Be the Elephant: Build a Bigger, Better Business - Hardcover

Kaplan, Steve

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 076114448X ISBN 13: 9780761144489

Publisher: Workman Publishing Company, 2007

Synopsis

In business, there's no standing still. The trick is to become an elephant―big enough to make a difference, healthy enough to withstand financial currents, strong enough to influence your market―and smart enough to avoid the pitfalls of growth.

With Be the Elephant, bestselling author Steve Kaplan provides the business-growing playbook for every entrepreneur, CEO, sales professional, small business owner, and manager alike. The strategy, the process, the toolbox.

Written in a friendly, no-nonsense style, Be the Elephant takes the mystery and the fear out of growing bigger. It shows you how to address potential downsides, point by point, and provides a 25-question quiz to gauge your business's current health. There are lessons in strengthening sales, a business's front line. Vertical and horizontal growth. Risk versus reward. How to avoid the twin dilemmas inherent in growth―grow too slowly and wither, or grow too fast and lose control. And finally, how to chart it and start it, from developing an all-important USP―unique selling proposition―to avoiding the Five Killer Mistakes that can ruin a company.

And from there, how to go forth and Be the Elephant

About this title

Book Description

Get big! A New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Business Week bestseller, Steve Kaplan’s 2005 book Bag the Elephant helped smart businesspeople win and keep those all-important elephants—the big, make-or-break customers. Now Be the Elephant shows businesspeople how to grow their businesses and become bigger. Steve Kaplan has owned 35 businesses, sold 30 of them, and has consulted with more than 100 companies, helping them to grow. Be the Elephant combines dynamic advice, deep real-life experience, and a friendly, no-nonsense writing style to take the mystery and fear out of achieving significant business growth. Kaplan gets readers to understand, without blinkers or delusion, the exact nature of their business. He then shows how to define objectives, identify risks, and get the operation on solid footing in preparation for growth. There are tips on creating the right strategy; how to avoid the Scylla and Charybdis of business growth—grow too slow and wither, or grow too fast and lose control; how to create a timeline; develop the all-important USP—unique selling proposition; and avoid the Five Killer Mistakes that can ruin your company. The book is illustrated throughout, including, of course, the many faces of Nellie the elephant.

From the Back Cover

You run a $5-million consulting business, or a three-person bakery with a few corporate clients, or an Internet start-up heading into its sophomore year. You're a senior partner in a CPA firm, or a daughter taking over the family-owned factory. You're a sales professional looking to fatten your commission check.

You know that your business is living too close to the edge. You don't have a lot of flexibility or reserve capital, and profits have to eked out. And while you're happy not to have the giant headaches of a giant corporation (though you'd love to have the giant income), you're worried about Incredible Shrinking Business Syndrome...but just thinking about growing gives you the jitters. Welcome to Be the Elephant. Your path to getting bigger, and better, just got a whole lot clearer

Edition details

• Publisher: Workman Publishing Company
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 076114448X
• ISBN 13: 9780761144489
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 224