The Small Business Owner's Manual: Everything You Need to Know to Start Up and Run Your Business

I have operated a consulting and services firm for many years now and purchased this book as soon as it was available. At first I thought "so what can I learn from a book at this point" but there is some really good stuff here that made this an important read in bringing me up to date in some areas, and in consolidating my knowledge in others. For example, there is a chapter on web sites and e-stores. I have had a site up for some years now but the book brings out a lot of important new concepts. Heck, things change. Kennedy (the author) makes a good point that a web site is never finished but is always a marketing work-in-progress. He describes many possibilities but the book is grounded in reality since he understands that small businesses cannot try everything like bigger firms. So now I reduced my marketing budget away from some print ads and I am getting better results through a Search Engine Marketing program outlined in the book. This alone is saving me about $200 per month.The book also does an excellent job of outlining many types of insurance that can be considered (I knew something about all of these but, as Kennedy points out, the "half-life" of insurance information is very short) and this is the only summary I have ever seen and is a must-read for any business owner. He also outlines about ten new financing sources that can be considered but perhaps most importantly gives a realistic assessment of when each should be considered abd when to not waste your time.Finally our business now accepts credit cards for retainer payments and this is the first description I have ever seen about how the entire system works, and why the word "approved" doesn't really mean approved at all.In summary, my business has been in operation for many years and I have much experience in many of these areas but the book was a real help and I will be keeping it in my office as a reference.

The instructor of my small business class had us use this and 2 other books and The Small Business Owners Manual was the best. TSBOM covers all areas of concern to operating a small business and I will keep it and use it and refer to it for a long time! Didn't spend a lot of time on tiresome theories, but actually gave a lot of real-world situations that could happen to everyone, which brought the book down to earth.

So much information here for anyone thinking of opening a small business, or anyone who already has a small business. Tips on everything from marketing to taxes to hiring employees, this is a digest that will stay on my shelf as a reference book forever!

I cannot honestly give a review due to health issues taking all my time at this time.

This was an excellent read to put me in track for running a successful and efficient security/investigative firm. Everything I could have imagined plus more was inside this book. Thanks Mr. Kennedy and Amazon

Read this book before I opened up a clothing store. It really help me out big time. A must have for any business owner.

good book

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