Jim Beach - School for Startups: The Breakthrough Course for Guaranteeing Small Business Success in 90 Days or Less

SCHOOL FOR STARTUPS

The Breakthrough Course for Guaranteeing Small Business Success in 90 Days or LessJim Beach,

Chris Hanks,

and David Beasley

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ISBN: 978-0-07-176174-1

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Contents

Introduction: Building a Business, Building a Life

1 Anyone Can Do It

2 The Myths of Entrepreneurship

3 Where to Find Your Great Idea

4 Bootstrapping Your Business

5 The Power of International Trade

6 The Internet: An Entrepreneurs Powerful Global Tool

7 The Wow Factor

8 Marketing Your Product

9 Reduce Risk by Reducing Inventory

10 Hiring Employees

11 Buying a Business and Franchising

12 Knowing What Your Business Is Worth

13 When Can I Quit My Day Job?

Conclusion: Determination Is Everything

Appendix: Low-Risk Businesses You Can Start Today

Index

Building a Business, Building a Life

IT WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE this way. If you worked hard for your company, if you were loyal, energetic, and enterprising, you were not supposed to end up unemployed, watching television in the middle of the day in a house worth half the amount you paid for it, your 401(k) dwindling, bil col ectors hounding, job applicationshundreds of themsilently unanswered.

At one point during the recent recession, more than 10 percent of the U.S. workforce was unemployed, with another 7 percent too discouraged even to look for work. One out of ten workers was deemed unnecessary through no fault of the worker, but because of insane risk taking by those who had everything at their disposal: legendary brand names, massive amounts of capital, and the smartest business minds money could buy.

In spite of those resources, their companies imploded. Companies like General Motors, which survived the Great Depression and whose very name was once synonymous with the U.S. economy, and companies like Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, and AIG col apsed al around us. Some, like GM, survived only with massive government help. Others were obliterated.

Executives of these huge companies were paid hundreds of mil ions of dol ars yet ran their companies into the ground. Some even got giant bonuses in the aftermath of their excessive, disastrous risk taking. Meanwhile, mil ions of American workers who played by the rules were sent home, often without health insurance. Their talents, energy, knowledge, and resources were wasted. The worst of the recession may be behind us, but it should never be forgotten. The experiences should be seared into our consciousness. Never again should we be so vulnerable, so powerless over our own lives and futures.

Equal y terrifying can be a midlife realization that you are trapped in a life, industry, job, or location you do not like. If youre managing to pay the bil s and maybe even saving a little bit for the future but are working for a company you dont like and doing something you dont enjoy doing, you wil begin to feel trapped. You wil want more out of life.

A Different Path

Entrepreneurship offers a path thats different from the safe route of staying on course with a job you dont like. Its actual y a safer path.

Traditional y, entrepreneurs have been considered the worlds big risk takers. They were the ones who quit their jobs, mortgaged the house, and went for broke, with broke often being the end result. This book is not about that.

Nor is it a book about how to start the next Microsoft or Apple in your garage. It is about low-risk entrepreneurshiphow you can launch smal but profitable businesses today. It is a book about how to build those businesses slowly, sustainably, with minimal risk. The lessons within these pages are practical and fil ed with real-life examples from authors Jim Beach and Chris Hanks, two experienced entrepreneurs who proved how, even in a col ege classroom, businesses can be started from scratch and turn a profit quickly in turbulent economic times and across international borders.