"Self-Home Entrepreneurship Bible" teaches you to develop multiple sources of income: take stock of resources and do things that you like and that are helpful to others.
I like the book “Self-owned Entrepreneurship Bible (opens in a new tab)”. I will take it out of the bookcase and read it again from time to time. The reason why I like this book is not only because I have read other works by this Japanese author in the past (such as “The Miracle of Morning Diary (opens in a new tab)”), but also because he conveyed an interesting concept in the book, which I found very interesting, and it is especially worth thinking about for you and me in the VUCA era:
──Don’t destroy your excellent status as a “self-employed person” to create the most Cash Points (source of income) and the possibility of contributing to society.
You know, whether you are an office worker, a college student, or you are aspiring to start a business… Financial status is always an unavoidable topic, and all of this is also related to whether you can have a bright future?
This book (opens in a new tab) The author teaches you a very effective way to use the nine-square grid method to inventory your own sources of income. The method is very simple. Please fill in your name in the center of the nine-square grid, and then fill in your sources of income in the other eight spaces in order.
Author Sato Den asked everyone, have you filled in all the eight boxes? At this point, you may be rolling your eyes and thinking: How is this possible? Yes, it’s really not easy! In fact, most office workers have only one source of income. Even if they work part-time, if they can have two or three sources of income, it will be great!
In the past, I have also used this method taught by the author to help some friends around me take stock of their financial situation, and everyone found it very rewarding. For example, my lecturer friend Wei Meifeng (opens in a new tab) once said that through this nine-square grid, you can simply figure out your career proportions, and conduct focus conversations in a more in-depth and focused manner.
After filling in the nine-square grid, don’t just worry about how many sources of income you have? Compared with these, we need to think calmly: What benefits can be derived from spending time doing these things? And what is the situation of the efforts, output and proportion that I have put in? More importantly, what do you want others to know about you?
Therefore, as long as you have diversified sources of income, you can naturally no longer rely on the company or others, or look at other people’s faces. For example, my friend Li Baifeng (opens in a new tab) is not only the editor-in-chief of the technology media INSIDE (opens in a new tab), he is also a well-known financial blogger and writer, and also runs By having my own website and producing multiple online courses, I can say that I have made my personal career (opens in a new tab) impressive!
Of course, not everyone can have [diversified development] like my friend (https://pansci.asia/archives/163752 (opens in a new tab)). However, the author of this book does not forget to remind you that if your income sources are too few, there are actually great risks! After all, once the stability of your main income is lost, it may have a huge impact on your life. Therefore, he encouraged everyone to consider developing a one-person career in order to have a more stable life.
At first glance, this opinion seems to be different from the concept of traditional society: Why does the pursuit of a stable life need to rely on one person’s career?
Having said that, the reason why the author encourages everyone to embrace one-person career is because everyone’s interests, experience and strengths can be converted into money. He also pointed out that although freelance workers seem to be “free”, they usually need to cater to the requirements of their owners; in comparison, one-person businesses are proactive proposal-based jobs with more options.
After drawing the nine-square grid, you can further think about the product type, sales place and sales method. In this way, as the author said, 24 possible products can be transformed!
Maybe when someone sees this, they will secretly ask in their hearts: I also want to build my own business, but what should I do if I don’t have any skills? In addition to not having outstanding talents, you may not have enough savings and connections… In this case, can you really build a personal brand? How to start your own one-person business?
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The author of “Self-owned Entrepreneurship Bible (opens in a new tab)” encourages everyone to start a one-person business without spending a dime! The most important thing is to be determined. It would be better if you also have clear interests, experience and strengths! To master a one-person business, you can start taking inventory from eight major areas, namely: content and products, operating personal brands, websites and systems, customer acquisition and marketing, funds and strategies, emotional habits, thinking habits and behavioral habits, team and community, mission and vision.
Author Sato Den revealed that as long as we can flexibly use these eight areas, we have the opportunity to build an outstanding one-person career. Recently, because I am developing Personal Branding Online Course (opens in a new tab) (the fundraising discount will end on the evening of May 27), I also have the opportunity to re-examine the development of these eight major areas.
Of course, for all those who want to build a one-person business, I really recommend planning and inventory starting with content and products. As the author (opens in a new tab) said, there must be someone in this society who needs your products. Therefore, it is recommended that everyone try to find the intersection between their interests, expertise and things that are beneficial to people, and then focus on executing them!
If you have any questions during the exploration process, you are welcome to discuss with me (opens in a new tab)!
★ Featured Image Source: Photo by Thor Schroeder (opens in a new tab) on Unsplash (opens in a new tab)
★ Want to build your personal brand? Come and sign up for the “Personal Brand Management Practice (opens in a new tab)” online course.
Further reading
- Sales no longer relies on luck: Revealing the growth rules of “The Model” of Japanese B2B
- Vesta Cocoon Diary: Nine Steps to Working for Yourself
- I read “Playing One Man Company: Use Personal Brand to Create Ideal Work Styles and Career Maps”: Use interest-driven pursuit of a better life
Next step
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Vista Cheng speaks and runs workshops on AI workflows, writing and content systems for companies, schools and public agencies.
