Drive a Modest Car & 16 Other Keys to Small Business Success

Rating:
Summary: Drive this book home!
Review: Drive a Modest Car & 16 Other Keys to Small Business Success is a cold wakeup slap across the face for both existing entrepreneurs and those who are about to venture into their own business. It may shatter your preconceptions of what works and what doesn't work in today's fickle and frugal consumer market.

Nolo Press as advertised puts it all in simple yet defining terms. No theoretical, Wall Street, mumbo jumbo. From both hips you get the straight shot. Like why it's better to be in a service business as opposed to manufacturing or retail. Why you should never buy a franchise and why working hard won't necessarily make a better business. The book doesn't stop with what you should do as a business, but does a thoroughly decent job of how to market your ideas, grow your business and most importantly find joy and satisfaction in what you're doing. Ralph Warner covers the ins and outs in such an easy flowing way that you'll find you have wolfed down chapter after chapter still being able to retain each bite size morsel of great advice with the delicious savor of a five star multi-course dinner.

I would rate this as one of the little gems I've found among the barrage of business books that pretense to have answers to the great questions of how to do business the right way.

Rating:
Summary: Achieve Success without Burnout
Review: I love business books but this is the first one I've found that really links profits, common sense and emotional well-being. It's an engaging and logical step-by-step approach to financial success without burnout. Really worthwhile!!

Rating:
Summary: Really wonderful
Review: I've been self-employed as a IT consultant for about 18 months. This isn't the first business book I've read, nor the one most focused on what I do, and it won't be the one that has the most impact on how I run my business (more industry-specific books did that).

What it DID do was give me a good morale boost. The writer owns the publishing company that makes the book, a successful legal self-help publisher in business 30 years. It reassured me that a lot of the things that seemed like the right thing to do (driving a modest car among them; no more Corvette for me since I went out on my own) were, in fact, sound ideas. It does make sense to focus as much as you can on service because it's the most profitable; this reassured me that my decision only to specify but not to sell hardware and software (let somebody else have the 2% mark-up and spare me collecting tax) was probably the right one.

It also confirmed for me that it's perfectly normal and reasonable for businesses to ramp up slowly at first, and I am indeed building good clients slowly but steadily and it's nice to know from reading what an old hand has to say that I'm not behind the curve because my business hasn't grown explosively.

There were definitely some ideas in there that I have taken away that have made a significant impact on me; I had considered the possibility that at some point I would open a franchise restaurant in a particularly choice, unexploited area with massive traffic volume near where I live, but having read that chapter on franchises I'm absolutely convinced owning a franchise could never be for me. Who becomes an entrepeneur so that they can have their every idea circumscribed by someone elses rules?

I'm not sure this book would really help someone who's been self-employed 30 years like the author has, but for someone green like myself it's make a real impact. I really liked the tone of the book and the author seems emminently likable, honest, and direct. I highly recommend it.