated passive income. After working on this project for 4 months, it’s become readily apparent that it’s not an easy subject to teach.

I’ve done my best to put everything that I’ve learned about the process down in writing, but there will missing pieces. I’ll do my best to revise and update the knowledge base as new technologies become available, and fill in the gaps that early adopters notice and report to me.

The Minimalist Business details:

At this moment the guide is clocking in at just over 115 pages of, what I hope you will agree is incredibly valuable information for people who are interested in launching a minimalist business to support a location independent life.

Here are some details about the upcoming release of Minimalist Business:

  1. It won’t be perfect. I’ve done my best to include my thoughts on everything from generating passive income and time management, to affiliate income opportunities and realistic strategies for working less than 10 hours a week in order to create a profitable business. However, there will be some things that I didn’t think to include. That’s why everyone who purchases the early adopter version on Monday will receive free updates for an entire year.
  2. I’ll be relaunching a revised and updated version of the guide in a month or so, which will be available to a wider audience as well as my affiliate network. With the second version I’ll do my best to answer all of the questions that people will inevitably come up with the release of the first version, as well as give the e-book a complete copy edit.
  3. The version I release on Monday will be available at a significant discount for early adopters. Those who are willing to take a leap of faith with me and enjoy a product that’s hugely informative, but not necessarily perfect deserve a price break. I foresee putting in hundreds of hours over the next month answering questions and helping early adopters establish their own minimalist businesses.
  4. There will be three different release packages with different features. The first will come with a significantly discounted consulting package, the next comes with a 30-day quick start guide, and the last will simply contain the e-book. I’ll be finalizing the pricing over the weekend, and I’ll let you know on Monday.
  5. [UPDATE 12pm] Concerns about this came up in the comments: there will be an effectiveness guarantee. Anyone can get their money back at any time if they feel that the product isn’t right for them. It’s a digital product, so no harm done if you either don’t like the product, aren’t interested in creating a minimalist business, or simply aren’t successful in the endeavor. I’d never want anyone to feel that they spent money on something they shouldn’t have.

What do you think?

I’m not going to have a lot of time to answer reader questions in the comments this weekend. I’ll be busy pumping the last bit of value that I have left in me to assure that this guide is as awesome and helpful as it possibly can be.

Whether or not I have time to stop by, I’d love for you to keep the discussion going on in the comments

Which of these launch strategies do you think works best for you? What other strategies have you seen that worked well? I’m sure the community here at Far Beyond The Stars would love to hear your take on launch strategies for success.

Best,

Everett Bogue





Minimalist Relocation: Move to Any City for $125

Start over in any city for the cost of a plane ticket.

Written by Everett Bogue | Follow me on Twitter.

Moving doesn’t have to be difficult, unless you make it that way.

We’re living in a society that’s more mobile than it’s ever been. It’s becoming incredibly easy to separate your location from your income by creating a minimalist business.

And yet so many people continue make a big deal out of moving. They have every intention of renting an expensive U-Haul truck, they hold on to all of their stuff, they procrastinate and make excuses not to make the jump to a new city. Eventually they give up and never strike out to experience a new place for the first time.

Why? Because it’s costly to move when you have tons of junk.

You don’t need the U-Haul filled with excuses to move anywhere.

The reality is that you can relocate to a new locale for the cost of a plane ticket, plus new housing setup costs, if you design yourself a minimalist life.

On May 15th I’ll be getting on a place bound for San Francisco air, and the ticket will be my only moving cost. My ticket from New York to San Francisco was only $125. (Obviously prices will vary on airfare depending on where you’re going.)

If I was a Frequent Flier Master like Chris Guillebeau, I’d probably be able to relocate to a new city for free — I’ll be working on this if I ever move again. But I’m not an expert at gaming the airport system yet, so $125 will do just fine.

How to move for the cost of a plane ticket.

1. Reduce your possessions to a more meaningful amount. Minimalism is a running theme on this blog for a reason, because it works.

Moving your stuff is the single largest cost involved in any relocation. Reduce your possessions to less than 100 things and you’ll be able to move easily. I have 50 things now, which means I can move with a carry-on bag.

The truth is that most of the things you need for your apartment can be obtained for a small amount of money, or shared with new roomies, in any new location. One of the biggest factors tying people to their location is accumulating hundreds of thousands of inexpensive little gizmos that they never actually use. As I said in The Art of Being Minimalist, simply abandoning this junk will free you to pursue a location independent lifestyle.

The stuff is enslaving you, it’s keeping you trapped in one place, when you could be free.

2. Resolve your housing situation in your old location. Talk to the landlord and say that you’d like to move out. Offer to help find a new person, if necessary. Breaking leases is bad, but if required isn’t the end of the world. Be sure to give at least 30 days notice on a rental.

If you’re in the unfortunate situation of owning a house, find a management company to maintain the property while you’re gone. Or sell it, if that’s an option. Many people I talk to who own houses in the current climate are simply waiting until the value improves enough for them to leave with a profit. But what if the value never improves? Don’t delay your aspirations because your home value took a nose-dive. Sell the house now, cut your losses, and become a renter in your new city.

3. Find a temporary home base in your chosen city. It’s important to have a place to crash for a few days while you get a more permanent living situation. In some cities there are inexpensive hostels where you can stay for a few days, or hotel rooms that won’t cost much. Some people enjoy Couch Surfing in new locations. Personally, I booked a room for 15 days through the remarkable Airbnb.

4. Land the apartment after you get into town. People make a big deal out of getting apartments, it doesn’t need to be. Most landlords, outside of the East Village in Manhattan, are more than happy to have you give them your money — if you’ve got decent credit and don’t have a criminal history. Be sure to have at least first and last month’s rent + security ready to go the moment to find an apartment that fits your criteria.

Don’t try to find an apartment beforehand. It’s just too hard to coordinate money, avoid scammers, and guarantee that your apartment is livable when you can’t see it first. Never wire large sums of money over the Internet to people you haven’t met, it’s just a bad idea.

Act confident. Wear nice clothes and a smile on your face when you’re visiting new apartments. Even if you don’t have minimalist business income coming in at the moment, tell the owner that money will not be a problem. You’re leaving a security deposit for a reason, you don’t have to give a full financial picture to the landlord unless absolutely required — if required and you don’t have money coming in at the moment, move on to a landlord who won’t ask questions. There are plenty of landlords out there who only care about the security deposit, you don’t have to deal with ones who ask too many questions.

5. Be open to different living situations. Our society has wired us to think the only way to live is alone, but understand that it can be much easier to find a room with other people in a larger apartment. When I was in Portland I lived with two fine girls from the town. They helped me meet new people, and we even worked on a few projects together. The other benefit of entering into a shared space is that furniture and kitchen supplies will often already be present.

I’m not going to be looking for a shared space this time around, but I’ve had amazing experiences in them in the past (I used to live in a schoolhouse with 10 roomies, it was the best years of my life.) This can also save you a lot of money, and you’ll have more flexible move-out dates should decide that you want to head to Thailand in a few months.

Being in a shared space can also be a great way to open your mind to new things. When we live alone we tend to focus on the same-old, but roommates will have different stuff going on that can open your mind and help you learn new skills.

6. Live in cheaper neighborhoods bordering gentrified ones. One of the biggest mistakes that people make when they move to new cities is to try and live where the city was coolest in the 1970s. It isn’t the 1970s anymore, rent in Soho is $3000 a month. You can’t afford that unless you’re rich.

It’s not in your best interest to spend the majority of your income on your living situation. Rent an inexpensive, yet livable apartment, and you’ll have loads more cash to spend on experiences outside the apartment.

Here’s what I do: go to the hip place where you thought you were supposed to live, and walk 15 blocks in any direction (if you thought you were going to live in Manhattan, get on any train and take it 5 stops into Brooklyn.) This is where you look for an apartment. Art exists on the fringes of society, a neighborhood that’s a little rougher will always be cooler and also much cheaper than a gentrified neighborhood that had a reputation of being cool thirty years ago.

7. Don’t worry so much. So many people I know like to spend days or weeks making contingency plans for simple moves like this — this often leads to not moving at all. 99% of the time nothing will go wrong, so don’t spend 80% of your time making sure that 1% doesn’t happen. The world is pretty much the same everywhere (as long as you don’t move to a war zone,) you won’t have trouble finding an apartment if you’re a decent person. Spend the time you were going to spend worrying on setting up passive income sources so you can pay your rent.

If this story helped you, take 10 seconds and hit the retweet button if you’re on Twitter. Thank you!





The Minimalist Business Journey Towards Freedom

Our Goal is to Live and Work from Anywhere

Written by Everett Bogue | Follow me on Twitter.

As I’m writing this, I’m flying high above Lake Michigan towards Chicago, where we’ll stop over for a few minutes before heading on to Denver and then Boulder, Colorado.

Traveling reminds me why I’m a writer. I do this because I want more people to have the crazy amount of freedom to go anywhere that I do.

This is the ultimate purpose of having a minimalist business: to make it possible to live and work from anywhere.

A year ago, I never thought I’d be able to move whenever I want and live and work from anywhere. A year later, I’ve lived in more cities in one year than I have in my entire life. I’ve traveled to more places this year than I ever had before. Meanwhile, I was able to keep my business going via the Internet to fund my life.

You deserve to journey to freedom.

Most people get two weeks of vacation a year. When I had a day job, I created such a facade about how important I was, that I never even took many of my vacation days –how will they survive if I leave for even a week?! I know plenty of people who do or have done the same.

Anyway, I’m not trying to get all philosophical. I just want to point out that there are other ways to live your life instead of in the cubicle, on the retail floor, or wherever it is that you may spend 80% of your awake time.

We’re in the midst of an Internet business revolution.

I’m convinced that the Internet provides nearly unlimited potential to individuals who are brave enough to start to begin capitalizing on the infinite selling power of digital media. No overhead, unlimited copies of data, the ability to communicate over the entire planet instantly.

Never before have we had this opportunity.

Seth Godin said something recently on a live broadcast with Penelope Trunk that fascinated me. Gen-Y (my generation, the kids who are around 25 these days) are the last generation who will remember what the world was like before the Internet broke down all of the barriers. We’re the ambassadors of change between the old and the young.

Isn’t that remarkable? My generation is like the translator between the people who think the only way to find success is to climb the corporate ladder or suck up to a gatekeeper.

Everyone younger than me can’t even conceive of wanting to join the rat race willingly. Why would you? There are better options now.

Change is difficult.

Yes, it’s scary to know that your own fate is in your hands. But isn’t it scarier to put your fate in the hands of a corporation that will use you until they don’t need you anymore, and then out you go?

This is why I’m working on my next e-book, Minimalist Business, which I’ve talked about before.I’ve spent hundreds of hours over the last few months perfecting the details, the tools, the theories in the book — all because I want to help as many people as I can start to enjoy the freedom of having the ability to travel at anytime. To set your own hours. To spend time making work that matters.

Another thing that Seth is always saying, especially in his latest book Linchpin, is that it is absolutely essential to set a ship date on a product. I’ve known so many artists who don’t set ship dates, and they work on their art forever — it’s never perfect, so it’s never done. So no one ever sees it.

  • If you’re making a painting, you have to set a date to hang in a gallery.
  • If you have a day job, you have to set a date to quit (if you want to.)
  • If you’re writing a book you have to set a date to publish it.

So here’s the deal with Minimalist Business:

On May 10th at 10am EST, I’ll be releasing Minimalist Business for 24 hours only to the readers of Far Beyond The Stars.

Don’t miss the launch! Sign up for free updates via email or rss.

As I work on Minimalist Business, I’m beginning to realize just how big and important this project is. If I didn’t set a ship date, it’s the kind of thing that I could work on for 10 years. But by that time the opportunity will be gone, because everyone with a head on their shoulders will be location independent. I’ll be releasing it whether or not it’s perfect.

I’m only releasing it for 24 hours, because I want to limit the initial group of people who get the book to a small few. This way we can work closer together on building your minimalist businesses, and in answering questions that come up about how to execute the techniques described in the book.

Perfect is the enemy of done. If you wait until things are perfect, chances are you’ll never finish.

The brilliant thing about digital media, and using e-junkie, is that I can send updated copies of the e-book. I know there will be missing pieces of the puzzle, and I’ll spell a few words wrong in the initial release. That’s okay! I think this is a part of making a difference. The ideas matter first and foremost.

Everyone who purchases a copy on May 10th will receive free updates for a year.

I fully expect to work on expanding and revising this e-book for a long time to come. I’ll do this by answering questions that new minimalist business owners, as they come up. I’ll add new sections as new technologies become prevalent. I’ll fix any minor grammar errors that you will inevitably notice and email me about.

I realize that this is a different way of doing things, but running a minimalist business is by nature challenging the status quo. I feel that it’s better to get the important information out there, rather than wait until it doesn’t matter anymore.

A limited release for first wave of aspiring minimalist business owners.

A limited group of individuals aspiring to start their minimalist business will be able to join me on May 10th as we work towards making many more minimalist businesses successful.

I hope you’ll join me, if living and working from anywhere is your goal.

If not, no worries! I’m going to continue to write insanely useful content on this blog for free for everyone who’s interested. This will always be the priority to me, helping people change the world for free. Because it’s more important to me to give everyone access to the information they need to make a difference in their lives.

I’ll have more information as we get closer to the 10th. Thank you for being a part of this minimalist business revolution.

-Everett Bogue

Oh! If you want to get started learning about how to start a minimalist business, here’s some of the highlights of what I’ve written before on the subject:

The Simple Guide to Making Money Online

The Surprising Truth About Using Minimalism to Leave Your Day Job

9 Minimalist Steps Toward Passive Income





The 7 Decisive Elements of Minimalist Business Design

How to Create the Basis for Minimalist Business Success

Written by Everett Bogue | Follow me on Twitter.

I’ve spoken before about the idea of creating a minimalist business — a zero-overhead location-independent business that practically runs itself.

Over the last year I’ve been able to successfully create my own minimalist business. During this year I’ve learned a good deal about how to create one successfully.

I’ve made some mistakes. I’ve also made some huge breakthroughs.

I conducted a lot of research, reading over 40 business books this year. Some of these business books were terrible, others like Timothy Ferriss’s 4 Hour Workweek and Seth Godin’s Tribes have set the foundation for what was to come.

The fundamentals of a minimalist business.

I’ve been thinking about the fundamentals that make a minimalist business successful, and I believe I’ve narrowed them down to just 7 decisive elements.

Not every minimalist business will need to use them all to be successful. However, I truly believe that if you ignore these 7 decisive elements, you’re going to have a more difficult time creating a minimalist business that works.

Why design a minimalist business?

We live in the age of day-job wage slavery. People go to work in the morning, do some stuff that they’re told to do, and then go home at night with a paycheck in hand. Somehow this feels empty, but we’re not sure exactly why.

The reality is that it doesn’t have to be this way anymore. The Internet has given every single individual with a dream the ability to make work online that will support them.

The idea of a minimalist business takes the location-independent business idea a little further. I want to give people the tools to create a business that allows them to work less and live anywhere in the world.

Obviously when you’re in the initial stages of creating a minimalist business, the work times will be quite longer than 10 hours, but eventually — if you follow the 7 decisive elements that I’ve laid out below — you will have designed a minimalist business that requires very little input.

Once you get to that point, you can sit back, relax, and watch the profits come in.

Designing a minimalist business isn’t for everyone.

Not everyone wants to be location independent or create a business that provides passive income while they live and work from anywhere. That’s okay! Creating a minimalist business isn’t easy, and I’d personally rather invite only the people who truly are interested in pursuing this path to freedom.

Whether you’re interested in creating a minimalist business, or simply want to apply these ideas to your work life or your not-minimalist business. Go for it! I hope I can be of help.

Here are the 7 Decisive Elements of Minimalist Business Design

1. No-overhead.

A minimalist business must have no (or very low) overhead.

This means that you don’t spend any money until you are making money. Many business owners insist on buying expensive hosting packages, costly equipment, or intensive consulting programs, before their business idea is even conceptualized. Don’t spend a dime, until you’ve got an idea that you’re ready to put into play. Even then, it’s more than possible to get your message to the world without having major costs.

Some businesses will need to spend a little bit for supplies, but a good rule is to keep start up costs under $100.

We think we need to spend money to make money, because we’ve been brought up in a culture where brick and mortar was the norm. Now the web is the norm, and in most cases you don’t need to spend much money at all to operate on the web.

If you think your business will cost a lot of money to run, think about what you can eliminate to make the costs vanish. Obviously there are businesses that do require start-ups costs –and these are totally legit businesses, but these aren’t what we’re going for.

A minimalist business has no-overhead. If your business design has massive overhead, it isn’t a minimalist business plan.

The best part about having no-overhead is that the cost of failure is small. If your business doesn’t take off, no harm done. All you have to do is start over again with a new idea.

2. Location independence.

One of the big advantages of starting a minimalist business is that it allows you to live and work from anywhere. On May 15th I’m going to move to San Francisco Bay, and my business simply comes with me. Last year I spent many months traveling from Portland Or through Chicago to New York.

If my business was rooted in one spot, I wouldn’t be able to move as often as I do.

A minimalist business is hosted in The Cloud. For those who are still living back in 1995, The Cloud is the networking infrastructure that has been created by large web companies to support networked computing. Almost every computing task, transaction, etc can now be completed online.

This means you don’t need an extensive amount of equipment to run your business. I like to keep it as simple as possible: just use a small Laptop. I have a MacBook Pro, but maybe you want a PC. It doesn’t matter, as long as the machine is portable.

This means that a minimalist business owner can tend to their business from anywhere in the world using WIFI, which is very easy to obtain is most places in the world at coffee shops and internet cafes.

This means you also don’t need an office, or even a permanent home, which eliminates many unnecessary costs.

3. Use existing infrastructure.

So many newbie entrepreneurs insist on constantly reinventing the wheel, especially when the wheel already exists. The tools you need to create your minimalist business already exist, do not try to invent new ones. Let other people in established businesses invest in infrastructure.

Infrastructure varies for every endeavor, but here are a few simple examples: Instead of coding a blog from scratch, use a nice free template and host on a well regarded blogging software. Believe it or not, I’ve been approached by start-ups who insisted the only way to get started was to start creating a blogging platform from scratch (ahem, WordPress exists.) Don’t be this business, you’ll waste literally hundreds of thousands of dollars, when you could have started for free.

The same path goes for communications infrastructure. Use established networks such as Twitter, and Facebook to reach out to clients. These services are popular for a reason, use them to reach potential customers instead of going the door-to-door route that so many people choose.

4. Automation.

A minimalist business needs to run itself. The foundation of passive income is that it comes in without you having to go looking for it.

Completely passive income is very hard to find, but that’s the ultimate goal. This doesn’t mean that you necessarily need to end up having a completely passive income stream, but just the possibility that it could go passive eventually.

Money coming in while you sleep is passive enough for most people. In order to do this, you need to automate everything. You can’t be accepting transactions by hand. You cannot be shipping and labeling individual orders as they come in. A minimalist business uses e-junkie, or another similar platform to handle all payments, transactions, and affiliate sales.

Once you automate all tasks that computers can do, this frees you up to do work that matters. And also allows you to travel and have massive amounts of free time to do what you want with your life. The ultimate goal in any minimalist business is freedom, and you need to automate in order to get to that point.

5. Isolation.

We’re constantly plugged into The Matrix: The Real World, that constantly on stream of information coming into your brain from social media, your cell phone, and any other stimuli that you allow into your space.

You have to turn it all off to create a minimalist business. Constant access to information leads to reactionary workflow — the most common symptom of this is sitting and refreshing your Gmail over and over every 35.5 seconds. Do you know what happens when you send and reply to email all day? You get email all day. This leads to nothing important getting done.

You aren’t creating the work which will be the foundation of your minimalist business if you’re just sitting around waiting for an email to come to your inbox so that you can reply to it.

Stop. Unplug. Sit in silence until you have regained the ability to have your own thoughts.

I recommend checking your email once per day if you’re trying to establish a successful minimalist business. I know this isn’t always possible, but it’s the end goal.

By decisively moving toward conscious isolation, you’ll be able to test if the automation systems are working, and also you’ll begin to create work that matters. Which brings us to…

6. Creating a movement.

Creating a movement the most important element. Your minimalist business needs to be about making the world better in some very specific way.

I’ve written about creating a movement before, and that’s because I believe it’s so incredibly important in any business model.

There are a number of different elements that come into play in any minimalist business movement. First, you need leaders. People who are willing to fight for the change that you believe in. When you have leaders, you will inevitably have followers. Followers are the people who support your minimalist business.

Second, a movement isn’t for everyone. Some people must be left out — the more the better (but not so many as to leave no one.) The reason for this is because if you create a minimalist business for everyone, you’ll end up helping no one. There are so many people in the world, they all need different things, they all have different beliefs.

Most businesses seek to create a product that suits everyone. Do the smart thing and create a niche business that you’re passionate about.

This is why I said above that creating a minimalist business isn’t for everyone, because it isn’t. Not everyone will have the skill or ambition to make location independent passive income a reality. Most people will just want to stay at their day jobs and go shopping on weekends.

7. Quality.

A minimalist business has to focus on creating a quality product. This is the making or breaking point for any business, and it must be the ultimate focus of minimalist business design.

Create a product that helps people, which harnesses your strengths to make change in the world.

The simple fact is that the world doesn’t have any more room for crappy stuff. We can’t be creating minimalist businesses that give people something they don’t need.

The single most important factor in minimalist business success is creating work that matters. Every minimalist business I’ve come across that has failed because they created a lame product that people didn’t need. There are enough of bad products in the world, what we need now is work that matters.

The thing is, I can’t tell you where your quality work comes from, this work is different for everyone. For me it was writing The Art of Being Minimalist in order to encourage people to stop consuming and start living their lives — this has been a huge success and now enables my location independent life.

For your minimalist business, the change you create will be different. You have to look deep inside yourself and honestly ask yourself what you’re passionate about creating. This passion is the foundation of your minimalist business.

I hope this helps those of you who are thinking about starting a minimalist business. Let me know if you have any questions in the comments, I’ll do my best to answer the ones that I can.

If this helped you, consider hitting the retweet button.

Thank you,

Everett Bogue





How to Find Your Minimalist Edge

Challenge yourself to find balance and still reach for The Edge

Written by Everett Bogue | Follow me on Twitter.

I practice yoga regularly. On most days you’ll find me either on my mat at home, or at Yoga to the People — a donation-based yoga studio in Manhattan.

There is a place in Yoga that I call The Edge.

The Edge is a very special place, because it’s the balance between trying too hard in a pose, and not trying enough (checking out.) You’re challenging yourself to go deep enough into the position, but not striving so hard that you’ve gone too far.

You can hurt yourself if you go past The Edge before you’re ready.

If you hurt yourself, there’s a large possibility that you will undo all of the work that you’ve done so far.

The Edge is different for everyone. The Edge changes day to day. You’re constantly striving to find your Edge in any Yoga position.

I imagine The Edge exists in minimalism as well.

Before I practiced Yoga, I spent a number of years striving to be a professional dancer.

Dance is very different from Yoga. While they are both physical activities, the concept of watching The Edge isn’t quite as prevalent. In Yoga the aim is to do the work, it doesn’t matter if you can grab your foot and bend it back over your head. Some people can do this, some cannot, no one will hit you with a stick if you can’t touch your toes in Yoga.

Dance is the opposite. If you can’t bend your leg back over your head, you’re a failure.

The reason for this is quite simple: only the top 1% of dancers get paid. Dance is a performance-based medium, so your singular aim in life is to make it to the stage. If you don’t make it to the stage, you’re just an amateur.

In many cases, this means that dancers don’t watch The Edge as they move toward their end goal of being on the stage.

This leads to injuries, eating disorders, and a lot of pain and frustration.

A dancer wakes up every morning, looks into the mirror, and says themselves “damn, I’m getting older and fatter, and I’ll never be Baryshnikov.”

You have to watch your Edge, even as a dancer (and even if very few dance teachers are aware that The Edge exists.)

It’s easy to look at the fact that I’m living with 50-Things and assume that I just dropped everything all at once. This isn’t true at all.

I slowly worked towards The Edge of minimalist existence.

  • In 2003 I moved in a Truck.
  • In 2007 I moved in a Honda Civic.
  • In 2009 I moved with three bags.
  • In 2010 I will move with one bag.

I slowly reduced my possessions. I created boxes of stuff that I thought I didn’t need and put them in the corner for weeks until I was sure it was time for them to go.

I’ve structured my life so that my work is done in either the virtual realm, or I’m working with only my body.

My point is this: I’ve been pushing my minimalist Edge for my entire life. I’ve been working, and reworking the practice until I’m comfortable with living with less.

I’m sure some people have gone from McMansion to backpack in one day, but I certainly didn’t do that. I fear if a person changed their life that drastically, they’d be going past The Edge.

If you go past The Edge in minimalism, there’s a good chance you’ll hurt yourself.

That being said, you need to be conscious of the end goal.

Minimalism isn’t minimalism if you aren’t actually practicing. There’s such a thing as not reaching your Edge. If you don’t reach your Edge, you aren’t reaching your full potential.

Minimalism is such an abstract concept. It can really apply to any number of things. You can get lost activities such as clearing off you desk, or re-organizing your bookshelf, and then smiling to yourself and calling yourself a rockstar minimalist. You are a minimalist! But you’re missing the point.

There’s a point when you aren’t pushing the edge.

Sometimes you aren’t making the effort. You’re just settled down, and waiting for something to happen. This, in my opinion, is most of society.

These people are constantly consuming endless amounts of junk, putting it in their houses, wondering why they aren’t happy. It’s sad, really.

I know, I’ve been there. I spent an entire year completely checked out at my day job. I drank too much and gained twenty pounds of belly fat. I had days during that time where my minimalist ambitions included gathering up six-packs of empty beer bottles and multiple take-out packages from the floor of my room in Brooklyn.

We’ve all been down that road, but there’s a point where you have to take a look what you’re aiming for. To set a goal and push your Edge consciously until you actually reach it.

At some point you have to set goals for yourself.

One day I simply set a goal: I was going to move across the country and start working for myself, or I’d die trying.

To do that I knew that I needed to reduce my possessions to less than 100 things. I didn’t do this because I thought I’d one-up all of the other minimalists –I obviously didn’t anyway. I didn’t do this to make a statement about society –though apparently people have told me that I have.

I made the decision to have less than 100 things and fit everything in the bag, because it was the only possible way that I could see for me to succeed. I wouldn’t have been able to start my own business, and be an average American consumer at the same time. Maybe you can! Good.

Last year I had a difficult choice to make: life-time servitude to the system that wants me to be in debt and buy buy buy until I die, or minimalist freedom. I opted for freedom.

I couldn’t have done this without taking minimalism to the top 1%.

I’m not saying that to gloat, I’m not saying that because I have less stuff than you. Who cares how much stuff I have, I’m not trying to one-up any of you.

The thing is, I wouldn’t have been able to accomplish what I did, without going all the way to The Edge. I need to go to this place of less at this moment in time.

Yes, this means that:

I probably won’t live with 50-things forever.

I probably won’t live and work from anywhere forever.

Sooner or later I might find a new challenge to pursue. (But it won’t be learning how to buy stupid stuff.)

[UPDATED: Actually, screw the people who criticize counting things.

We need to stand up for what we believe in: living with less is better.

There is nothing obsessive about having less (and making a point of showing people.) What is unhealthy: having tons of stuff. Stuff holds you down, it keeps you from being free and pursuing your dreams.

Living with 50 things and being location independent is pretty damn awesome. I wouldn't be able to do this and have buckets of junk.

In response to Charley Forness's thoughtful rant.]

I do enjoy living with less at the moment.

Part of me knows, that you can’t really know a thing until you’ve gone all the way with it.

  • You haven’t known dance until you’ve pushed yourself to The Edge on a stage in front of a full house.
  • You haven’t known Yoga until you’ve pushed yourself to The Edge through an entire sequence, collapsed into Savasana and passed out from blissfulness.
  • You haven’t known minimalism until all of your possessions fit into a backpack (my Edge) and hopped on a plane to a place you’ve never been before.

Maybe your Edge right now is cleaning off your desk and donating a few books. Donate those books, but make sure you’re pushing your Edge when you do it. If the junk just comes back you’re not making progress.

Maybe your Edge is simplifying your time in order to work for yourself by generating passive income.

The point is, The Edge is different for everyone.

Maybe your Edge will never get to the point where you’re hopping on planes. That’s okay! But you have to push yourself to The Edge (but not too far.) or you’ll never see progress.

I’d love for you to retweet this post if it helped you — this is the best way to help people find my writing. Thank you.

If you’re interested, I have a guest post over at The Art of Great Things about pursing quality in life.

And Bud Hennekes wrote a reviewed The Art of Being Minimalist and interviewed me at PluginID.