Customer Reviews

Shoestring Venture: The Startup Bible

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Well, maybe not everything, but the Shoestring Venture: The Startup Bible puts a lot of information you want and need right at your fingertips. If you've never started or run a business before the whole process can seem daunting, even overwhelming. I've known people who have always wanted to start a business but they never do, the whole process seems so complicated. What they want is someone who can show them the ropes and guide them through the business building process well, now they have this book.

My copy of the book is dogeared, or would be if I didn't have an electronic copy, because I have used it extensively to rethink and remodel how I run my existing business. I want my business to have a small footprint, be profitable and efficient, these are the goals of the book as well. The author advocates focusing on your core competency - what you do best, and outsourcing those things best done by others. He also shows you how to do it and tells you where to look and gives an idea of how much it will cost.

The book covers everything involved in starting a business, soup-to-nuts and provides you with the resources to find whatever it is you need. Best of all, because the books focus in on small, home-based businesses with little start-up capital, this is a book everyone can use.

At first I thought this would be a boring read. I mean, show really likes reading about accounting, legal structures and business plans (okay, some people do), but it's not. The author's writing style made even subjects like accounting fun to read and easy to understand.

The author points out that this is the century for small business and I agree with him. The old model of working for a large corporate entity that takes care of our economic security and needs is broken and is not coming back. Everyone needs to start their own business, even if only on a part time basis, because taking control and responsibility for our own financial security gives us both freedom and security. Here are the resources to do just that.

Highly recommended for anyone looking to start a business or who is in business already and who wants to be more productive and profitable.

The Shoestring Venture: The Startup Bible is well developed, well thought out, well organized. It provides a wealth of information for those looking start their own small, medium, or large business venture.

Hooker and Monas provide websites appropriate for learning about incorporation, choosing a domain name, marketing strategies, finances, taxes and anything else anyone ever wanted to know about starting their own business.

This is an invaluable resource that has opened my eyes to all the resources available. Hooker and Monas have also established a website where all the links they mention in the book are listed and accessible by a click of the mouse, without having to retype all the links in a browser to find the information wanted. What a great idea!

This is certainly one resource I am glad to have on my bookshelf.

Let me just say, that first and formost, this book is great book. It has tons of information and shares lots of great resources.
However, the Kindle version just isn't cutting it. In the introduction, it suggests that you use the book as a reference, going to any chapter as you need it in your business creation. The problem is that there is no functional Table of Contents or Index, making it very difficult to find the information at a moments notice. If those were added, I would be much happier with this book.

If I got a chance to choose a name for this book, I would have called it "The Cheat Sheet of business". It has everything a person needs to start a small business, or needs a handy reference to do things the right way in his business.
It is very well structured and you can readily jump chapters, to get the information that you are specifically looking for.
This is not a "Who wants to be a millionaire" or a "Get Rich Quick" kind of a propaganda type of book, which we so often come across, but is actual a handy book for all those entrepreneurs looking for all the resources and technicalities of a successful business.
This book deals with serious topics in a lucid fashion. It has everything from naming a business to outsourcing and data mining and HR policy. As I read the book, I was amazed at the amount of research which went behind this book, it has the links of all the resources that you will ever need, and all the urls are consolidated under one easy clickable link.
I do freelancing myself, and being computer savvy I did not have to spend much time of the chapters dealing with hardware/software or even the back office stuff, but if the latest computer terms bother you, you should definitely read this book, and get in sync with the rest of the world in what's going on. It might be a steep learning curve for a non internet or non computer savvy business man to digest the chapters, but you will be thankful that you did, and help your business by using the resources mentioned.

This is a must have book for those who want to create an internet business. There is a steep learning curve and this book provides the steps to climb that curve. It is highly recommended for novices and experts alike as a handy reference book for doing business on the internet.

When I first heard the title, Shoestring Venture, The Startup Bible, I laughed to myself wondering if the author was trying to start a new religion. I thought that the book would be worth about the same cost as a shoestring. I was wrong. This is the best book I have read about starting a new business venture. If you don't buy any other business book, buy this one. This book is 558 pages of pure gold to anyone wanting to start their own business. In eight chapters, Steve Monas and Richard Hooker take you step by step through the process of starting a business. Keep this on your desk as a reference manual. I only see one drawback to this book--it focuses heavily on ecommerce and online marketing. There is nothing about brick and mortar stores or print media marketing campaigns. I would like to have read more information about these subjects. Otherwise, the book is great to keep around as an answer to your questions.

This book is an incredibly comprehensive guide to the landscape that is starting up an entrepreneurial venture in the 21st century, using the Internet as your primary toolset.

I phrase it in that way, to make sure you- the reader- completely understand who this book is aimed at. If you're new to being an entrepreneur, the information is priceless. If you're an existing entrepreneur, the book still contains a lot of valuable info that might make you stop and really think of things you might not have known (or as Donald Rumsfeld put it: what we don't know we don't know). Either way, you cannot go wrong with picking this resource up and referring to it over and over again.

The book is clearly laid out, and takes you through each step of the way- chronologically in the logical order you would plan and execute a new business venture. It contains a LOT of useful advice and wisdom, and can be quite overwhelming, but as other reviewers have pointed out, the book doesn't have to be read end-to-end to be appreciated or used. HOWEVER, if you're brand new to entrepreneurial thinking, you had best read cover to cover before making your first move--you'll really benefit from thinking over the whole process and what is truly required to get the endeavor moving in a successful direction!

Before you dismiss this review as all gushing and paid advertisement, let me tell you- I'm an entrepreneur myself, and I actually run a few businesses right now on a shoestring budget. I originally thought I wouldn't get a lot out of this manual, especially considering the price of it--but after having read this, I really wish I had something like it back when I was starting out--I would've avoided a LOT of COSTLY mistakes had I read this book FIRST!! And even though I'm not `brand new' to the process, and had to learn a lot of things in this book the hard way, I still found tremendous value. All the RESOURCES this catalogs [including mini-reviews on the value/services each provides!] for EACH step of the way is itself well worth the $ spent.

There is one issue I had- I don't think the book detailed much regarding how to approach techniques to get your business out of `shoestring budget' mode--although, I suspect a few of the business planning resources it points to would have articles on that..

BOTTOM LNE:
PLUS: Excellent resource outlining the steps you need to take to lay a well planned foundation for a new 21st century business.
MINUS: Highly focused on using Internet as a tool--if you don't think you need the internet to be part of your business plan and aren't open to using it as a tool - this book isn't for you.

This is a road map to creating successful 21st century entrepreneurial businesses- as such, it won't tell you everything about HOW to do it, but it does show you WHERE you can go to find out!

I think this book is great. Right now, in this economy, people can use all the information they can get on making their own wealth and I think this book is an excellent resource.

Finally! A book by real people who give you the "How-to" and "How-not-to" of starting and operating a successful business from the comfort of your home, on a small budget. Steve Monas and Richard Hooker give you all the details, starting with how to outsource the heavy work and delegating authority, in this educational and inspiring book. ShoestringVenture: The Startup Bible walks you through Steve's personal experiences (successes and failures) and provides you with some real help. No cheerleading here, just good, old-fashioned, hard work and business acumen to guide you through the startup process. (Don't skip the introduction, or you'll miss out on some great advice.)

Steve and Richard get right to the heart of the matter and don't skimp on the resources. They tell you who to go to, for what purpose, and who offers the best of each kind of service for small businesses. With wit and whimsy they cover topics like goal setting, money management, and outsourcing, giving warnings about some of the most common mistakes. The book is about how to succeed, but they tell you exactly what you should do, if you intend to fail, as well.

You'll get more unbiased, honest information about building a business, in the first chapter, than you'll get by paying a consultant hundreds of dollars for a couple of hours of their time. The best thing is, they know their online stuff. This book rolls startup consulting, small business operations, and the Internet as a marketing/sales/revenue tool all up into one and doesn't spare the details.

From business finance and banking to business technologies, and marketing, Steve Monas and Richard Hooker walk you through the details that you couldn't get, all in one place, from the most recent MBA graduates with the most up-to-date knowledge or the most experienced consultant. Combining all of their hands-on and need-generated knowledge, and the wisdom of how to apply it to most any business, this book will carry you from concept through success, if you follow the flow and don't skip from beginning to end, leaving out the middle.

Can't handle all of the administrative stuff yourself and getting bogged down? Learn how to set up a virtual front and back offices.

Do you know how to market test your product? Once you know it's going to work, do you know how to get it to market? Do you know how to distribute? If not, ShoestringVenture, should definitely be part of your library. The best thing is, once you have the book, you also have access to a one-stop website that has all of the links to all of the websites they refer you to in the book. So, if you don't feel like typing in all of those URLs, just type in the one they give you in the book and start reading, learning, applying, planning, setting goals, and following through, follow up on your day's activities.

ShoestringVenture: The Startup Bible is a must read, must own book that every entrepreneur should buy and keep for future reference. Once you start reading, you won't want to stop!

The book has a dense amount of information about how to run a small business. Pretty much every facet of a business is covered here and because of that, it's a thick book and can't be easily read from cover to cover in one sitting.

I'll hold onto this book and use it as a dictionary or encyclopedia of business references and information. I'm glad I bought this book. I'm already using the web references it lists on countless business-related topics.