The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau

Mixed feelings on this one. I wanted to read this book because entrepreneurship and business interest me. And this book got a ton of praise from critics, which led me to come in with high expectations. The book wasn't bad, but it didn't meet my expectations.

The book is a how to manual for small startups. From the title, you can probably guess this. The author is some guy who has had more successful small ventures than I could keep track of. He interviewed 1,500 other small businesses. Most were single owners who started with a few hundred bucks. The book does a great job providing steps and checklists for starting a business and making it profitable.

I had a few issues with the book. The biggest thing was I didn't believe it. Things are never as easy as they sound. When you start a business, you will struggle, you will be stressed. Maybe I am too pessimistic. The last chapter tried to explain the difficulties of starting a business, but was not sufficient in my opinion. The author does a good job sharing stories of others, but I thought they were all too brief. I also dislike referencing future or previous chapters (i.e. we will discuss this more in chapter 11). Why not discuss it now? The last rift I had was almost all of the businesses seemed to rely on the internet. Internet business can succeed and nowadays it's almost a requirement to have an internet presence, but I am wary of simply relying on the internet alone.

I didn't hate the book. I didn't love it either. It was okay. If you are serious about starting a business, I would encourage reading The $100 Startup. But it's not required.

My rating for The $100 Startup: 3 stars out of 5. Get it here!