A "New York Times", "Wall Street Journal", and "USA Today" bestseller! Millions of employees parked in cubicles dream about starting their own businesses. And in today's economy, countless unemployed professionals are becoming entrepreneurs out of necessity. They may have good skills and ideas, but do they really understand what it takes to build a profitable venture? As owner and co-founder of the award-winning It'sYourBiz.com (formerly SBTV.com, or Small Business Television), Susan Solovic has years of experience in the small business trenches. In "It's Your Biz" she shows prospective entrepreneurs how to sidestep the pitfalls that doom more than half of all new businesses while dramatically improving their odds of success. The book strips away the usual dreamy calls to "pursue your passion," supplying the kind of candid, real-world advice readers truly need, such as how to: gauge whether you have the qualities required to succeed; prepare for drastic culture shock; build a business plan that works; focus on providing market solutions; choose partners, advisers, and employees wisely; promote your business on a shoestring budget; protect your company and yourself; and, make the most of bootstrap financing. From planning and funding to promotion and pricing, "It's Your Biz" is packed with the practical, honest, expert guidance that budding entrepreneurs need before they set out on their own.
It's Your Biz: The Complete Guide to Becoming Your Own Boss
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Book Description
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Editorial Reviews
Book Description
A New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestseller!
Millions of employees parked in cubicles dream about starting their own businesses. And in today’s economy, countless unemployed professionals are becoming entrepreneurs out of necessity. They may have good skills and ideas, but do they really understand what it takes to build a profitable venture?
As owner and co-founder of the award-winning It’sYourBiz.com (formerly SBTV.com, or Small Business Television), Susan Solovic has years of experience in the small business trenches. In It’s Your Biz she shows prospective entrepreneurs how to sidestep the pitfalls that doom more than half of all new businesses while dramatically improving their odds of success.
The book strips away the usual dreamy calls to “pursue your passion,” supplying the kind of candid, real-world advice readers truly need, such as how to:
• Gauge whether you have the qualities required to succeed
• Prepare for drastic culture shock
• Build a business plan that works
• Focus on providing market solutions
• Choose partners, advisers, and employees wisely
• Promote your business on a shoestring budget
• Protect your company and yourself
• Make the most of bootstrap financing.
From planning and funding to promotion and pricing, It’s Your Biz is packed with the practical, honest, expert guidance that budding entrepreneurs need before they set out on their own.
From the Inside Flap
If you’re reading this, you’ve got high hopes and big plans. To be your own boss—with no one breathing down your neck, no more deadly meetings, no more nonsense. Just you, your good ideas, and your internal drive determining your destiny.
Does that sound liberating? It is! Does it sound scary? It’s that as well. Making the jump from employee to entrepreneur is an alluring prospect that millions pursue every year, yet the odds of success are daunting. More than half of all new businesses fail within three years—many because of avoidable mistakes.
But now you can get the honest, real-world information you need about what it takes to succeed. Owner and cofounder of the award-winning ItsYourBiz.com (formerly SBTV.com, or Small Business Television), Susan Wilson Solovic has years of experience in the small-business trenches. In It’s Your Biz, she delivers an unflinching account of the skills and attitudes prospective entrepreneurs need to get a business up and running, and a no-surprises game plan for making your venture profitable and sustainable.
From planning and funding to promotion and pricing, you’ll get practical advice that can ensure your success as you leave the safety net of being an employee to enter the high-risk, high-reward environment of business ownership. It includes how to:
• Gauge whether you have the qualities needed to succeed
• Prepare for drastic culture shock
• Build a business plan that works
• Focus on providing market solutions
• Choose partners, advisers, and employees wisely
• Promote your business on a shoestring budget
• Protect your company and yourself
• Make the most of bootstrap financing
• And much more!
Susan Wilson Solovic is owner and cofounder of ItsYourBiz.com, a highly successful video news and information site for entrepreneurs. She is a weekly small-business contributor on ABC’s Money Matters and a featured blogger on The Huffington Post, AllBusiness, Fast Company, Constant Contact, and other sites, as well as a monthly columnist on WSJ.com. The author of several books, including The Girls’ Guide to Building a Million-Dollar Business, Solovic has served on the National Women’s Business Council and the Women’s Leadership Board at Harvard University.
Ellen R. Kadin is Executive Editor at AMACOM Books, specializing in business books, and a part-time writer.
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More About the Author
Susan Wilson Solovic is an award-winning entrepreneur and journalist, New York Times bestselling author, respected small business expert and sought-after keynote speaker. Solovic is CEO and co-founder of SBTV.com -- small business television. She a small-business contributor for ABC News and a regular expert on Fox Business Network and many more. Solovic is a featured blogger on numerous sites, including Huffington Post, WSJ.com, FoxBusiness.com, and Constant Contact. She is an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship in the MBA program at Saint Louis University. Solovic received the Institute for Women's Entrepreneurship Leader of Distinction Award, and was the first recipient of AT&T's Innovator of the Year Award for being a pioneer in a new industry.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Starting your own business today is not like starting your business in 1999, not to mention 1980. From a visionary founder of Small Business TV, a person who saw the video future emerging long before many of the rest of us... From Susan Solovic, I expected more. Yes, It's Your Biz, is a good starting point to setting up a successful small business, but it's not at all a great starting point. Yes, it covers all the bases from legal formation to personnel selection. And yet it has its share of zingers, such as "Passion is not the singular key to business success."
But beyond the obvious, beyond the platitudes, beyond the five star reviews by compatriots of Solovic, It's Your Biz let's you down. It has some great commonplace ideas about business, such as the difference between a business and a job, but it fails at the details. The devil in your business will most certainly be in the day-to-day details of small business management, and especially small business marketing. But It's Your Biz fails to help us in any detailed way, fails to help us see (and avoid) the devil in the details of small business.
As someone who teaches Internet Marketing Online (Just Google 'Jason McDonald' to find me), let me speak to the area of my experience: Internet Marketing for small business.
MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF COMMON SENSE (MACS)
In Chapter 6, Solovic turns to the marketing plan, the critical way your business will promote itself - reach its customers, excite them about your brand and products, and engage them to try your product or service. From a visionary leader in Internet TV, you would expect mind-popping details of effective Internet strategy. From someone who advocates MACS (Massive Amounts of Common Sense), you'd expect her to clearly focus on the biggest bang for most companies - Search Engine Optimization (SEO), as well as the new kid on the block Social Media Marketing (SMM), but she does not, especially with respect to the former.
Instead, we are told if you don't have a website, you are just plain stupid. Yes, go on... But nothing of substance really follows. I agree that you must have a website. But beyond that, what? I submit that if you don't know SEO, or don't consider SEO, you are also just plain stupid. If you are a new attorney in Dallas,TX, getting your company to the top of Google is a critical entry path to new customers. If you have the new herbal cure for male pattern baldness, please contact me at once... and please optimize your website to dominate Google searches such as male pattern baldness. If any (or all) of your potential customer start at Google, then you must dominate SEO. That's MACS at work, but Solovic provides us with precious little guidance about how to get our sites to the top of Google for free. She might counter that his book is too high level for the details, and I'll give her that.
But as a conceptual book, surely she should have pointed out the value of SEO. It should alert you as a small business startup to make sure you consider SEO, and if applicable to your business, to make it a free part of your marketing plan.
Some MACS advice? First and foremost, Google the word, 'SEO'. Even better Google 'Google SEO Guide,' and you'll see a Google guide to the subject. Learn the subject and make it part of your online marketing strategy. Second, do some very basic things. For instance, choose a domain that contains your target keywords. Or, embed your target keywords in your home page TITLE tag. Or, write keyword heavy content, and blog, blog, blog - always on target, always on topic. If your potential customers use Google, you can't afford not to understand and use SEO, but MACS aside, It's Your Biz does not help in this area.
REVIEW REVIEWS REVIEWS
Similarly, if your business benefits from word of mouth, it will probably benefit from eWom (electronic Word of Mouth). Reviews on services like Google Places, Yelp, are critical. But how do you get reviews? What are MACS strategies to encourage, solicit, cajole, leverage, incent, ask for, or otherwise get reviews? For a business on It's Your Biz, It's Your Biz is silent, conspicuously so. Yet reviews and the social media marketing of reviews are a critical new area for any small business, a free marketing opportunity that you should leverage. Again, near silence on this topic beyond platitudes about engaging your customers through social media.
Guy Kawasaki, the visionary marketer from Apple, often quips you should 'Eat your own dog food.' That is, use your own products, or practice what you preach. Well, reviews are critical to successful business these days - not just local reviews, but reviews on services such as Google Merchant Center, Amazon, and ePinions. Look at the other reviews for It's Your Biz. Click on the reviewer profile (click on mine). Many, if not all, of the reviews for this book sound a little, staged, a little promoted. Don' they? Any chance that these reviews are FOS? Friends of Solovic, rather than impartial reviewers?
If so, as a marketer, I applaud her. If so, as a reader, I beg her to show me how to get reviews, or at least nod her head in the direction of how to play the review game, and win.
THE DEVIL IN THE DETAILS
MACS - massive amounts of common sense - is indeed a great philosophy of marketing. Asking, "How will your customers find you?," as she does is a great question. But we need answers. We need to do's, such as search Google for 'Google Search Engine Optimization Guide,' read that handy how-to from Google, and set up a website that is Google friendly. The devil in It's Your Biz is in the details. The details to setting up and promoting your own business - now that's a real devil. And the devil is missing in the details of this disappointing book, It's Your Biz.
But beyond the obvious, beyond the platitudes, beyond the five star reviews by compatriots of Solovic, It's Your Biz let's you down. It has some great commonplace ideas about business, such as the difference between a business and a job, but it fails at the details. The devil in your business will most certainly be in the day-to-day details of small business management, and especially small business marketing. But It's Your Biz fails to help us in any detailed way, fails to help us see (and avoid) the devil in the details of small business.
As someone who teaches Internet Marketing Online (Just Google 'Jason McDonald' to find me), let me speak to the area of my experience: Internet Marketing for small business.
MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF COMMON SENSE (MACS)
In Chapter 6, Solovic turns to the marketing plan, the critical way your business will promote itself - reach its customers, excite them about your brand and products, and engage them to try your product or service. From a visionary leader in Internet TV, you would expect mind-popping details of effective Internet strategy. From someone who advocates MACS (Massive Amounts of Common Sense), you'd expect her to clearly focus on the biggest bang for most companies - Search Engine Optimization (SEO), as well as the new kid on the block Social Media Marketing (SMM), but she does not, especially with respect to the former.
Instead, we are told if you don't have a website, you are just plain stupid. Yes, go on... But nothing of substance really follows. I agree that you must have a website. But beyond that, what? I submit that if you don't know SEO, or don't consider SEO, you are also just plain stupid. If you are a new attorney in Dallas,TX, getting your company to the top of Google is a critical entry path to new customers. If you have the new herbal cure for male pattern baldness, please contact me at once... and please optimize your website to dominate Google searches such as male pattern baldness. If any (or all) of your potential customer start at Google, then you must dominate SEO. That's MACS at work, but Solovic provides us with precious little guidance about how to get our sites to the top of Google for free. She might counter that his book is too high level for the details, and I'll give her that.
But as a conceptual book, surely she should have pointed out the value of SEO. It should alert you as a small business startup to make sure you consider SEO, and if applicable to your business, to make it a free part of your marketing plan.
Some MACS advice? First and foremost, Google the word, 'SEO'. Even better Google 'Google SEO Guide,' and you'll see a Google guide to the subject. Learn the subject and make it part of your online marketing strategy. Second, do some very basic things. For instance, choose a domain that contains your target keywords. Or, embed your target keywords in your home page TITLE tag. Or, write keyword heavy content, and blog, blog, blog - always on target, always on topic. If your potential customers use Google, you can't afford not to understand and use SEO, but MACS aside, It's Your Biz does not help in this area.
REVIEW REVIEWS REVIEWS
Similarly, if your business benefits from word of mouth, it will probably benefit from eWom (electronic Word of Mouth). Reviews on services like Google Places, Yelp, are critical. But how do you get reviews? What are MACS strategies to encourage, solicit, cajole, leverage, incent, ask for, or otherwise get reviews? For a business on It's Your Biz, It's Your Biz is silent, conspicuously so. Yet reviews and the social media marketing of reviews are a critical new area for any small business, a free marketing opportunity that you should leverage. Again, near silence on this topic beyond platitudes about engaging your customers through social media.
Guy Kawasaki, the visionary marketer from Apple, often quips you should 'Eat your own dog food.' That is, use your own products, or practice what you preach. Well, reviews are critical to successful business these days - not just local reviews, but reviews on services such as Google Merchant Center, Amazon, and ePinions. Look at the other reviews for It's Your Biz. Click on the reviewer profile (click on mine). Many, if not all, of the reviews for this book sound a little, staged, a little promoted. Don' they? Any chance that these reviews are FOS? Friends of Solovic, rather than impartial reviewers?
If so, as a marketer, I applaud her. If so, as a reader, I beg her to show me how to get reviews, or at least nod her head in the direction of how to play the review game, and win.
THE DEVIL IN THE DETAILS
MACS - massive amounts of common sense - is indeed a great philosophy of marketing. Asking, "How will your customers find you?," as she does is a great question. But we need answers. We need to do's, such as search Google for 'Google Search Engine Optimization Guide,' read that handy how-to from Google, and set up a website that is Google friendly. The devil in It's Your Biz is in the details. The details to setting up and promoting your own business - now that's a real devil. And the devil is missing in the details of this disappointing book, It's Your Biz.
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
More and more people, either by choice or circumstances, are starting their own businesses. Unfortunately far too many will fail. I believe that their failure will not be due to shortage of capital as is so often cited as the major reason but lack of specific knowledge about what it takes to start and successfully run a small business. Many of the failures which occur could be prevented by simply reading and following the sage advice provided in It's Your Biz.
Susan Wilson Solovic and Ellen Kadin have written an easy to read complete guide to starting and running your own business. The book covers everything from writing a business plan to sources of funding for your business. There is no MBA talk in the book. It is written in simple language which anyone can understand. There are plenty of real world examples to further illustrate many of the concepts presented in the book.
The book is divided into two parts. Part one covers "The real truth behind what it takes to succeed". If you start down the wrong path, it will be very difficult to recover. It is so important to have the proper mindset and pick a business which is right for you. This section gives you plenty of tips on how to make sure you are getting into the right business.
Part two covers "The strategic and tactical keys to business success". According to Ms. Solovic, the three cornerstones of your business are the 3 Ps - Purpose, Promise and Principles. You must get clear about your purpose - why you are in business, what's the Promise of the business and what Principles will you use to run the business.
Next come two very important parts which most people get wrong - marketing and people. There are some very excellent points about marketing your business. Unfortunately too many people start out focusing on the product/service and fail to realize the importance of marketing. They never learn to separate the business from the deliverables. The chapter on people is also excellent. Again, this is a problem for most new business owners. They mess this up and it becomes extremely expensive.
There is also so good information on the legal and accounting issues which all new businesses must address. The authors also give some good advice on location, pricing models - do not under any circumstances base your business model on being the lowest price in your field.
There is a wealth of good solid information in this book. If you are in the process of starting your own business, this book will save you lots of time and money by pointing out the most common mistakes most new business owners make.
Starting a business is a real challenge. There is so much more to starting a business than simply delivering on your product/service. Learn from someone who has been down the road before you. You will get some excellent advice based on real world experience.
A great resource for those in the early stages of their journey to a owning and running a successful small business.
Susan Wilson Solovic and Ellen Kadin have written an easy to read complete guide to starting and running your own business. The book covers everything from writing a business plan to sources of funding for your business. There is no MBA talk in the book. It is written in simple language which anyone can understand. There are plenty of real world examples to further illustrate many of the concepts presented in the book.
The book is divided into two parts. Part one covers "The real truth behind what it takes to succeed". If you start down the wrong path, it will be very difficult to recover. It is so important to have the proper mindset and pick a business which is right for you. This section gives you plenty of tips on how to make sure you are getting into the right business.
Part two covers "The strategic and tactical keys to business success". According to Ms. Solovic, the three cornerstones of your business are the 3 Ps - Purpose, Promise and Principles. You must get clear about your purpose - why you are in business, what's the Promise of the business and what Principles will you use to run the business.
Next come two very important parts which most people get wrong - marketing and people. There are some very excellent points about marketing your business. Unfortunately too many people start out focusing on the product/service and fail to realize the importance of marketing. They never learn to separate the business from the deliverables. The chapter on people is also excellent. Again, this is a problem for most new business owners. They mess this up and it becomes extremely expensive.
There is also so good information on the legal and accounting issues which all new businesses must address. The authors also give some good advice on location, pricing models - do not under any circumstances base your business model on being the lowest price in your field.
There is a wealth of good solid information in this book. If you are in the process of starting your own business, this book will save you lots of time and money by pointing out the most common mistakes most new business owners make.
Starting a business is a real challenge. There is so much more to starting a business than simply delivering on your product/service. Learn from someone who has been down the road before you. You will get some excellent advice based on real world experience.
A great resource for those in the early stages of their journey to a owning and running a successful small business.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Susan Solovic has done a brilliant job in helping any entrepreneur think through the details of starting your own business and becoming your own boss. While it's a great time to start your own business, it's also a fact that most small businesses fail within the first 5 years. Susan has cut through all the information out there on running a small business, and has expertly given us a great overview on what to look for and what to avoid when taking the steps to start your dream business. Great resources, along with direct and savvy business advice makes this book a 'must read' for anyone starting their entrepreneurial journey!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good, Practical, Helpful Information.
Good, Practical, Helpful information written in everyday, understandable language. Wide variety of content for the beginner wanting to start their own business.
Published 2 months ago by Stella M
2.0 out of 5 stars
outdated
While this book may contain information that transcends time, overall most of it is outdated. It's unfortunatete that a book which is written this well ends up being a waste of... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Rick
5.0 out of 5 stars
It's MY Biz
Susan's advice really resonated with me. Her "real-world" experience in the small business trenches highlights to prospective entrepreneurs and business owners what it takes to... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Kristie Hokin
5.0 out of 5 stars
Your guide to success
In today's economy, thousands of unemployed professionals are turning to entrepreneurship out of necessity. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Kara
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great help for Small Businesses
Extraordinarily helpful insight for small business. My wife has taken the leap on her own and this book has helped both of us look at her business differently with real... Read more
Published 16 months ago by David A Del Brocco
5.0 out of 5 stars
Its your Biz, gets you BIZ!
Susan Solovic delivers some great advice not with a lot of namby-pamby dreamy stuff you get from some motivators but with real world business experience from someone who has been... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Jeffrey Hayzlett
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book!
It's Your Biz is brimming with advice for any entrepreneur who dreams of kicking their day job to the curb and becoming self-employed! Read more
Published 17 months ago by Mary Christensen
3.0 out of 5 stars
Passion isn't enough to run a successful business
Many people dream of starting their own business where they call the shots and pick their work hours. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Tina
5.0 out of 5 stars
Honest, Useful Insights on Starting Your Own Business
Value for the reader:
It's Your Biz is a remarkably practical, straightforward, and honest book about what it takes to start and run your own business. Read more
It's Your Biz is a remarkably practical, straightforward, and honest book about what it takes to start and run your own business. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Dan Coughlin
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic resource for entrepreneurs!
Every entrepreneur wants to know the secrets to grow their business success. The answer is in this great book by Susan Solovic. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Jaclyn Kostner
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