Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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.

I just finished reading "The Small Business Owner's Guide to a Good Night's
Sleep," and have already recommended it to a couple small business owners I know. I
congratulate the author! It's well-written, precise, and practical.
Kim Lisi
Managing Editor
HOMEBusiness Journal

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.

This is one of the best books I've read in months on how to manage your
business prudently and efficiently. I bought it so that I would have it on my
shelf for when those frightening unexpected and negative times arise. . .and
we know they do in every business. . . so I was surprised to find myself
reading the book for about two hours without putting it down. I also took the
time to do the small business self-audit, and the author was right: I DO have
problems brewing in my organization that I wasn't even aware existed before I
read the book. Worth the money.

I was a little concerned before I read the book. . .afraid it would be one of
these well-meaning books that just make me feel worse due to all the things I
should be doing with my business but just don't have the time to do. But I
was very surprised. It's an insightful, clever, advice-packed, easy read. I
collected dozens of ideas that are easy to apply and that will certainly help
me sleep better at night. Most importantly, the tips aren't just about how to
handle things when an emergency hits; rather, the tips have helped me
streamline processes, save money, make wiser decisions, and tackle situations
differently to save time.