The Entrepreneur's Guide (Survival Kit Series) [Kindle Edition]

Deaver Brown (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

This is an updated version of the best selling book in Hard Cover with Macmillan and Mass Market paperback with Ballantine since 1980. Also see the newer version, Business Startup, also on Kindle, as well as the related audiobooks on audible.com, an Amazon company, which runs the Apple iTunes audiobook store as well as Amazon’s. Discount codes available to purchasers.

This book emphasizes the basics for entrepreneurs. Why do it? Does your temperament fit? If not, give it a pass and have a happier life.

And secondly, a focus on the basics to make a business work: sales, operations, delivery, and getting paid. Do those 4 well, the author says, and the rest will be much easier. Finances, professional advice, and great employees always support businesses that succeed in these fundamentals—think Amazon, Apple, Walmart, Dell, IBM, McDonald’s, and others.

Brown gives lots of gritty basic tips to make your ventures work.

The Chicago Tribune: “A good introduction to dreamers and budding business people.”
The Kirkus Reviews: “A succinct, instructive, often entertaining introduction to the rewards and risks of proprietorship…A productive labor of love.”

Or as Brown says, “If you don’t love it, don’t do it.”

Contains...

Preface

Getting Started.
>Why Be an Entrepreneur?
>Why Avoid Entrepreneurship.
>The Entrepreneurial Profile for Success.
>How Do You Measure Up?

Formation
>Market Selection.
>Partners: The New Venture Trap.
>Corporate Name.
>Incorporation.
>Investor Selection.
>Purchasing a Going Concern.
>Office.
>First Communications.
>Summary: What to Expect in Early Days.

Running the Business.
>Key Tasks & Priorities.
>How Not to Run a New Venture: The Big Company Model.
>How to Run It.
>Refining Your Talents.

Marketing.
>The Marketing Task.
>The Customer.
>Consumer Profile.
>Product Concepts & New Venture Failures.
>Product/Service Selection.
>Product/Service Positioning.
>Pricing, Packaging, Promotion.
>PR.
>Advertising.
>Market Research.
>Marketing Plan.

Sales
>Sales Leadership.
>Salespeople.
>Entrepreneurial Empire Building: Sales Force.
>Independent Reps.
>Direct Sales People.
>The Customer.
>Key Accounts.
>Key Account Forms.
>Recommended Sales Approaches.

Finance.
>Cash Flow in the New Venture.
>Controlling the Cash.
>Why Banks are Tougher than Vendors.
>The Credit Business.
>Winning Creditor Confidence.
>Credit Sources Other than Banks.
>Financial Leadership.
>The Task.
>Necessary Controls.

Operations.
>If You Must Get Involved.
>Materials & Equipment.
>Cost Control.
>People.
>Unions: Entrepreneurial Nightmare.
>A Final Note: Personal Training.

Professionals and the Business Environment.
>Lawyers.
>Accountants.
>Consultants.
>The Intimidated Professional.
>The Community & Other Ego-Boosting Activities.
>Government Agencies.

Conclusion.
>When to Get Out.

Appendix: Various Reports.

Related Readings.

Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 864 KB
• Publisher: Simply Magazine; 2.0 edition (February 26, 2010)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B003A83X26
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #301,383 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

More About the Author

Deaver graduated with a Magna in History from Harvard College, with his senior thesis being, "Civilizing the Machine: Civil War to 1900." He went on to Harvard Business School (HBS) and concentrated on marketing and operations. "Marketing is how you catch the bear; operations is how you skin him and determine whether you profit or not," says Deaver. One of his favorite quotes is Thorstein Veblen, "The more useless the activity the more it is highly regarded."

Deaver is a serial entrepreneur who has been up, down, and sideways. "This is what makes me a good teacher, writer, and talker. I am a minor league entrepreneur who had some successes, but failures and so/so's too. The great coaches are like that, such as Bill Belichick and Phil Jackson. They can relate to the more average among us because we are too."

His ups included the Umbroller Stroller company sold to Graco and on to Rubbermaid/Newell; refocusing American Power Conversion (APCC) from solar inverters to UPS's for the growing PC business in the 80s and 90s; helping sell Peterson to Cosco, Cosco to an LBO, and Cosco to Doral; and Pride Retail Systems to Compaq and on to HP. He did not succeed with the PumpQuick no pressure fire extinguisher, CD Titles, or Simply Media. He did so/so with Apollo, General Sound, and Westboro, selling them to larger companies.

He wrote his first book, The Entrepreneur's Guide, published by Macmillan and Ballantine in mass market paperback, after selling his interests in the Umbroller Stroller company. Deaver said, "The biggest issue is one's temperament. The more you hire people the more you realize that temperament determines so much. Technical and can do skills are relatively easy to assess. It is the will do skills that are so hard. Temperament is key to 'will do.' He lists 8 core traits to assess in yourself in the book." Deaver, "My favorite letters and emails say, 'I wasted my money; I wasn't fit to be an entrepreneur.' I always write back, 'That is my intention--to save you from it if it doesn't suit. The thank you letters are wonderful.'"

Next he emphasizes the core 4 skills. Deaver, "Most books emphasize markets, financing, and such things. I emphasize the key 4: Sales, Making, Delivering; and getting Paid. Do those 4 right, and everything else is straightforward."

Lessons learned could fill a book--and do! One of his favorite projects was an HBS Case, now widely distributed along with an accompanying video, "Deaver Brown & Cross River." He co wrote this with Professor Amar Bhide at HBS, now at Columbia, on having 10 minutes to sell Kmart, the Walmart of its day, and Macy's. Deaver, "Most students say it is the best case of the year. They learn you either sell something or you don't. As I tell them, most of you won't be selling product or services, but be in the financial area. But think, 'Can this person go into the pit, as in this case, and close the deal. More importantly, can they be tossed out, and come back?'" Only former IBM salespeople closed Deaver when he was in the class acting as a buyer. They were cool, calm, collected, focused, and listened. They also gave the buyer what the buyer needed, not what the salesperson wanted.

Deaver Commented, "Amar asks for volunteers and often has a tough time getting them. When my cofounder at Umbroller, and old friend Alex Levitch came to class to observe, he said it best, 'If you don't want to volunteer, leave the class. If you don't want to pitch, you'll never make it. If you worry what others think, you'll never make it.' Perfect advice."

Deaver said he recommended students in their careers as investors recalling who could pitch or couldn't, and thinking about how a prospective candidate would do in that situation--based on his experience with his Harvard tutor, Neil Harris, later Chairman of the History Department at University of Chicago. "Neil would read my work out loud and lift an eyebrow at the appropriate moments. I always think about that eyebrow when reading my own work."

"Also, Neil was the poster boy for learning. He invited me to one of his lectures when he used my material to bolster his analysis. He winked at me when doing so. Neil was always learning, as we all should."

"Commencement is the beginning not the end of learning. I read 80 books per year which the Kindle makes so much easier and less expensive, not to speak of Amazon's audible.com that does so for audiobooks at iTunes and Amazon. We also have them at www.discountaudiobooks.com."

"Each work has other suggestions. No one has the final answer, except the not very smart. There is always more," says Deaver.

Picture: "I am the shorter guy standing up. An impromptu gathering of friends at the 40th Reunion at HBS, for lunch at Anthony's Pier 4. Read; have fun; share with friends. The picture says it all for me and I hope for you too."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clear & Succinct, February 28, 2010

By 

Mary "Mary" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Entrepreneur's Guide (Survival Kit Series) (Kindle Edition)

He starts with the 8 key temperamental qualities you need to be an entrepreneur. My wife measured up; I kept the day job.

He emphasizes core work: Sales, Making, Delivering, and Getting Paid.

Amazon's [...] division has many of his books on audio; which I like too.

He is funny and doesn't take himself seriously. One of my favorite lines is, "I am a minor league entrepreneur. No Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. It takes a more average person to relate to what most of us need to do to make ventures work. Most don't. So move on when they don't. Enjoy the ones that do."

Made me think of Phil Jackson; great coach/so-so player (of course, making it to the NBA at any level is pretty good...ditto for Brown).