Melinda Emerson - Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months: A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business that Works

Foreword by Michael J. Critelli, Former CEO, Pitney Bowes

Avon, Massachusetts

For my JoJo. You are my heart. I love you to the moon and back.

When I wrote the foreword to Melindas first edition of Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months, I did so as someone who learned about start-up companies from entrepreneurs like Melinda after such companies had been successful enough to be acquired by Pitney Bowes. I also validated her insights through the collective experience of friends and acquaintances who had started both successful and unsuccessful businesses.

I reviewed the manuscript for the second edition from the perspective of someone who parachuted into two completely different start-up businesses, the Dossia Service Corporation, a personal health records business, and the business of producing and distributing a feature film, From the Rough. Having operated two start-up businesses, after those who ran them in their earliest stages moved on, I can say, with the greatest enthusiasm, that Melindas insights are phenomenal in so many ways that I found it hard to figure out where to start describing them.

I would like to highlight five of her many key messages, because they particularly resonated with me:

• Spend at least a year preparing to be an entrepreneur before you start down the entrepreneurship path. Melinda does a phenomenal job walking any entrepreneur through a thorough list of items to which an entrepreneur should attend before beginning operations. Her checklists are far more practical and experience-based than most I have seen in books written for entrepreneurs. She also wisely counsels entrepreneurs to work first for someone else in a related field to absorb as much relevant know-how as possible. Too many entrepreneurs jump into business without thinking ahead about not just the business plan issues, but also the practical operational issues they will face. Much of what happens in a new business surprises the entrepreneur and demands resilience. The successful businessperson minimizes surprises, so that he or she can focus on adapting to a manageable number of situations.
• Make sure you have the financial, emotional, and family staying power to endure the inevitable delays, disappointments, and surprises a start-up business brings. Better than anyone who gives advice to entrepreneurs, Melinda understands the psychological toll a business places on relationships and other life priorities. Many biographies of great business people certainly touch upon this subject, but most attribute the psychological and relationship issues to the personality of the person being profiled. Melinda wisely knows that relationship stress comes with the territory.
• Make sure you are making, selling, or providing a product or service that a large enough population wants to buy. Melinda does a superb job cautioning entrepreneurs that what excites them may not interest others enough to create a viable business opportunity. She provides a variety of easy-to-use tools and questions to help the entrepreneur determine whether a sufficient market exists for his or her product or service.
• Most business success depends on the execution of the mundane details. Most how-to books are great on big picture advice and on generic details. Melinda provides both of these kinds of insights, but she also adds her personal touch on the kinds of details that determine success and failure.

  Her insights about the importance of getting a good payroll tax processor or how to design and print good business cards are examples of details she identifies as having much greater importance than might first appear. I remember a friend who owned restaurants telling me that it was more important to profitable restaurant management than he would ever have imagined to determine who staffed the cash register and how napkins, salt and pepper, and water glasses were managed.

  The art of leadership is to understand the details well enough to know which can be delegated, and which must retain the leaders direct focus.

• Start and stay lean. Although this would appear to be a well-accepted requirement of a start-up business, it is surprising how many businesses build large staffs and operations on the theory that looking big will attract business. Melinda has a wonderful set of tips on how to get as much as possible free of charge, get more at reduced prices, and be very slow to add fixed costs.

  Melinda implicitly rejects the build it and they will come approach taken by many first-time entrepreneurs, and she has lived this philosophy in her own life and business.

  There are many other gems in Melindas book, as well as her consultative work and her website. I strongly recommend this book to anyone operating or contemplating running any start-up business.

Michael J. Critelli
Former CEO, Pitney Bowes
September 2014

This book covers everything about starting and running a successful small business. When I wrote the first edition in 2008, the nature of business was quite different. Social media was not the powerhouse it is today. Mobile web marketing didnt really exist. Local competition wasnt global. But regardless of how the technology has changed the way businesses operate and engage with customers, one thing is the same: the world is still waiting on a better mousetrap. If you build something unique and special that solves a business problem, the world will beat a path to your door. Now is still a great time to start a small business.

Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months starts with life planning and clarifying your personal financial picture. Then it shifts to helping you identify your target customer and develop a marketing plan. We focus on financing your dream business, including leveraging crowdfunding to do it. The marketing section of this book has been completely updated to focus on establishing your brand, building your website and establishing a blog, developing a content strategy, and leveraging social media. Part Three of the book focuses on launching your business, bringing on staff, and handling customer complaints. The final chapters help you measure how well your business is doing.

Before you write a business plan, you must develop a life plan. Why, you ask? Because you need to start a business that aligns with your personal and professional goals. Otherwise you could start a business that might not work for you. This book will help you develop a timeline for your transition from corporate America to small business ownership. Use this book as a blueprint to get your personal house in order so that you can quit your job in a way that minimizes any financial hardship for yourself and your family. If you are not exactly where you need to be with your finances, this book will also help you financially reposition yourself.

You must consider if you have the courage, persistence, confidence, skills, work ethic, and focus needed to succeed as your own boss. As well, you need to know if you can handle all the jobs entrepreneurs must do. Youll be chief salesperson, secretary, payroll clerk, social media strategist, IT technician, and HR manager. Once you make a sale, you must service the customers.