Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0916308510 ISBN 13: 9780916308513

Publisher: Hillsdale College Press/IHC Books, 2003

This is a "how-to"(and a "how not-to") book for entrepreneurs. It guides the reader through the minefield of getting into business and, more important, successfully remaining in business with very little money. With an entertaining, case-study approach, the book discusses funding, organization, sales, marketing, management, partnership compatibility, merchandising, control, lawsuits, patents, and selling out or going public at the proper time. It shows how author Bob Thomas' "Ten Essentials of the Fail-Proof Enterprise" actually work in the real world and why. It respects the basics of business and helps minimize the luck factor when establishing and building a business, saving luck for those times when even the best prepared end up needing some.

From the Author:

I wrote this book for hands-on entrepreneurs, not bureaucratic managers of large institutions. I don't sugarcoat what business innovators and leaders need to know. I tell them how to start, grow, and retain control of their businesses for as long as possible before facing the inevitable-growing into a bureaucracy. I did not write a pabulum about global business visioning. I deal with the key business issues and situations that can make or break a young company.

From the Back Cover:

Thomas's First Law Of Business Reality: "If an enterprise continues to grow, at some point it will either become a bureaucracy, or will be acquired by a bureaucracy." That marks the end of the entrepreneurial enterprise-and its many advantages. Delaying this inevitability, while maintaining efficient management control, calls for a special organizational structure.

Before You Start Your Business, Ask Yourself These Key Questions: Do you know-
if you are a prime-moving entrepreneur who should manage your own business? how to fund a venture with little money and without selling stock or borrowing? how to select partners and managers to assure compatibility? how to achieve total commitment from your partners and managers? how to comparatively value the tasks performed by your partners and managers? how to identify new markets and develop a plan to penetrate those markets? how to maximize employee performance, longevity, and loyalty? the differences between sales and marketing and how to use both? how to structure a company to take full advantage of the advantages of entrepreneurship? how to strategically use and protect your intellectual property? how to protect the value of the stock you acquire should you sell your company?

The Fail-Proof Enterprise Will Help You Answer These Questions-And Many More.