Book notes: Million Dollar Weekend by Noah Kagan

Get the audiobook on Audible 👇 (affiliate link)

Million Dollar Weekend: The Surprisingly Simple Way to Launch a 7-Figure Business in 48 Hours by Noah Kagan

Synopsis:

“The founder and CEO of AppSumo.com, Noah Kagan, knows how to launch a seven-figure business in a single weekend—and he’s done it seven times. Million Dollar Weekend will show you how.

Now is the best time in history for entrepreneurship. More than ever, the world needs new businesses and it’s cheaper than ever to create them.

And, let’s be frank: most day jobs suck. People spend too much time doing too much work for too little money—and they know it. They want out.

But, if the barriers to starting a business are getting lower and lower, why is it SO HARD TO DO for SO MANY PEOPLE? Why are there so many wantrepreneurs playing at business on social media and so few entrepreneurs actually running them?

Ask yourself:

• Do you want to work for yourself or start a side-hustle, but it all feels too risky and unpredictable?
• Have you spent time or money on things like websites and logos, but still have no customers?
• Are you brainstorming endlessly and waiting for the perfect idea to strike?

All those Frequent Excuses are solvable. The plan is simple—so simple it can be completed in a single weekend, but so powerful that Kagan has used it to build seven businesses now worth more than $1 million:

• Find your Creator’s Courage to overcome your fear and have fun!
• Use the “Million Dollar Weekend” Process to get customers EXCITED to give you money.
• Automate your business so it can grow while you sleep.

By Monday, you’ll have a market-tested, scalable business idea and you’ll be a entrepreneur on the path to seven figures. Million Dollar Weekend is the path to creating your dream life and attaining financial freedom. LFG.” -Audible

---

~If you enjoy my summary, please consider buying me a coffee via my Ko-Fi link (click the button below) or support this blog in one of several ways! 📖 🎓

I appreciate every donation as it goes directly to the maintenance costs of my blog and creation of new content. 😊

Opening thoughts:

I heard of this book when it was referenced in a YouTube video by Ali Abdaal as one of his favorite books on building a business (I don’t remember which specific video it was). I added this, along with three other books, to my list, but decided to start with this one first as it seemed the most relevant to the upcoming projects I’m working on.

---

Key notes:

Start Here

• Small experiments repeated over time are the recipe for transformation in business and life
• 2 fears derail most people: the fear of starting and the fear of asking
• One of the best ways to approach starting a business is to have fun

Part One: Start It

Chapter 1: Just Fu**ing Start

• Lesson: Focus above all else on being a starter, an experimenter, a learner
• Challenge: $1 challenge – ask someone you know to invest $1 in you in your future business
• The “now, not how” habit: Prioritize taking action now and not worrying about the how
• Challenge: Ask one person you respect for a business idea
• Choose your monthly “freedom number” of how much you want to make
  • Targeting this monthly revenue number is the most effective early motivation

Chapter 2: The Unlimited Upside of Asking

• Intentionally developing your ask muscle is required for entrepreneurial success
  • Everything you want, you have to ASK for it
• Rejection challenge: ask for 10% off your order at a coffee shop to strengthen your rejection muscles

Part Two: Build It

Chapter 3: Finding Million-Dollar Ideas

• When it comes to generating business ideas, customers come first, before the product or service
  • To build a business, you need someone to sell to
• Pro tip: Look for something working in one category and bring it to another
• The only opinion that matters is your customers’
  • Your job as a customer-first entrepreneur is to listen to the problem your customers want solved, create a solution to it, and validate that they’ll pay for it
• Pro tip: Focus on 0 to $1
  • That first dollar will give you momentum
• Build a business that solves your own problems
• Go to your existing communities and find problems to solve
• Make a habit of jotting down things that bother you, and problems you have that you wish were solved
• Idea: Best-sellers are your best friends
  • What are the existing best-selling products that you can accessorize and sell to that existing base of customers?

Chapter 4: The One-Minute Business Model

• Market size is the single most important variable in quickly understanding the potential of any project
• The simple one-minute business plan: revenue – expenses = profit

Chapter 5: The 48-Hour Money Challenge

• Validation is finding three customers in 40 hours who will give you money for your idea
  • Limitations breed creativity
• Actively pre-selling to your first few customers is the best way for entrepreneurs to launch a business
  • Start with your best friends, and your close networks, a.k.a. your zone of influence
• Create your list of the first 10 people you’re gonna contact for pre-selling
• Validation is a conversation, not a sales pitch, but a chat to learn about the customer, see if you can help them, and if they’ll actually pay you
• Three-part framework:
  • Listen
  • Options
  • Transition
• Listen: your job is to get customers talking about their problem
  • Three questions: What’s the most frustrating thing about what’s currently going on? How would having a solution make your life better? What do you think this should cost?
• Options: Suggest options that can solve their problems and what they’d pay for it
  • You’re looking for excitement and a willingness to pay
• You can distill your offer down to three parts: price + benefit + time
• Pro tip: Presenting your offer as a comparison can make it easier for your customer to understand. “We are like X but better because Y” 
• Be comfortable with selling a product and receiving money before you’ve made it
  • You just need to set clear expectations and communicate upfront
• Pro tip: always follow up by sending an email to your first customers asking for feedback. Feedback is a gift you can continually use to improve yourself and your business
• 4 Questions to ask in rejection:
  • Why not? (get feedback)
  • Who is one person you know who’d really like this? (Always ask for a referral, what kinds)
  • What would make this a no-brainer for you? (Related services?)
  • What would you pay for that? (Get an idea for setting pricing)
• Turn rejections into feedback and improvements to your ideas
• Use active communication (like DMs) instead of passive ones, like social media posting
  • Also leverage active marketplaces like Facebook where people are already willing to spend money

Part Three: Grow It

Chapter 6: Social Media Is for Growth…

• A community that already knows, follows, and is rooting for you is one of the most powerful forces in business
  • It is created through generosity
    • Adding value without expectation, helping them with their journey without asking for an immediate return
    • Sometimes it’s just helping them by boosting their self-esteem with a simple compliment
• Reference to Ali Abdaal.
  • Content circle framework: Start with a specific, focused topic for a tiny circle to build raving fans, then slowly expand your circle of content to influence larger groups of people
  • Step 1: core circle – start with a very narrow audience
  • Step 2: medium circle
• Be the guide, not a guru
  • People don’t want to be lectured at; they want to tag along with a guide
• Position yourself as someone who is documenting their journey and showing their process

Chapter 7: …Email Is for Profit

• Social media, telling stories, and email could create a really large business
  • Create your email, landing page, and link to it in all of your bios and socials
• Challenge: Create a lead magnet to entice people to sign up for your email list
• New email subscriber automation sequence: welcome email, connection email, content email
• The law of 100: Whatever you put yourself to, do it 100 times before you even think of stopping
  • The key is to set up a system that helps you to get a hundred reps done without thinking about the results

Chapter 8: The Growth Machine

• 5 questions to create your own marketing plan:
  1. What is your 1 goal for this year?
  2. Who exactly is your customer and where can you find them?
  3. What is 1 marketing activity you can double down on?
  4. How can you delight your first 100 customers?
  5. If you had to double your business with no money in 30 days, what would you do?
• Pro tip: When setting a goal, be specific, then add a timeframe
• Work backwards from your goal, then create marketing strategies that get you there
• It’s about prioritizing tactics and ruthlessly experimenting
  • You never know what’s going to work
  • You need a process of small experiments of your best guess of what might work
• Look for patterns with your existing customers
• Challenge: Where are your customers?
  • List out at least 5 places your customers are and how many sales in 30 days you think you can get from them
  • Exhaust your free options first
• Golden rule of marketing: Find what works and double down on it. Find what doesn’t work and kill it
• Challenge: Make your customers happy

Chapter 9: 52 Chances This Year

• Pro tip: Front-load your priorities so you do the most important tasks earlier on in your day/week
• There is no such thing as self-made. Only team-made
• Find pre-fluencers whose work you’re impressed by

Start Again

---

Closing thoughts:

Fantastic book. I had high expectations, but this book over-delivered beyond it. Not only was it exactly what I was looking for, but it was very tactical and high-value without too much fluff. I’ve even started implementing some of what I learned immediately while I was listening to it as it definitely changed the way I approached my new businesses.

---

One Takeaway / Putting into practice:

The one takeaway is probably one of the main (if not THE main) idea of this book:

• Small experiments repeated over time are the recipe for transformation in business and life

It’s all about fast, low-cost experiments as the starting point for any new business venture. When I approach it in this way, it reduces the friction and risk, which is what usually stops me from moving forward with an idea. This was a game-changer for me.

---

Nutshell:

The surprisingly simple way to launch a 7-figure businessin 48 hours is to focus above all else on being a starter, an experimenter, a learner.

---

Similar books:

• Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk
• Crushing It! by Gary Vaynerchuk
• The Automatic Customer by John Warrillow
• The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber
• The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman
• The Startup Checklist by David S. Rose

---

Rating:

4.5/5

Subscribe for More Summaries👇

---

Try Audible for audiobooks 📚🎧

Personal recommendation: For the last 10+ years, I’ve used Audible to listen to all of my favorite books. It’s easy to use, cost-effective, and they have the best library of audiobooks.

If you use my affiliate links below, not only will you get a special offer, but it’ll help support the costs to maintain this blog! 😊👇

Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks

Audible Gift Memberships 

---