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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cheaper to learn from others mistakes, August 29, 2007
This review is from: The Small Business Millionaire (Paperback)
Yesterday was a long day. Up at 4:30AM for a flight down to LA. A day of meetings then back on a plane to get home by 10:30PM. Too wired to sleep and nothing on TV but people talking about Michael Vick. Time to grab a book.
I figured that I would read a couple of chapters then off to bed. A couple of hours later and the book was finished. It is not a surprise that it only took a couple of hours, the book is barely over 120 pages. The surprise is I finished it before going to bed. I was that tired and it was that good.
This is an easy book to read, and it is a good story, but at 120 pages, I do not think it will teach you how to run a business. It does make you think about the business side of business.
There are two really good things in this book, you have to love business nearly as much as you love the business you are in and don't waste money on advertising.
The author's depiction of advertising sales people is classic. "Of course this Ad will help your business, you just have to keep advertising until people recognize your name." Right, but do you guarantee this will bring in customers? "We can't do that, of course. How do we know why someone came in? But, just keep running the ad and I'm sure it will work." I have been there often.
The danger after reading it is that you may conclude that you should never advertise. Not true. Advertising may or may not be great for your business. Maybe the kind of advertising you are doing is not right.
I ran a business where we were spending $15,000 a month on ads. How did we know what ads worked? We asked. We kept track of which ads worked and which didn't. We changed what the ads said. We changed where they ran. We changed when they ran. And, we asked customers how they found us and noted how much they spent. All of this data helped show that the $5000 we were spending a month in yellow page ads was wasting lots of money and the $3000 a month we spent in Val Pak coupons was bringing in 50% of our business. The other 50% came from repeat, word of mouth, and the rest of the $15000 we spent on other types of ads.
Because we asked, we started running much smaller ads in Yellow Pages and moving that money to send out more Val Pak ads. Sales increased. We then set aside some of the budget to experiment with. We used it to try all kinds of things. Those that worked earned the right to continue, those that didn't, well let's just say Edison had a lot of failures too.
There are many good books on advertising out there, Much thicker than this wonderful novel. I like Dan Kennedy's stuff for how to test and write copy. The guerrilla marketing series is also very good.
So why 5 stars? Because this book does a great job at what it does. It is not trying to be a complete business book. It does a great job in showing you that there is a difference between having a hobby that you are good at and turning it into a business. The difference is you have to spend as much or more time doing the business stuff, as you spend on the fun stuff. And if you do not excel at the business side, there will be a lot of pain.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
On the Brink - A Heartwarming Story Commitment to a Dream, April 27, 2006
This review is from: The Small Business Millionaire (Paperback)
Steve Chandler and Sam Beckford have joined forces to combine a unique blend of entertainment, suspense, drama, and innovative insight in this moving business novel. It is the story of rebounding from failure and disappointment to success and fulfillment using basic business tactics.
The story is based on Frank, a gifted cook, and his daughter Jennifer, a business major at City College. Frank's family restaurant is on the brink of bankruptcy. Frank is offered thought provoking business coaching from a young customer, Jonathan Berkley.
Jonathan subtly refutes basic misconceptions Frank has adopted on finance, advertising, marketing, and employment practices to replace them with principles of commitment in building a staff, choosing a customer base, a new marketing strategy, and providing a quality product and service for success in building the business of his dreams.
The authors have drawn from their experience in industry and consulting to instill good business practices to motivate, inspire, and encourage the reader to succeed.
I found the book heartwarming and touching on the personal side and practical and enlightening on business principles.
I highly recommend this book to all business owners, whether at the bottom on the brink of failure, or at the pinnacle of success. This book is a reminder of the importance of finding a work that brings joy and fulfillment in the process of attaining goals and dreams.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
great lessons, January 8, 2007
This review is from: The Small Business Millionaire (Paperback)
Reviewed by Stephanie Rollins for Reader Views (01/07)
"The Small Business Millionaire" is about a mysterious patron of a failing restaurant who aids the owners in restoring their business. The cook/owner of the restaurant, Frank, just wants to cook. He really does not want to run the business. His daughter Jennifer was just a college student who worked in the restaurant. She then, inspired by the annoyingly mysterious coach, Jonathan, quits college and starts managing the restaurant. She sees it as means to saving the restaurant and increasing her practical business knowledge. This brazen move worries her father. Is Jennifer making a foolish decision?
There are only 121 pages in "The Small Business Millionaire." I thought it would be concise and to the point. This is not the case.
When I began to read "The Small Business Millionaire," I was surprised to see that it was a novel, not a textbook-like guide to getting rich quickly. I read through the first half of the book, hoping that the degrading preaching would end, and the exciting novel would begin. No such luck.
I felt hostage in one of those get-rich-quick seminars. It was as if the doors were locked or the television could not be turned off. The coach in the book would not answer a question in a straight-forward manner. Everything had to be in riddle form.
I am sure that there were many great lessons to learn from "The Small Business Millionaire," but I could not get past the fact that the book was written for the lowest common denominator. Why insult your readers by dumbing down the material?
Regardless of how poorly written, "The Small Business Millionaire," Chandler and Beckford are superb coaches. To learn from Steve Chandler and Sam Beckford, skip reading "The Small Business Millionaire." Read "9 Lies that are Holding Your Business Back." You will learn so much more. I also recommend visiting their website.
Book received free of charge.
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