the hundred dollar business

Everyone,

This evening, I was working on the blog (notice our pretty new sidebar links, much clearer & easier to read?), and I clicked over onto the 100 Entrepreneur Profiles page:

Here it is.

Basically, it’s amazing to me. There are only 5 spots left on our initial 100 Entrepreneur List. You have to scroll down the entire page to get to the last author’s name, #95, Oliverio González Palacio from Colombia.

Three weeks ago, we started this project with an idea, and that’s all. So many of you have joined to share your story, tips, PR skills, web design skills & insights, publishing recommendations, blog links, and more.

We haven’t spent anything yet, unless you count the $9.20 we spent to register theentrepreneurstory.com, which we may/may not actually use.

It’s Everyone’s Project Now

I really appreciate everyone who’s participated in this. What I’m most excited about is that the project has taken on a life of its own, and it’s really everyone’s project now.

This was evident to me in tonight’s collaboration session, as we chatted back and forth about the different options and needs for the content editing. The participants who discussed the content have ownership of the idea, and the concept, and they’re excited about what we’re doing. Thank you.

What We’ll Really Accomplish…

We may not meet every nit-picky goal we set out to accomplish by the end of this week (finding every single state, collecting exactly 100 profiles, and having the most glamorous printed version possible), but we will have met the important milestones & goals:

(This from the announcement of the project on February 5th. I’ve bolded the goals I feel are most compelling.)

1. Write/compile 150 pages of content.
2. Raise $100 for next project.
3. Find 100 customers for the book.
4. Determine 3 publishing options that are viable and use at least one of them.
5. Go through the process of getting the product into the hands of the customer: ordering, packaging, shipping, etc.
6. Create a new database of entrepreneurs and their experiences.
7. Learn about the business of writing.
8. Learn about product development (taking the content through the stages of writing, editing, publication, distribution).
9. Improve my document/information management skills (through keeping track of 100 profiles & 100 customers).
10. Complete a value-providing writing project.

So, nice work, everyone! We’ve still got… 7 days left after today. Plenty of time, right? And trust me, we will still be working hard at finding those last states & other details.

And, if you’ve got some free time over the next week and would like to help with our collaboration-editing or anything else, drop me a line at hundreddollarbusiness@gmail.com. We’d be delighted to have you join us.