This book is a good reading for to-be entrepreneur. It talks about how to make intelligent business decisions that will lead to success in building and growing your own company. It is divided into some 27 odd chapters. To start with the book says how to think like an entrepreneur and how to become de-Bernoullied (Daniel Bernoulli was the first mathematician to show how people make investment decisions, not just from a mathematical risk and reward standpoint, but from an emotional standpoint.) How they emotionally value the investment.
People are risk adverse and often will stay at a job they are not passionate about for fear of losing what they already have. It also says that to succeed you will need to learn financial decision-making and how to choose a business that puts the chances of financial success more in your favor. Then the next chapter says ?Men Are Cheaper Than Guns? (I really liked this title) it means that one doesn?t need to know it all. One can hire others.
Other topics talked of are:
Ø The Importance of Margins; high-profit margins are crucial to a company’s success. Struggling with a low-margin business is like standing on a precarious ledge by a huge raging torrent of water at Niagara Falls trying to get a cup full of water. Learn how to predict likely profit margins for your company.
Ø The need to generate good revenue per sale
Ø Importance of internet and commerce
Ø Decision Making: How to evaluate business decisions from a rational framework.
Ø How to choose the business, the author says that, there are companies for bold people, and there are companies for shy people. Choose a business suited to who you are as a person (personality)
Ø Shifting risk on venture capital
Ø Continuous learning
Ø The role of luck in business
Ø How does your company grow its profits?
Ø Learning what affects your company’s compounding cycle and your company’s rate of return in the cycle. (This part is very interesting and important).
The other interesting part is the definition of entrepreneur. Bringing Together the Resources (This chapter points out the simple fact that entrepreneurs are the ones who make things happen by simply taking action and doing it. Yet, why don’t most people ever learn to take action and just do it?) Other chapters on, an introduction to sales, relationship marketing: the cost of losing clients, virtual organization, outsourcing, and the value of time. The last part speaks on buying a business that discusses price-to-sales ratios, valuation issues, accounting differences, the valuation of intellectual capital, and other issues to consider when buying a business. Buying into an existing business is a good entry strategy for many new entrepreneurs.
This chapter is also excellent reading for investors who wish to invest in smaller companies and are looking for objective methods of small company valuation. Another important topic is writing a business plan, having a business plan helps you focus upon the issues important to your business. It also helps you evaluate your entrepreneurial thinking.
Failure to properly plan your business is one of the key factors The Small Business Administration lists as leading to company failure. Two types of plans are considered. One, a plan of business to help you understand what you need to do to succeed. And, two, a business plan targeted to raising capital. (psst? hey even I had to make a plan so I discovered how can I improve myself) Though not an entrepreneur I really feel like getting into it? so as learnt in management classes in the good old days ? let there be more and more entrepreneurs and more job providers and not job seekers?