JJ Ramberg - Its Your Business: 183 Essential Tips that Will Transform Your Small Business

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This publication is designed to provide competent and reliable information regarding the subject matter covered. However, it is sold with the understanding that the authors and publisher are not engaged in rendering legal, financial, accounting, or other professional advice. Laws and practices often vary from state to state and if legal, financial, or other expert assistance is required, the services of a professional should be sought. The authors and publisher specifically disclaim any liability that is incurred from the use or application of the contents of this book.

Copyright 2012 by Jennifer Ramberg, Lisa Everson, and Frank Silverstein

All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the authors intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the authors rights.

Business Plus

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First e-book edition: October 2012

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ISBN 978-1-4555-0898-3

For Scott Leon

My name is JJ Ramberg, and I am an entrepreneur. I was born into a family of entrepreneurs. Im married to an entrepreneur. I host a national television show about entrepreneurs for an audience of entrepreneurs. And, when Im not doing that, I help run my own business, which I co-founded with my brother, Ken Ramberg, called GoodSearch.com. Many of my closest friends are entrepreneurs. And my guess is if you just picked up this book, youve got a good streak of entrepreneurship running through your veins too.

This book is a collection of some of the smartest, most practical, and easy-to-understand business advice out there. Its straightforward information that you dont need a business school degree to understand, and you dont need to be a Fortune 500 company to use. And believe me, thanks to these past six years of hosting Your Business on MSNBC, Ive heard it all and seen it allin action. This stuff works. Period. Its worked for the people who figured it out and, in many cases, its worked for me at my own company. While some of it is just plain common sense, much of it is highly original and extremely clever.

Since I started hosting MSNBCs Your Business in 2006, my colleagues and I have interviewed thousands of entrepreneurs to find out what theyve learned about running their own companies. And honestly, no two individuals are alike. Ive spoken with many different kinds of business owners, from sole proprietors working out of their own basements to people who pay the salaries of hundreds of employees working in large industrial facilities. Ive met people funded by venture capitalists risking millions, angel investors risking hundreds of thousands, and plenty more who have funded their own ventures with nothing more than their life savings or a second mortgage on their home. And when you look at the industries they represent, they are all over the map. A random sample might include a dry cleaner in Pittsburgh, a tech start-up in Seattle, a restaurant in Manhattan, a real estate firm in Phoenix, a headhunter in New Orleans, a hot-air balloon operator in Napa, a dogsled-ride company in Aspen, a bank in Boston, a wedding planner in Chicago the list is very, very long. But the common denominator is that each of these small business owners has had to confront and solve many different kinds of problems in all areas of business in order to survive and grow.

No matter where we are or what business we are in, I have found that there is one true quality that all of us entrepreneurs sharewe are a very determined bunch! Even in the heart of the 2008 recession, I met people who simply did not have the words I give up in their vocabulary. We are people who, when you tell us No! we think No for now. Tell us Impossible! and what we hear is Impossible for now. We are go-getters who make things happen for ourselves, for our employees, and for our communities.

We are a very practical group and we generally dont settle. We are always on the lookout for the fastest, simplest, least wasteful, and most efficient way to get the best results for the least effort, money, and resources. We also dont spend a lot of time regretting our mistakes. In fact, many of our best ideas have come to us as lessons learned from huge mistakes. And those ideas, those tips, those hard-earned insights are what weve collected and organized into this book.

As both a reporter/writer of this book and a self-employed entrepreneur, Ive found myself in the position of receiving and then using much of the advice collected here. Receiving itas a journalist with a national audience of small business ownersand then using it in the day-to-day operation of my own business, GoodSearch. I cannot tell you how often Ive come away from one of my interviews with scribbles on the side of my notebook, reminding me to try out what that person is doing when I get back home to GoodSearch. These scribbles run the gamut from how to change someones no into a yes (see ).

This book is basically a detailed look into these scribbles. Its filled with all of those tricks of the trade that people who are in the trenches every daypeople who are doing the things all small business owners do, such as hiring people, developing pricing schedules, and negotiating dealshave created to help them with these tasks. Many are things that were not doing because we just didnt think of them before. Many are things we know we should be doing but havent had the time to figure out how. Well tell you how.

Ive learned a great deal from the advice weve collected. For example, in has completely informed the way I talk to customers and potential partners.

This book is written with two of the producers of Your BusinessLisa Everson and Frank Silverstein. You can imagine, with thousands of interviews under our belt, we had an enormous pool of tips and advice to choose from. But we were picky in deciding which ones to include. Every single tip in this book is practical, actionable, easy to implement, and will help your business succeed. You can read one and make the change in your business that very day! We ran each tip by our informal focus group of small business owners to make sure their reaction was, Wow, thats so smart, I have to start doing that in my company. Or, Wow, I cant believe Im not doing that already!