So, You Want to Start a Business?: 8 Steps to Take Before Making the Leap 1st Edition

The common mistakes made by people starting businesses include choosing a bad business, choosing the wrong customers, selling the wrong product, using the wrong prices, not selling fast enough, not executing well, employing the wrong people and mismanaging growth, according to Edward Hess and Charles Goetz in this book.The book goes on to describe how to manage each of these areas of a new business correctly so that the pitfalls are avoided. Most of the chapters deal with issues related to getting a new business going, but chapter 8 contains a crash course in principles for managing a business, chapter 9 gives advice on finding an employing good people, and chapter 10 discusses the issues that arise as a business expands.There are plenty of books on starting a business, and most of them cover similar territory. However, most of them are not very interesting to read. What makes this short book stand out from the others is the clear, concise and engaging way in which it is written, with summaries of "lessons learned" at the end of each chapter and resources for further learning at the end. I would strongly recommend the book to anyone who is thinking about starting a new business or looking for some quick hints on how to run an existing business well.

I very much enjoyed this book. It does an excellent job assisting a non-business person (like me) in thinking about all of the things one needs to do to get a business on solid foundation before making such a huge investment (both in time and money).The book is structured to cover one main topic per chapter, and it does so in an excellent way. The authors harp incessantly in the early chapters about making sure you have a profitable business idea, not just a good idea. I appreciated this because I believe there is an important distinction.It also spends many, many pages discussing the importance of customer service. Another important point that many failed small businesses did not grasp. My partner was once turned away from a small business three times due to poor customer service policies despite him almost begging for the business's help (it was a battery store). The employees simply didn't want to take the time to help him. Now, they are unemployed or in a new line of work.This book won't make you rich. It won't give you any good business ideas. However, it will give your business idea a stress test and help you improve any weaknesses in your existing plan. It is also sold at a good price ($9.89 for Kindle for me).I would highly recommend this book for any person who wants to start a business but feels like they lack some business knowledge. Very good investment for the right person.

Helpful with a course I took from Edward D. Hess with Coursera. The book and the course were both helpful in understanding how others systematically start and operate a business. However, my approach over the past 22 years is way different and it works for me.

The book is a useful run down of the things you NEED to think about before starting your own business. It poses questions you need to be able to answer about your own venture before runnng with it.The only short coming of this book are the often short explanations about "how" to do something. This book answers more the "why" plan your business and "what" to plan but not really how to go about it.

This was a very interesting and informative read! I have no background in business whatsoever, but I found this book very easy to understand. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is planning or thinking about starting a business.

I really liked the format of this book and the subject matter overview provided. This book serves as a great guide for those contemplating starting a business. It is filled with pointers and tips of things to keep in mind during business formation.

So, You Want to Start a Business?: 8 Steps to Take Before Making the Leap This book is a very concise, well-written primer on business basics. Anyone thinking about starting out on their own should take an hour or two to read through this excellent book. Really liked the chapter on determining business value, profit margins and evaluating the competition.

Undecided

If you do not have a comprehensive business education but are thinking of setting up your own business, this is a great introduction for you.It covers all the important aspects of setting up any business and helps you to evaluate your startup idea by asking a number of fundamental questions.It is also a fairly compact book with c.160 pages so it will not take very long to read. Don't be put off by the number of pages. A good book it about quality of content, not quantity of pages.

really helpful

A good starting point for new entepreneur. Useful and well organized. See even others book of these authors and Coursera courses.

Cumplió mis expectativas. Conceptos tan básicos como útiles. Ojalá hubiera sabido antes de este libro, me habría ahorrado algún disgusto. Muy recomendable.