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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One word describes this book on small business - a "masterpiece.", April 4, 2008
This review is from: The Chic Entrepreneur: Put Your Business in Higher Heels (Paperback)
One word describes this book - a "masterpiece." It's a book for wanta-be entrepreneurs and small business owners. It starts off in a conversational tone, and speaks by using wonderful hypothetical small businesses to make points. In a way, the author used the case approach to teaching I experienced in law school to emphasize how to best start a business and how not to start one. Very logically written and well outlined. It's no surprise the author graduated with high honors from one of North Carolina's finest universities. The book has the following 10 chapters:
1. What's your value?
2. Pick your niche
3. What do customers really want?
4. Attracting and retaining the best employees
5. Do you know your cash flow?
6. Sales and marketing go hand in hand
7. The importance of systematic processes
8. Strategically aligning yourself
9. Have a plan and measure results
10. The Chic message
Each chapter covers a topic that is, or should be, important to someone in the process of starting a new company or trying to build a successful small company that is not yet flourishing. Certain things make a successful company. Is it providing something that people want and are willing to pay for? Read chapters 1 and 3 to learn more. Is the company focused enough so the owner can put the necessary efforts into growing the company correctly? Read chapter 2 to learn more. Are operations systematized so the company is not being run by putting out fires? Read chapter 7. What about bringing in the revenues? Then read chaper 6. And what about being able to pay your creditors? Read chapter 5.
I loved Chapter 9. As a SCORE volunteer counselor I find I have to preach business plans all the time. It's not because I love them, but because every business needs one. The creation of a business plan forces the startup specialist to know the business before it gets started. It enables the founder to know how much startup capital is needed so the business will not run out of money and go into bankruptcy and cease to exist. It can help a small business owner qualify for funding, whether from a family member, a bank, or an investor. And a business plan provides the founder with a benchmark from which to compare actual results as the company grows. If things are not working to plan the founder can either change how things are being done or change the plan. But without having a plan in the first place there is no way to gauge how things are progressing. This book points this out.
I would have liked the book better if Chapter 9 had been closer to the front of the book. However, I think the way the book was written the topic of planning logically fell into place as Chapter 9. And Chapter 10 did a great job of pulling together all the points made in the book. 5 stars!
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Taking Your Business from Flats to Stilettos, March 14, 2008
This review is from: The Chic Entrepreneur: Put Your Business in Higher Heels (Paperback)
Elizabeth Gordon offers a step by step guide for building and effective company in her new book "The Chic Entrepreneur." She offers invaluable advice on success in business with insightful methods for building personal and financial freedom.
The book is designed in a user friendly, eye appealing, format which helps the reader assimilate and apply principles present in case studies and illustrations which detail the processes for setting up a new company. These case studies feature parallel start up approaches using people like Don and Donna as examples of the right and wrong approach. Elizabeth also features forceful assessments of well known successful businesses like Google, Nordstrom, and Whole Foods.
I especially appreciated the thought provoking questions and exercises for determining action steps which accompany each chapter. The tips provided in side bars throughout the chapters reinforce the valuable business techniques and success traits necessary for building a fast growing profitable business.
Elizabeth Gordon offers fresh perspectives and a proven formula for successful entrepreneurship. The final chapter "The Chic Message" with a "Flourishing Business Methodology" chart is worth the price of the book. Entertaining, engaging and practical "The Chic Entrepreneur" provides a map for building your business properly.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wisdom for Women Entrepreneurs, July 21, 2008
This review is from: The Chic Entrepreneur: Put Your Business in Higher Heels (Paperback)
I work with a lot of women business owners. And it's apparent to me that Elizabeth Gordon does as well. She's seeing the same issues that I am.
I found the book very accessible. Another reviewer has stated that some of the comparisons are a bit outrageous. Well, they are. But the point is to have you sit up and take notice. Gordon does well at taking what is new (business knowledge) and marrying it to the world that most women understand -- relationships.
Start with the last chapter. Give yourself the entrepreneurship test -- are you really ready to commit? Gordon says: "Women tend to be eager to commit to relationships, to marriage, to their families, and even to their best friends, but when it comes to committing to business, ironically, women are the ones who can't commit."
Ouch! Yes, it sounds harsh. But I see it again and again. Given a choice between a $300 business education course and a $300 purse, far too many women choose the purse. Owning a business is work, and yet, at the same time it is the most exhilerating thing that you can do with your life, other than raising a family. Both have their own joys and pitfalls -- even more so if you are doing both.
When you first learned to make your way in the world, you did some trial and error. (Try to walk, fall down, get up, try to walk, fall down...) But you also had someone there to hold your hand and help you get the concepts.
Elizabeth Gordon has given you the concepts in manageable language and format. I recommend this book to any women thinking of starting a business, just started a business or hopelessly lost in business. Even if you don't fall into any of those categories, the book is a good read. You will probably pick up something that will lead you to explode your business in the next 12 months.
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