This is the Safari online edition of the printed book.

“This book should be on the seasoned entrepreneur’s list of ‘what I should have read before I started my business.’”

JOE KEELEY, President & CEO, College Nannies & Tutors Development

“This is one of the best entrepreneurship books I’ve read...I wish I had this book when I first started out.”

RYAN O’DONNELL, Cofounder and CEO, BullEx Digital Safety

Your own business: Take the leap, make it happen, and make it succeed!

·   The truth about choosing the right business for you and maintaining a healthy personal life

·   The truth about planning, funding, hiring, and successful launches

·   The truth about financial management, marketing, and growth

This book reveals 53 bite-size, easy-to-use techniques for choosing, planning, launching, and growing your winning business.

You’ll learn how to generate and test business ideas, and pick the one that’s best for you...select the right entry strategy...name and locate your business...raise capital...build your team and get expert advice...protect your business secrets and intellectual property...effectively brand your business and market its offerings...handle pricing, distribution, and sales...manage your finances to specific objectives...prepare for growth...and even maintain your work/life balance as an entrepreneur. This isn't “someone's opinion”: it's a definitive, evidence-based guide to building your own successful enterprise--a set of bedrock principles you can rely on whoever you are, wherever you are, and whatever business you choose to launch.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 1 Ratings

Much good, but some less than, this book is worthy of a wanta-be enterpreneur's time when considering howto get started in biz. - 2009-04-12
Reviewer Rating:

This book was nice. It covers the basic business topics that a wanta-be entrepreneur or startup specialist needs to consider when founding a for-profit venture, i.e., finance, marketing, organization, team building, and technology. I found this book to be a mere primer - not an indepth or learned treatise. It was certainly well organized and fairly well written, and includes the following chapters:

1. What it takes to be a business owner
2. Generating & testing business ideas
3. Entry strategies
4. Getting up & running
5. Raising money
6. Building a new business team
7. Intellectual property
8. Marketing
9. Financial management
10. Growing a business
11. Starting a business & maintaining a healthy personal lifestyle

I particularly liked the number of references to SCORE dot org, the nonprofit organization to which I volunteer. And I thought it covered a lot of what I cover in my initial client interviews when I work for SCORE.

I was disappointed in the coverage of Internet businesses, franchising, and network marketing. I did not think these topics were done well nor complete. The perspective on them was slanted. And I kind of wish the author had just not mentioned them as separate topics as a result.

The topic of "choice of legal entity" was lacking. I did not agree with the author on which entity between a corporation and a limited liability company (LLC) is the cheapest route to go. It really depends on the circumstances of a particular situation. There was no discussion of costs regarding single-member LLCs versus multi-member LLCs. Single-member LLCs are almost always the cheapest route to go if there is only one owner. And if there are more than one owner it must be debated whether to go the LLC route or C corp route. An LLC is more analogous to a partnership than an S Corp - and the author ignored this in his writing. And it is partnership agreements and operating agreements that make partnerships and multi-member LLCs expensive. There was no mention about this.

I think the coverage regarding Web sites was weak, too. I did not see that the different types of sites were discussed: brochure, lead-generating, credibility boosting, customers services & sales, or media/information. A Web site cannot meet all objectives of the business owner. To be effective a site should have no more than two of the above objectives. And there should have been some discussion of the importance of domain name ownership and email accounts. There wasn't.

But the book did a good job stressing the importance of a business plan. By writing a business plan you determine the feasibility of the startup. And by writing (rather than winging) you will fail on paper instead of in real life. Fail on paper until you succeed there. Then take that written document and use it as a roadmap to success in starting your company. 4 stars!

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