Low Risk, High Reward: Starting and Growing A Business with Minimal Risk - Hardcover

Reiss, Bob

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0684849623 ISBN 13: 9780684849621

Publisher: Free Press, 2000

Synopsis

A guide to managing risk offers case studies from experienced entrepreneurs that explain how to develop ideas, locate financing, hire employees, build credibility, and introduce products.

About this title

About the Author

R. Scott Reiss lives in New York. The film rights to Black Monday have been optioned by Paramount Pictures.

Reviews

Reiss, an entrepreneur, does a competent job of covering all the ways to minimize the risk of starting a business--for example, through entering a franchise, partnering with an established company or finding financial backers. In particular, his discussion of the importance of numeracy (the financial equivalent of literacy) helps distinguish his effort from many similar books. But he misses other opportunities to make a unique contribution. For example, on the relatively few occasions when Reiss talks about his own experiences, he conveys a passion the book otherwise lacks; one wishes those sections were longer. Similarly, his insight into entrepreneurship as "a way of thinking, rather than a personality type" could have gone a long way toward adding dimension to his pointers had he expanded on it As it is, the book remains a solid if workmanlike checklist for would-be entrepreneurs. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Entrepreneurship is synonymous with risk taking in most minds, but Reiss gives lie to the assumption that entrepreneurs seek out and enjoy taking risks. Reiss has built a long and successful career by minimizing and avoiding risk, and his methods are used in case studies by Harvard business students. Reiss has started and sold or phased out 16 different business ventures, exiting whenever sales of his products have begun to slow. Here he spells out his philosophy of doing business. He identifies the skills and attributes necessary to succeed, emphasizing the ability to understand and use numbers. Reiss then zeroes in on spotting, managing, and reducing risk. He suggests how to get ideas for what business to consider and explains how to get started and raise money. Reiss' companies have been based mostly on fad products, and he devotes considerable passion to the importance of selling. He concludes with a discussion of the personal aspects of being successful. (Included in the appendixes is a sample cash flow statement, which is sometimes difficult to locate at library reference desks.) David Rouse
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Ever wonder if you had what it takes to run your own business? Reiss (president, R&R Recreational Products, Inc.) sums up his entrepreneurial experience in this new work, which nicely updates and extends the Dale Carnegie product line. Reiss explains the many ways he has learned over the years to avoid risks, covering every obstacle aspiring entrepreneurs are likely to face as they strive to grow their idea into a profitable company. Basing the book on his own career with 14 successful start-up companies, Reiss covers such topics as getting ideas, finding money, hiring the most qualified people, getting orders and reorders, and whether or not to go public, to expand, or to sell a company. The case study analyzing R&R's successful introduction of the TV Guide Trivia Game in the early 1980s is alone worth the price of this solid work, which integrates sound business practices with the dynamic nature of starting a business. After many years of sharing his down-to-earth advice with Harvard Business School MBA classes, Reiss now offers readers his wise insights into just what it takes to be in business on your own. Highly recommended for academic libraries supporting business curricula and larger public libraries.
-Dale Farris, Groves, TX
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Free Press
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0684849623
• ISBN 13: 9780684849621
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336