The Small Business Owner's Guide to a Good Night's Sleep: Preventing and Solving Chronic and Costly Problems [Paperback]

Debra Koontz Traverso (Author)

Book Description

Series: Bloomberg Small Business | Publication Date: August 2001

Finally, owners of small businesses have a practical book that can prepare them for the most common and destructive crises they face. Even problems that would be "small" to a larger company can be disastrous for a small one. Entrepreneurs know this, but many balk at the prospect of crisis planning because it seems endless and overwhelming.

Debra Traverso shows business owners how to best use their limited time and resources to address the most important potential threats to their businesses. By laying basic groundwork for crisis planning and zeroing in on the most likely, most damaging problems, owners can stay a step ahead of the disruptions that plague their peers.

This book covers preventive measures for bullet-proofing a business and explains what to do if a crisis has already struck. It offers a wealth of information in an easy-to-browse format, including proven checklists, examples, case studies, and resources. A "Vulnerability Identification Form" helps the business owner conduct the kind of risk analysis that a large company would typically perform.

Best of all, these strategies are ready to implement immediately, because they don't revolve around 500-page contingency plans and big emergency response teams.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Offers solutions to your worst problems. This superb book will help you sleep peacefully through the darkest and stormiest night." -- Jay Conrad Levinson, Author of the best-selling Guerrilla Marketing book series

"This book is uniquely designed to address the kinds of crises that typically strike these companies." -- Larry L. Smith, President, Institute for Crisis Management

"This book will serve as a guide for small-business owners in overcoming all the things we wish would not happen." -- Barbara G. Stanbridge, President, National Association of Women Business Owners

About the Author

Traverso is a former journalist. She is co-founder and vice president of a management consulting firm headquartered near Washington, D.C. She lectures at Harvard University in crisis management, communications, and news media operations.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Bloomberg Press (August 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576600475
• ISBN-13: 978-1576600474
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,840,119 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended!, August 22, 2001

By 

Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Small Business Owner's Guide to a Good Night's Sleep: Preventing and Solving Chronic and Costly Problems (Paperback)

Debra Koontz Traverso is out to save your business. Her book lives up to its billing as the first practical guide for small business owners who want to know how to manage a crisis like the big guys, or even better. Traverso tells you how to prepare for a crisis, prevent a crisis and manage a crisis if one happens. She's written a thorough manual imbued with her understanding of the mindset and circumstances affecting small business owners. Traverso's well-written book is jam-packed with insights, valuable lists, ideas and examples, and it never skims the surface of an issue. Come wind, sleet, hail or dark of night, if you are in a small business, we [...] recommend this essential book. Even if you work for a large organization, this book might be worth your time, since many big companies are strictly small-time when it comes to planning ahead.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A small business owner's helper, May 8, 2006

By 

Jeff Lippincott "JLIPPIN" (Princeton, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Small Business Owner's Guide to a Good Night's Sleep: Preventing and Solving Chronic and Costly Problems (Paperback)

At first glance I thought this book was written for managers who regularly put out fires. But when I started studying the book I quickly learned that the book identifies a myriad of typical "fires" that can sprout up at work and describes how a good manager/leader can PLAN so the likelihood of such fires ever starting is minimal. I highly recommend this book for any entrepreneur in business to use when strategically managing his or her business rather than managing with a fire extinguisher.

The book is split into 3 sections:

1. Principles of planning for a small business
2. Getting your house in order
3. When the crisis moves from in-house to the public

My favorite chapter was #3 (Avoid the Most Common Management Missteps), but chapters 2, 4 & 5 were very good ones as well concerning self-audit, employees, and computers. If you are a small business owner, then do yourself a favor and read this book. I suspect it will inform you of a few things you should do at your work that will improve your way of doing things.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great advice for small business owners/managers, October 26, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Small Business Owner's Guide to a Good Night's Sleep: Preventing and Solving Chronic and Costly Problems (Paperback)

I got more advice from this book's chapter on dealing with employees than I
have in the last three books I've read on employee relations, put together. I
especially appreciated the information on how to involve families of
employees to, in turn, motivate the employees even more.. . . and all while
keeping the families out of the way. I'm not sure I agree with Traverso that
a small business can survive and even thrive through a recession, but her
tips seem to make great sense, so I'm going to try them.