Griffiths - The big book of small business: the #1 guide to growing, prospering, and succeeding today

Andrew Griffiths is real, raw and relevant The Sunday Mail

Andrew Griffiths has a unique gift. He is one of the greatest communicators of our time. Part philosopher, part futurist and part advocate for entrepreneurs everywhere Shelley Evans-Wild, Managing Director, NeuroPower

Andrew Griffiths is one of the best authorities I know on how to do business better. He is a never ending source of smart information and powerful inspiration Brian Haverty, CBS Interactive

Big on knowledge. Big on passion. Another cracker, Andrew! Robert Gerrish, Flying Solo

There is no one else like Andrew Griffiths. Hes larger than life, totally driven to help others and he makes doing business a blast Anh Do, author of The Happiest Refugee

Andrew Griffithswe salute you Weekend Sunrise

Andrew Griffiths is an incredibly gifted author and international speaker who is able to take complex business issues and make them easy to understand and even easier to implement. It is no wonder that top business people in 50 countries read and apply his material. Quite simply, the value he provides is immense. Blake Beattie, author of Bullseye and founder of Pay it Forward Day

As a weekly regular on our morning show, Andrew is a wealth of amazing practical strategies to get ahead in life. Totally inspirational Liam Renton, Program Director, 96.5 FM Brisbane

Andrew is an inspirational and charismatic entrepreneur who can communicate the strategies and tactics that will help you get from where you are today to where you want to go Sam Harrop, Action CoachTop 100 Platinum Coach

Also by andrew griffiths

101 Ways to Market Your Business

101 Ways to Advertise Your Business

101 Ways to Really Satisfy Your Customers

101 Ways to Boost Your Business

101 Ways to Have a Business and a Life

101 Ways to Build a Successful Network Marketing Business

101 Secrets to Building a Winning Business

101 Ways to Sell More of Anything to Anyone

Bulletproof Your Business Now

The Me Myth

First published in 2011

Copyright Andrew Griffiths 2011

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL)

under the Act.

Allen & Unwin

Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, London

83 Alexander Street

Crows Nest NSW 2065

Australia

Phone: (61 2) 8425 0100

Fax: (61 2) 9906 2218

Email: info@allenandunwin.com

Web: www.allenandunwin.com

Cataloguing-in-Publication details are available

from the National Library of Australia

www.trove.nla.gov.au

ISBN 978 1 74237 428 4

Text design by Squirt Creative

Typeset and eBook production by Midland Typesetters, Australia

Contents

ts been ten years since I wrote my first book, 101 Ways to Market Your Business . A lot has certainly happened in my world and the business world in this time. How we do business has changed, technology has become firmly entrenched in our daily lives and we have had one of the most financially challenging periods in the best part of a century.

For the modern business owner it has been a roller-coaster ride, to say the least. Many older businesses have faded away and new shining stars appeared out of nowhere, taking a good idea and becoming commercially successful in a ridiculously short time. We are finding ourselves in need of new skills, relevant advice, revised perceptions and a greater range of communication tools.

I believe that the greatest risk to any business today is a failure to evolve. Sadly, there are a lot of businesses with this malady, not to mention entire industries that somehow cant seem to let go of the past and morph into something that is more relevant for todays consumers. I get to see them firsthand and listen to their arguments as they put their heads in the sand, and I see the writing on the wall. They dont go out with a big bang, they tend to slowly fade to black. The past two years have seen a major shift in the business world for both large corporations and small businesses alike. But interestingly enough, the challenges of evolution apply equally to the big and the small of the business world.

However, the other side of the coin is that we live at a time when unbelievable opportunities exist for smart entrepreneurs. In fact, I call it the age of the entrepreneur, a time when just about anybody can start a business, with not a lot of money, or even time, and end up creating a successful enterprise. Sure, most of these revolve around the online world, but that is the point: if you are in business and you are not embracing the online world and the limitless potential that it provides, you are heading the same way as the tyrannosaurus.

In saying that, this is certainly not a book about building an online business. It is a book about having an open mind, about doing what you do better, about gaining and keeping a competitive edge and learning from those who are out there and succeeding. Too many of us make the same mistakes in business, over and over. My book aims to give you a clear-cut pathway to avoid these pitfalls and mirror the actions that make others successful.

What makes a successful entrepreneur?

I am a strong believer in finding successful people and mirroring their attitude and behaviour as a strategy for increasing your own chances of success, at whatever level you want. Having worked with, interviewed, presented to and read about many of the worlds most successful entrepreneurs, Ive been able to compile the following profile of the sort of people succeeding today.

These people are quick to see an opportunity, particularly in the niches that already exist. They are positive, energetic and not afraid to ask for help if they dont understand something. They embrace technology but avoid being enslaved by it. They know their customers and they put them above all else. They have a hunger for doing what they do better than their competitors, and this attitude of constant and never-ending improvement is ingrained in their business culture. This is reinforced by their open mind and willingness to try new ideas and concepts. They consider investment in self-development and business development as essential and they combine this with an ability to network, both face to face and online, to help them build strategic relationships. They are detective-like in their ability to research and make smart decisions based on the findings of that research. And most importantly, they back themselves and believe in themselves, completely.

Much more than a greatest tips book

My publishers asked me to put together a compendium book of my greatest tips, based on my ten other bestselling business books, which cover every topic from marketing to selling, advertising and businesslife balance. But as I started pulling this book together I realised that it needed to be much more. It needed to provide a broad overview of the state of business today, it needed to explore the entrepreneurs world and their way of thinking, it needed to show how to evolve and succeed in this new landscape, and it also had to provide a clear understanding of where the dinosaurs go wrong.