What No One Ever Tells You about Starting Your Own Business: Real-Life Start-Up Advice from 101 Successful Entrepreneurs

by Jan Norman

An updated picture of the trials and triumphs of today's entrepreneur increase the company's bottom line. Starting a business involves inevitable ups and downs, for first-time as well as experienced entrepreneurs. This updated, expanded edition by Jan Norman, one of the nation's foremost small business authorities, guides readers through every stage of business start-up, from planning to marketing. What No One Ever Tells You about Starting Your Own Business is designed for people who are launching a business, whether they be first-time entrepreneurs or people who have been tripped up by the start-up process before and want to do it right this time. Using the real-life experiences of 101 successful business owners, Norman combines practical, straightforward how-to advice with interesting and memorable narratives. The updated second edition * Thirty new start-up stories from successful entrepreneurs. * All-new advice about how to make maximum use of the Internet. * An expanded resources section with helpful information about start-up assistance. * Detailed how-to tips about writing business plans, selecting the right business, what financial records to keep, and more. The eye-opening lessons from successful business owners who learned the hard way are akin to hiring a personal entrepreneurial coach to point out potential roadblocks in advance.

Genres: Business, Entrepreneurship

221 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1999

Reviews

[Jeff]

This book was mostly filled with short inspirational stories to help keep one motivated in starting/running one's own small business. There would usually be one moral to each story that was focused upon and maybe some tips and advice in that story as well if you were lucky. The inspirational quality was pretty good though it got rather long after hitting stories 80 on up. The tips were more or less common sense though there were a few gems here and there. The little guide at the end gives a few more tips and checklists and summarizes a lot of what you get in the rest of the book. My recommendation would be to jot some notes from the guide and then read some random stories when you need motivation, but you may wish to look elsewhere for some concrete advice and guidance in getting started.

[Justus]

Its a little book of different vignettes and aspects of small business life. Good enough for someone thinking about the possibility of starting something up but I don't know if its much use for anyone else. I will say that it is a little annoying at times because too many of the stories are "what I would have done differently" as opposed to "what I did (well or badly)"

[Luke]

A fast read with over 100 anecdotes illustrating mistakes to avoid and examples to follow when starting a business. Generally good information - it could probably be found in many entrepreneurship books, but the story-based format of this one makes it extra compelling.

[Mike]

I've had this on my bookshelf for a while without actually reading it, but now I'm glad I have. It's not the most technical book, but that's not a bad thing at all. It's filled with plenty of practical information...Definitely worth the checking out.

[Holly]

Good collection of short 1-2 pg experiences of business owners and what, looking back, they found out the hard way. Most is tried and true b-school stuff. The value in the book, to me, is the breadth of the types of businesses and business owners surveyed.

[Larry Brummond]

Good honest appraisal of what it's like to run your own business. As she says "No one can fully prepare you for how hard it is to run a business." It's straight forward and challenging look at being an entrepreneur.

[Lori Grant]

An optional-read book on entrepreneurship for knowledge workers and aspiring entrepreneurs.