Jeff Sloan - StartupNation : Americas Leading Entrepreneurial Experts Reveal the Secrets to Building a Blockbuster Business

Table of Contents

To Mom and Dad, our sister Julie, and our grandfather Sama true entrepreneur

John Auman, Lisa Bailey, Tom Bailey, Hector Barreto, Mike Beauregard, Christine Beck, Matt Berenson, Fred Beyerlein, Rip Beyman, Susan Bidel, Richard Blouse, Bo, Bill Bowen, Foster Braun, Mike Brennan, George Brewer, Norm and Elaine Brodsky, Carolyn Buchanan, Chris Cameron, Francois Castaing, Laura Castaing, Anne Cole, Michael Colone, Dan Cherrin, Brian Cleveland, Katharine Cluverius, Heather Cohen, David Cole, Clark Collins, Josh Corn, Tom and Kathy Crum, Meagan Darlington, Terry Dauod, Tom Demay, Geoff Dodge, Tami Door, David Drake, Brian Dumaine, Michael Egren, Phillip Elkus, Fred Erb, Gary Erickson, Lia Ervans, Mike Fezzey, Andrew Field, Doug Fieldhouse, Phillip and Lauren Fisher, Ed Fleckenstein, Dan Fleckenstein, Mark Fortier, Pete Franco, Stanley Frankel, Chuck Fuller, Allyson Gabrys, Dawn Gatlin, Al and Ruth Glancy, Lynn Goldberg, Sara Gozmanian, Todd Graham, Jennifer Granholm, Eric Granowicz, Ray Gunn, Merle Harris, Reyn Hendrickson, Frank and Carol Hennessey, Barbara Henricks, David Hermelin, Carrie Himelfarb, Marvin Himelfarb, Chris Hoffman, Rich Homberg, Jonathan Hudson,

A mission as important as oursrequires superstar people to bring itto life. Were inspired every day by thepassion, creativity, and commitmentof the stars around usour teammembers, our mentors, our friends,and our partners.

Youve always encouraged us, faithfullyguided us, and helped us achievemore in less time than we ever thoughtpossible.

Thank You

We are profoundly grateful.

Rick Inatome, Joan Isabella, Kaye Ishee, Stephanie Jacobson, Ira Jaffe, JD, Gregg Johnson, Herb Kaufman, Kraig Kitchin, Kay and Billy Koplovitz, Steve Kovich, Van Lai, John Langmore, Hannan Lis, Dana Locniskar, Lyric, Bill MacArthur, Mike MacDougal, Vladimir Makorov, Florine Mark, Lou Merz, Eugene Miller, Tony Modafferi, Josh Mondry, Mitch Mondry, Mark and Betty Morris, Steve Mowat, Dan Mulhern, Cindi Murch, Ed Nakfoor, Ed Narens, Rich Nawrocki, Marci Nussbaum, Deanna Oppenheimer, Julia Parrish, Andy Pascal, Delia Passi, Ken Paulus, Bruce Perlmutter, Ben Permut, Jac Pierce, Lowell Potiker, Joe Ragnone, Steve Reed, Jennifer Reingold, Jennifer Reitman, Melanie Rembrandt, Eric Rix, Morrie Rochlin, Dion Roddy, Rich Rogel, Matt Roush, Paul Roy, Melanie Sabelhouse, Brandy Saigh, Victor Saroki, Jessica Schlick, Roger Scholl, David Schostak, Howard Schultz, Shahin, David Sherman, Diana Sikes, John Siverling, Patsy Smith, Sheldon Smith, Nicole Summitt, Danielle Susser, Alan Sussman, Hal and Dorothy Thau, Jim Tisdel, Eric Toler, Karen Torres, Sam Valenti, Christy VandenBosch, Roger VanDerSnick, Chad Warner, Joel Welsh, Jeff Weiss, Mike Wendland, Bill Wetsman, David Wetsman, Dave Wight, Ann Wilderom, Hugh Wiley, The Ray H. Witt family, Cathy Wolford, Paul Zlotoff.

Introduction

Youre a dreamer, right? Thats why youve picked up this book. Maybe youve had a great idea knocking around inside your head for years. Maybe youve roughed it out on the back of a napkin and tucked it away somewhere. But you dont know what the next step is or what the first step is. Or, just maybe, youre sitting in your cubicle, next to a hundred other cubicles, thinking, How do I stop workin for the man? If any of these descriptions fit you, youre an entrepreneur-in-waiting. And youre not alone. Youre one of usone of the two-thirds of Americans who dream about owning their own business.

This book is filled with show and tell, designed to show you how your fellow entrepreneurs have been successful and tell you exactly what key moves you should make to position yourself for your own success. If wethe Sloan brothersachieve our goal, the pages ahead will jump to life with real-world, in-the-trenches wisdom that will move you to action and inspire you to join up with a nation of extraordinary people doing extraordinary things.

Striking out on your own, doing your own thingits in our collective American blood. Its the very soul of our nations economy. Thats what we believe. This drive goes all the way back to those first pioneers who looked at the Atlantic and thought, I wonder what I could do over there? They reached the shores of America, then the Appalachians, the Mississippi River, the Rocky Mountains, and just kept going until America was a coast-to-coast dreamland for people seeking to lead a better life.

Its the spirit of those pioneers and all of the innovative entrepreneurs since then that have made the United States so prosperous. After all, this is a place where you can work hard to create something of your own, follow through on your dream, and have the freedom to decide what course your life will take. Nowhere else in the world is freedom and opportunity so woven into the fabric of a national identity. And we believe owning your own business is an integral part of this freedom.

The entrepreneurial roots run deep in America. They stretch back at least as far as individuals like Benjamin Franklin, who exemplifies how business and American democracy are so intertwined. Franklin, who first said Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise, went on to contribute to the writing of the Declaration of Independence, in which he embraced the principle that a very essential individual freedom was owning ones own business.

At the turn of the twentieth century, this entrepreneurial spirit reached a peak in our home state of Michigan, the place where the automotive industry grew into a global giant. But it started out as a series of smaller entrepreneurial successes. Michigan is where Dodge and Chrysler first put their names on cars. Flint, the town where we grew up, is where General Motors set down many of its roots, pumping out millions of cars from factories right near our home. Down the road, in Dearborn, is where Henry Ford built the famous Rouge plant that took in steel, coal, and glass at one end and turned out Model Ts at the other end. Most people today think of Henry Ford as one of the worlds greatest industrialists. But during the startup boom of the early 1900s, he was one of the worlds greatest entrepreneurs.

Today, entrepreneurship is as vital and strong as ever. Were not talking about the entrepreneurship represented by the high-tech boom of the nineties, a run of startups based on hyped-up projections for growth. What we mean is the long-sustained growth of businesses built on time-tested fundamentals like the ones that contributed to making our country into the global economic powerhouse it is today.

So vast is the United States small-business economy that it is greater than the total economies of France, Germany, and Great Britain put together. Small businesses today account for 51 percent of the American GDP and 99 percent of all employers, and creates 75 percent of all new jobs.

Beyond these powerful statistics, though, we believe that business ownership can transform individuals lives. Weve become convinced of this through our own entrepreneurial experience and by talking with and e-mailing thousands of entrepreneurs whom weve coached over the years. Whether its via our weekly StartupNation radio show, our online seminar series, our tele-coaching calls, or our live events, were more confident than ever that entrepreneurship is alive and well, even in spite of the burst of the dot-com bubble, the subsequent recession, and the ongoing global political uncertainty. We hear from entrepreneurs all over the globe who hunger for advice on how to get started, how to successfully grow their businesses, and how to use the power of entrepreneurship and business ownership to create the life theyve always dreamed of.

Thats what this book, StartupNation, is all about. Its about creating a business that sets in motion the life you want to lead. Its about giving you the inspiration and information you need to take your idea and turn it into reality