What No One Ever Tells You about Starting Your Own Business, 2nd Ed. : Real-Life Start-Up Advice from 101 Successful Entrepreneurs

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Summary: Some Good Advice and Some Great Success Stories!
Review: What No One Ever Tells You About Starting Your Own Business is a compilation of 101 tips from entrepreneurs who have successfully started their own businesses. From road signs to electronic circuit boards, healthy cookies to paint stirrers, this book gives the reader a collection of eclectic stories from people who have a bit of advice for those who are just starting on the road that they have previously traveled. Most of the advice is nothing startling or new and, if you have read other books about creating your own business, you have probably heard them before. The strength of this book lies in the fact that each little lesson is presented as a kind of case study where the entrepreneur shows you how not following that advice hurt their growth or caused their start up to be more difficult than it needed to be. Their advice includes sections on 'Look Before You Leap' (make a plan, get some training, its harder than you think, you need more money than you plan, etc.), 'Early Decisions' (know your strengths, get advice/help from others, grow your business, balance personal life and work, etc.) 'The Money Chase (everything costs more than you think, how to get funding, should you sell part of your business for money, equity vs. debt financing, etc.) 'Management Issues' (counting inventory, look at your business the way outsiders would, coping with growth, nightmare customers, etc.) 'Helping Hands' (delegating, hire the best, sales commissions, partnerships, etc.) and 'Marketing' (you need a plan, test different ways of advertising, focusing on your customer niche, etc). All of these sections had some useful advice, but they were very brief, no more than a page or two. However, the book was pretty inspirational because all of these entrepreneurs had problems and challenges, but they kept going forward and they ended up being successful. If you are looking for something motivational and fun that is also informative on the side, this book is for you.