Rating: 
Summary: Like having a room full of friends
Review: Thinking about starting a business? Good luck! There are so many things to learn, think about, decide, and not forget in your new role as entrepreneur. Growing a new business can be much like growing a garden-plant some seeds, add water and fertilizer, stir in loving care. Eventually, something should grow. Ah, but business is a lot more complicated.Wouldn't it be nice if you could spend a few hours with some friends who have been there and gained significant experience? You'd probably learn a lot while listening to the contributions of your friends during the lively conversation. The experience would be enhanced if a few best-selling authors dropped by to toss in their two-cents'-worth. Reading The Startup Garden will give you that kind of an expertise and experience. Your host, Tom Ehrenfeld, is a business journalist with more than a dozen years of experience in print and radio. A former writer/editor at Harvard Business Review and Inc. Magazine, he's a frequent speaker on small business issues. You may have heard him on PRI's Marketplace, where he is a regular commentator. Tom (you'll feel a close relationship with your host) will introduce you to a number of entrepreneurs who will share their experiences and advice on a wide range of topics. You'll learn from Tom's text, plus a continuous flow of sidebars and quotes giving you more and more information. Your topics of discussion include Finding Your Calling; Planning as Learning, Learning as Doing; The Numbers that Count, and Bootstrapping.
The chapter on Walking the Line deals with human resource issues, followed by chapters on Just Managing and Perpetual Learning. A good index enhances the value of this book. Bonus feature: You'll find references at the end of each chapter that will guide you to more reading to grow the knowledge you need for your circumstances. Tom's emphasis is that each company situation is unique, though there are a lot of commonalities. There is more information to share, on- and off-line. (...) Recommended for start-up and early-stage growth entrepreneurs.
Rating: 
Summary: Do you want to succeed in business and have fun?
Review: This book has two themes that resonated strongly with me; 1) find your passion, and 2) get started. It is full of practical advice, compelling examples, and it has a wonderfully helpful section on finances that will appeal to even the most number-phobic readers. Read this book and save yourself months or years of running in the wrong direction with your entrepreneurial desires.
Rating:
Summary: Blooming away
Review: Tom's an engaging and perceptive writer, and this subject will have more relevance to readers than any number of "corporate" business materials. America is built on small business and entrepreneurship, and the factors that make for a successful business are always the same, yet incaluably different (to revise Tolstoy's maxim about families). Trust me -- a year from now, when we're still mired in this not-quite-recession (repression?), these thoughts will be even more valid.
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