Customer Reviews

The 51 Fatal Business Errors and How to Avoid Them

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I was blown away by the content in this book. The 51 Fatal Business Errors is more like a reference manual for successfully operating a profitable business. As someone who has started and run several different businesses, I only have time for practical, real-world advice and ideas. 51 Fatal Business Errors definitely delivers in that regard. I highly recommend this book for any business owner or anybody who wants to become one, while avoiding the many pitfalls too many of us have tended to make.

If you play golf, you know that you cannot stand over the ball and fill your head with all the possible bad shots you might hit and expect to hit a good shot. In performance you must focus on what you are trying to accomplish rather than on what you might do wrong. However, when not in active performance it is good to analyze your performance for weaknesses, mistakes, and all the details you might improve. This book is for those times.

Jim Muehlausen provides a book for small businessmen (and women), especially entrepreneurs, full of common mistakes that can prevent your success and actually lead to business failure. This book has 51 common business mistakes and most of us who have worked in business have seen most of them made at one time or another. Maybe we have made a few of them ourselves.

Each mistake is explained in a paragraph or two, a brief real life example is given, and a solution for the problem is offered. About half of the problems also have boldface paragraphs where the author really gets in your face about this problem. A few of these problems contain a bonus that you can view on the web.

The author offers a subscription web service to help you improve you business that is based on this book. You don't need to subscribe to benefit from this book, but I thought you should know that the author will try to sell you that service as your read this book.

The book deals with errors that have to do with hiring, organization, selling & marketing, how you lead, common worst practices, and the errors that flow from trying to be the only one in your company who can actually do anything and then blaming everyone else when things go wrong.

I like this book and you might benefit from it, too.

No, I did not subscribe to the service.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

This mercifully brief management book is full of excellent observations on managing. These are presented in a humorous, easily readable style.

I once had a person tell me there are no new management ideas, only new people using them. This may be true. "The 51 Fatal Business Errors" is very helpful in presenting observations that are worth considering adding to your management "tool kit".

The book is well worth the price.

Deciding what books to accept/read/review can be a rather eclectic process for me. One of my genres is business books, and author Jim Muehlhausen offered me a review copy of his book The 51 Fatal Business Errors and How to Avoid Them. Although I'm quite far behind in books to read and review, I accepted because it looked interesting and he also had the same last name of my sister-in-law. Not too many Muehlhausens running around that I've seen. Fortunately, my luck paid off, as 51 Fatal Errors is an excellent book filled with practical advice for the CEO of any small business. He cuts through the conventional wisdom hype and the "fad d'jour" to offer up solid ways to keep yourself on track (and out of the bankruptcy courts).

Contents:
Introduction - Using the Gym Membership; Enter At Your Own Risk; What's Good for G.E. Isn't Always Good for G.E.; Is It Time to Fire Your C.E.O.? (Yes, I'm Talking About You); Best and Worst Practices; Mule-Kicks; What Now?

Muehlhausen is a business coach who has worked with thousands of people and groups to help them succeed in the business world. From that experience, he's distilled 51 "fatal errors" that, if not caught and dealt with, could mean rough times for your organization. For instance, right out of the gate we get Fatal Error #1 - Hiring Your Competitor's Rejects. You may think that you'd never hire the worst people that your competitor let go. But think about it. For some reason, the previous employer didn't think this person was valuable enough to keep at any price. Yes, there are people who are let go or who leave that are exceptions to the "reject" rule. But the odds of you being able to deduce the exceptions from the rules every time are very small. Do keep your eyes open for the stellar individual you might want to hire away or that left through no fault of their own. But also pay attention to finding high-aptitude people who can be trained for a position, and that will become great. Another one that was eye-opening was Fatal Error #14 - Paying Yourself Below Market Value. Many small-business CEOs feel they can't take a salary out of the business as they need to plow all of the profits back into the business. But realistically, that means you're giving the business an artificial subsidy that will never be paid back. Paying yourself *some* level of salary avoids the temptation to view the business as more profitable that it actually is, and puts you in a more realistic mindset as to how the business is doing.

The format of each chapter (one fatal error per chapter) is concise and easy to follow. There's the explanation of the error, a real-life example, a solution, a "mule-kick" (a jolt of reality), and a place to jot down notes. There's also quite often a "bonus" which is a reference to his website for more information or actual forms/products to use. Written in a blunt, no-nonsense style, it's nearly impossible not to find at least a handful of mistakes you're currently making. Couple that with solutions that are also just about as blunt, and you have a guidebook that will serve you well as you try and become a success in the business world. And trust me, you'll get a whole lot more out of this book than you will from some hot business guru who is touting their "fad d'jour"...

This guy gets it! In today's world, with changes coming at you at break-neck speed, most of us never take time to review our current business system from top to bottom. As Muelhausen points out in 51 Fatal Business Errors, there's a lot of land mines for an executive to avoid in order to take his company (or his department) to the levels that it should achieve. Spotting and defusing them before they do major damage is critical to achieving and maintaining success. The book makes it clear that it's not always about the new technology, a different management structure, or the latest products from R&D--sometimes its just removing a few negatives that are keeping us from reaching our goals.

I understand Muehlhausen uses this book as the basis for speeches he gives around the country. I'm looking forward to catching him when he comes to Atlanta.

Jim Deitz, The Franchise Doctor

Mr. Muehlhausen provides just the type of "down and dirty" material that a business person needs to grow their organization to the next level. The format lends itself to problem specific reading and the concise format makes it approachable. It's on my "Go-To" list of business books that I recommend to my peers and associates. Must read!

This is absolutely a must-read for any small business owner or emerging business CEO. Within a plethora of business books on the market, Muelhausen's book stands out due to its solution-oriented approach and effective application to real-life business situations. Most importantly, he succinctly tackles a variety of issues that many CEOs simply ignore or hope go away on their own. On issues that need a more in depth exploration, Muelhausen offers valuable (and free!) additional resources to help meet the challenges. This is a quick read that you will continue to pull off the shelf as concise user's manual for business success.

The author unveils many solutions to the daily problems most small business owners and mid-sized company CEOs face daily. I enjoyed the simple format that leads reader through problem-solution-action pattern.

This book is great! Simply written, it isn't full of fluff to sift through. The "51 Errors" are simply, yet directly stated, solutions are given, followed by real life examples.

Though some readers may first think these "51 Errors" should be clear and evident to all readers, especially business owners, it is ONLY when they taken ACTION to correct these "errors" that matter. Action means CHANGE. Most people fear change and find it a difficult hill to climb. They find it easier to succumb to just staying where they are as long as they are keeping their nostrils peeking above the water. However, if you want to grow your company, change will be necessary. If you put forth the effort to make the necessary changes to these "51 Errors" in this book, it will lead you to growth and success..

This is a good recap of everything you learned in MBA school except for the parts about not being so wrapped up in being an MBA that you forget how to run your business. There were some obviously hard-learned lessons by actual business owners in this easy-to-read volume, and they were the most interesting parts -- making the lessons much easier to remember and actuate. The author isn't afraid to call it as he sees it, and tell the reader to set aside his or her own beliefs in order to operate at a higher, and more profitable, level. Can't beat that logic. Buy this book and read it. But don't stop there. Put a few of the strategies into action and watch your results improve.