Fire Up Your Startup and Keep It Up: Lessons from Twelve.

Many of us dream of starting our own business, but we only have an 18 percent chance of succeeding, according to the US Small Business Administration. Most successful entrepreneurs and business executives suffer a series of hard knocks before striking it rich, and by learning from their missteps, you can boost your chances of starting a business that not only survives but thrives. In Fire Up Your StartUp and Keep It Up, twelve experts reveal critical life and business lessons that will help you find your niche, see problems as opportunities, hire the right employees, cultivate mutually beneficial partnerships, set a budget, negotiate contracts, protect your data, and much more. They tell their stories in a candid fashion, making it easy to understand and remember the importance of the lessons, which are summarized in text boxes that may be skimmed whenever you need a refresher course. Written by the founder of a company that earned more than $30 million the year before it was sold, this book excites, inspires, and informs. Learn from the entrepreneurs and executives who've made it to where you want to go-and fire up your startup and keep it up.

W. Gary Sitton, PhD, spent time working on a dairy ranch and freight dock before earning a doctorate in computer science and teaching at universities in Canada, New Zealand, and California. He sold a company that was earning $30 million per year in 1995, and he now teaches a graduate class on technical startups.