Customer Reviews

How to Make Big Money in Your Own Small Business: Unexpected Rules Every Small Business Owner Needs to Know

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The author explains that the first and most important task is to
identify quickly the target market of customers. Next, it is critical to compute the break-even-point and the minimum number of customers required to cover the costs of entering into the
business. Ultimately, the author inspires us to do what comes easy to us and what is harder for others to do. He breaks down the time commitment into 60% marketing, 30% service and 10% management. In addition, he points out the necessity to work hard
on a consistent basis.

Although some have criticized this book as being too simple, I find it makes a great summary of the important things a small entrepreneur must do.

It doesn't take too long to read but it contains lots of practical advice. I underlined mine heavily.

This book is also appropriate as a gift to friends that are starting their own company.

The most important points that I derived from this book were Fox's lists of things to do, and their priorities. I highly recommend this book, and all the rest by Jeffrey J. Fox. He's become one of my favorite business writers.

John Dunbar
Sugar Land, TX

There was a review here that was unjust. The guy complained about the books simplicity and that it should be reading for kindergarden.

Well I run my own business which is successful (meaning: debt free, great cash flow, wonderful income, will retire in my 40s to pursue all those other life goals). Presently I am buried up to my eyeballs in daily issues like sales projections, new products, marketing, accounting, etc. The trees were obscuring the forest when I picked up this book. It's simple list of things to do was refreshing and I was shocked that out of my University degree and over 30 business books on my shelf, there were a number of simple things I had overlooked.

Other books bury you in chapters, what this book says in sentences. The other reviewer looks like one of those many MBAs who dream of being a CEO of S&P 500 company and believe in making the simple things in business complicated for their own ego.

If you really run a small business then I would pick this one up to re-focus yourself on the simple things to success. It is easy to forget the simple steps when you are busy and you start to wonder away from what makes you successful. This kindergardener is happy to find a point or two that has paid for the book 100-fold.

Fox is a doer. He gets results you can tell by the way he writes. He reminds readers of the basics, i.e., that nothing happens until somebody sells something. Every business is always all about the customer. That is the only reason a business is created or continues to exist. But Fox goes beyond this reminder. He adds "how to" wisdom on how to maintain this customer-focus.

His spin on the unique gifts that each of us has has never been explored in the way he presents it. He says that what is easy to you is difficult for other people. Market accordingly! But just because one has natural talents doesn't mean one can be lazy. Talent has to be cultivated.

I like the advise he offers in saying, "Invest your time as you would invest money." He explains the power of the 60-30-10 rule, which consists of 60% of your time on marketing/selling 30% learning and 10% fixing weak areas.

My only reason for not giving the book a five is he lacks the spiritual component. He comes across as a crass materialist. Fox has a lot of insight into this world, but neglects the reality of things unseen.

Jeffrey Fox writes the best how-to manuals out there. The problem is many people see his books more as entertaining advice instead of steadfast instruction.

Read this book as a how-to. Develop ACTION steps with each chapter. Take notes in the margins, highlight key points. Then, follow the action steps you created from Jeffrey Fox's ideas.

You will be better in your small business the very next day if you follow the sage advice in this book.

People start small businesses for many reasons. Sometimes they're in love with the product - they've always wanted to open a store where amateur potters could buy great mud. Sometimes they've been itching to run free from life in a big corporation and finally quit to start their own shop. Sometimes they get a pink slip and a bit of severance pay, and can't find another job, so they decide to start their own business. Whatever the reason, small business owners encounter some common problems. People who are in love with a product may forget how important customers are. People who've worked for a big corporation may not realize how many support services they have learned to take for granted. People who've run their small business for years may get in a rut and miss opportunities to grow. Author Jeffrey J. Fox's short, easy-to-read handbook of pithy counsel is for all of them. While his brightly-written advice sounds fresher than it is, we find it well worth remembering.

Jeffrey J. Fox wrote one of my favorite marketing books of all time, HOW TO BECOME A RAINMAKER . . . so when I saw his latest effort, HOW TO MAKE BIG MONEY IN YOUR OWN
SMALL BUSINESS, I just had to get hold of it--and devour all 150 too brief pages in one sitting.

Fox has advice here for those starting a business, as well as those who want to stay that way; i.e., in business . . . he shows you in clear language how to "outfox the competition,"
and he makes it surpassingly simple.

But the REAL key is what he writes in his very last paragraph:
"You don't need a lot of things to start a business . . . but you must have one thing. You must have a customer. Go get that customer."

There were several other useful tidbits of information; among them:
Your business exists for only three reasons: to solve a customer's problem, or to make a customer feel good, or both. There are no other reasons for your company to exist. It is every single employee's job, in any company, to directly or indirectly get and keep customers. So,
if you are the only employee in your company, as is often the case, your job is to sell your company's products or services . . . to solve the customer's problem or to make the customer feel good. You are responsible for generating 100 percent of your company's revenues. You are your company's rainmaker!

Boys and girls who worked as paperboys have an edge. So, too do boys and girls who have worked as caddies, cow milkers, lawn mowers, snow shovelers, babysitters, food servers, crop pickers, dishwashers, grocery baggers. Good child labor produces good adult employees.

Customers love getting a little extra. Customers love doing business with companies that are full of fun surprises. Be like the hairdressing salon in Farmington, Connecticut, that lets each customer leave with a single red rose. The pharmacist who calls a mother to inquire about her child's fever stands out, and gets all of that mom's prescriptions. That's marketing. That's loving your customers, loving your company, and building your business.

You will probably not find anything new in this book. However, it lists you several things that we tend to forget in our everyday activities.

Easy to read and motivational.

The book is divided into roughly 3 sections: for the budding entrepreneur, for the micro (i.e. one man) shop, and for the small (under 50 person) business.

Pages 1-25 and then 129-144 focus on what to do/understand before you actually start your business. Based on my own mistakes in the professional service field, I'd like to have seen a statement or two about don't quit your day job until you have a paying customer, but Mr. Fox gets close enough to the ideal. That said, if you are a micro-sized business (10 or under people), this is good refresher stuff and may even give you some ideas to tackle to improve your business. If you are over 10 people in your business, consider skipping these sections.

In between page 26 and page 128, the advice applies equally well to micro and small businesses, although pages 92-97 are only applicable if you have more than 10 people working for you.

Throughout are some real gems of advice ... and more importantly ... the logic behind the advice. The ones that I found most intriguing and resonating were:

1. Cash in the bank is more important than "to be collected" profit
2. Stay off committees, boards and other time-intensive activities that networking gurus often proclaim as key to building business
3. The difference between a penny-saver and a penny-pincher, and why you want one but not the other.

I've read nearly all of Mr. Fox's books, and this is certainly a good one that deserves to be read by anyone thinking about starting up their own business or anyone currently running their own business...or anyone working in a small business.

I am impressed by the simplicity of this book. The text says what it has to say so you can get through it quickly and start applying the lessons. Sure, many of the things are common sense approaches to business but they work. Whether you have one employee or several, the book gives equal advice on the importance of continuous learning and training with the customer in mind throughout the book. I highly recommend this book. Remember: it's tax-deductible as a business expense. What do you have to lose?