Larry Wilson - The Small Business Planner: The Complete Entrepreneurial Guide to Starting and Operating a Successful Small Business

THE COMPLETE ENTREPRENEURIAL GUIDE

to Starting and Operating a Successful Small Business

LARRY WILSON

THE Small Business PLANNER

THE COMPLETE ENTREPRENEURIAL GUIDE

To Starting and Operating A Successful Small Business

Larry Wilson

2011 Larry Wilson. All rights reserved.

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ISBN 978-1-60037-905-5 Paperback
ISBN 978-1-60037-906-2 Ebook
Library of Congress Control Number: 2010942276

Thank you Ruth
for the many years of
inspiration and encouragement.

I wish I had this invaluable tool ten years ago! The writing style is fast paced and congenial, not dry and distant, making the book readable. The templates are an excellent bonus a nice way to get up and going faster with analysis work. As my children get more involved in the business, I think Ill make The Small Business Planner mandatory reading for them.

Todd Jones, Furniture Retailer

The Small Business Planner has been a valuable tool for the start up of my business. The authors clear, concise and to the point writing style allowed me to get the key points and save time doing so. As a startup, our time is our most valuable asset and the author well understands that. He has an excellent grasp of running a small business, especially when it comes to marketing, sales, and the Internet.

Steve Pallen, President, Research and Development, E-Metrotel

As a life-long entrepreneur, it was refreshing to finally have a users guide to starting and operating a small business. The author looks at all facets of operating a business and breaks it down into small digestible pieces. This effective tool can be used by starting at the front cover or jumping right into any section, such as the excellent piece in Operations that focuses on creating effective web sites. One of the great qualities of The Small Business Planner is that the lessons can be implemented in any business; manufacturing, retail, service or the Internet. A must read for anyone starting a business or entrepreneurs who are looking for a refresher.

Mark Young, MBA 97 U of T, President, Canadian Golf Tours Inc.

The tips from the marketing section of the book such as budgeting and developing a strategy were invaluable for my business. The finance section was also so important as it made me realize how crucial measuring results on paper can be in making or breaking a seemingly successful business. I would highly recommend The Small Business Planner to anyone in the contracting business.

John Anderson, Electrical Contractor

In The Small Business Planner, Larry has provided all the tools necessary to help you market and promote, administer and track your business. The concepts are clearly explained and interspersed with his personal experiences, which make it easy to understand. This is a MUST read for those thinking of starting a small business and for those actively operating one.

Rick Scull, Canadian Resurfacing Services Inc.

This guide is ideal for anyone who is interested in starting a new enterprise as well as those who operate an established small business. My inspiration for writing The Small Business Planner came from work I was doing in government sponsored programs at business resource centers. Here I was fortunate enough to mentor entrepreneurs in the creation of business plans and marketing strategy for their start-up or existing business. Although there are numerous books available on the subject of entrepreneurship, according to the feedback I received from budding entrepreneurs enrolled in small business programs, most appeared to be written in terms foreign to the average new business owner. The available reference material also has a tendency to concentrate more on finance and less on marketing. Although sound financial management is critical to business success, it is the delivery of a solid marketing strategy that generates revenue. Of course, without revenue, there is no money to manage. The Small Business Planner covers finance in detail, but more than half of the book is dedicated to marketing and making money. The text books available to students for courses I taught at the college level also often fell short in this regard.

The market needed a guide for small business owners that was well organized, complete and understandable. I had written a regular column in a regional business newspaper called the Small Business Planner which covered a number of topics of interest to entrepreneurs from marketing and financial management to the creation of effective web sites. Originally, I intended to simply collect these articles for a new book, but then decided to include a great deal more information. After a year of research, re-writing and the inclusion of personal business experiences, a comprehensive guide, written in terms that are understandable, was created. It was also my desire to include resources with the book that would complement the material and make it easy for new entrepreneurs to understand the important tasks to be completed, and for established business owners to have a set of tools to help them grow their enterprise.