Money Hunt: 27 New Rules for Creating and Growing a Breakaway Business [Hardcover]

Miles Spencer (Author), Cliff Ennico (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 22, 1999

Thinking about starting a business?Taking the entrepreneurial path to financial independence and perhaps even wealth? Or maybe you already run a business and want to learn how to take it to the next level? If so, please read on...

MoneyHunt, by Miles Spencer and Cliff Ennico, cohosts of the popular television series of the same name, is your guide to business success. Their twenty-seven rules for creating and growing a breakaway busi-ness make for some of the most brutally honest advice you are ever likely to hear in your business life.

Each chapter presents a powerful lesson in the art and science of building a business. Each lesson is brought home forcefully using the story of a real-life entrepreneur who has been there, done that. You will encounter the lives of small-business owners from a wide variety of industries and backgrounds, providing you with a rich fabric of trials and triumphs.

The book is divided into seven parts, covering the most vital issues facing the small-business owner--or the individual thinking about going into business. You'll find answers to these questions and more:

What does it take to succeed in the rough-and--tumble world of entrepreneurship?

Where do the best ideas come from?

How do you discern what the marketplace is really looking for?

People--you can't work with them, you can't succeed without them. What do you do? Money is the lifeblood of a business. How do you I keep it flowing?

How do you deal with the legal issues that can make you or break you?

When is it time to "take the money and run"?

Most entrepreneurs are flying without a map, and most eventually crash and burn. But this witty and wise book, filled with advice, lessons, and tips from guests, mentors, and friends of the MoneyHunt television show, can quickly show you how to avoid disaster as you work to create and grow a dynamic business. All the realities of going it alone in business are here, in all their harsh but splendid glory.

Whether it's just an idea that you've been tossing around with friends or a carefully researched and structured plan that you've been developing for years, MoneyHunt helps you learn from the experiences of others and provides you with the real realities of the business world, the facts and the truths that are left out of the textbooks.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In the PBS TV show Money Hunt, would-be entrepreneurs present their business plans to a panel of experts on business launches. Those with good plans get start-up capital. Those without them get nothing, other than maybe a painful lesson or two. Now, the hosts of Money Hunt want you to know the 27 rules of starting a successful new business, rules they've gleaned both from doing the show and from their personal experience--Spencer is an investment banker and venture capitalist, and Ennico is a corporate lawyer and entrepreneur. Between the two of them, they've spent 30 years working with businesses from the ground floor up.

A few of their 27 rules are well known. Take Rule No. 9, for example: "During a gold rush, sell shovels." But Money Hunt gives a surprising example: the company that makes wheels for inline skates. The inline-skate business grew 100 percent a year for five years, but when that business peaked and all the people who were going to start skating already owned skates, who was still profiting? The guy who made the wheels to replace the ones that got worn out. One that's not so well known is Rule No. 25: "It's a business, not a baby." Here, Spencer and Ennico tell the tale of a college kid who started a business designing Web sites in his dorm room, and quickly sold out to a local advertising agency. The kid sensed that the head of the agency was new to the Net, and, if he did any exploring, could easily find someone who did what the kid could do. He knew this was his best shot at big money, and took it. Other rules explore how to deal with people, money, markets, and lawyers, and each is illustrated by a detailed story of real-world business, making Money Hunt the best treasure map an entrepreneur could lay his or her hands on. --Lou Schuler

From Booklist

Spencer and Ennico are hosts of the PBS television show Money Hunt, which began on a cable-access station in Connecticut several years ago and now airs on more than 130 PBS outlets. The program features business start-up hopefuls pitching their ideas to a panel of reviewers that includes successful entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. After 12 minutes the panelists give either a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down. Although an appearance on Money Hunt can be confidence shattering, many learn valuable lessons that enable them to raise capital and start their businesses. Two audiocassette versions of the series have already been released; here the cohosts identify 27 rules that, when they have seen them applied, lead to a successful start-up. They explain each rule and use an example from the program to illustrate its application (or misapplication). Because its advice is much more hard-nosed than the rosy, get-rich-quick platitudes offered by many others, Money Hunt is uniquely valuable. David Rouse

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: HarperBusiness; First Edition edition (September 22, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0066619955
• ISBN-13: 978-0066619958
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,745,620 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Never-Ending Quest, February 27, 2000

By 

Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Money Hunt: 27 New Rules for Creating and Growing a Breakaway Business (Hardcover)

MoneyHunt

According to the subtitle, the authors provide "27 New Rules for Creating and Growing a Breakaway Business." How "new" these rules are is subject to honest disagreement but all are sound and can be of great value to anyone who is either preparing to launch a new company or who has launched one which is now experiencing serious problems. Either way, I rate this book highly. It is well-written. The material is anchored in a wealth of real-world experience. For each reader, some rules are probably more relevant than are others...at least today. However, having had extensive recent experience with several start-ups, I can attest that each of the 27 will become relevant at one time or another. I also think this book can be of substantial value to senior-level executives of so-called "mature" companies. Why? Because every company needs what I call a semi-annual or quarterly (if not monthly) "gut check" -- or "reality check" -- which challenges all basic assumptions and premises concerning its vision, mission, priorities, allocation of resources, positioning, core competencies, customer relationships, competition, etc.

The authors devote a separate chapter to each of the "Rules", with the 27 chapters organized within seven Parts:

Part One: Do You Have What It Takes?

Part Two: The Right Idea at the Right Time

Part Three: Markets and Competition

Part Four: People

Part Five: Show Me the Money!

Part Six: The Legal Side of Business

Part Seven: Getting Out -- and Moving On

The book concludes with five Appendices: The MoneyHunt Story, Business Plan Template, Online Audition for MoneyHunt, Legal Dos and Don'ts of Raising Capital, and Demystifying the Business Organization. Although all of the material provided is solid and well-presented, I was especially interested in Appendix A which explains the origin and development of a television program on which entrepreneurs (hunting for money, of course) appear.

Who will derive the greatest benefit from this book? As previously suggested, those who are merely thinking about launching a new company; also those who are preparing to launch a new company; also those who have launched a company now encountering serious problems; also those in a well-established company which may be losing its competitive edge. Here's another category of reader which I also want to include: Those involved in a large organization who must compete aggressively each day for a share of that organization's resources. For them, effective application of the 27 "Rules" will of course require strategies and tactics which are substantially different from those required when "creating and growing" a new enterprise.

The hunt for money never ends because the need for money never ends. Unless you have everything required to achieve your specific objectives, read and then re-read the book. If and when circumstances tempt you to think that you can relax a bit, read it again.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Best Book!, November 29, 1999

By 

Leslie Chin (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Money Hunt: 27 New Rules for Creating and Growing a Breakaway Business (Hardcover)

I went to Crown looking for The New New Thing but bought this book instead. After reading the first rule, I knew I have to buy it but couldn't wait to order from Amazon. Rushed to my car and finished the whole book. The rule on ruthless validates a few plans I had in mind....I never watched the show but extremely grateful that the two gentlemen wrote this book. I know I can never find a great business book like this written in any other language, not in this century.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Oustanding advice from the industry's finest!, October 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Money Hunt: 27 New Rules for Creating and Growing a Breakaway Business (Hardcover)

This is the book ALL entreprenuers need. If you're starting your own business, get your hands on this detailed and helpful book! Cliff and Miles know their stuff, and let you understand what and what NOT to do when starting a business. A truly great book.