Starting Your Business (Small Business Guides) [Hardcover]

Peter Hingston (Author), Adele Hayward (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 16, 2001 | Series: Small Business Guides

In an accessible and jargon-free style small business expert Peter Hingston provides answers to the many questions asked by those wanting to start a small business. From choosing the right idea and preparing a business plan to marketing distribution and financial and legal know-how "Starting Your Business" offers a wealth of advice. This title features integral charts and diagrams, at-a-glance tip boxes, case studies, questionnaires and checklists that enable you to understand the many different aspects of running a small business.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Peter Hingston is an entrepreneur who has experience of setting up and running a range of different small businesses, including electronics manufacturing, retail, book and magazine publishing. He spent two years as the Trust Director of an enterprise agency, giving advice to people wanting to set up a business. Colin Barrow is Head of the Enterprise Group at Cranfield University School of Management, and Director of the Business Growth and Development Programme, the UK's most successful progamme for entrepreneurs. He has written numerous books on small business and entrepreneurship. Alastair Balfour is an experienced journalist, writer, and business manager. He has worked for most of the major Scottish newspapers, and for 16 years ran a monthly business magazine. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: DK ADULT (May 16, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 078947199X
• ISBN-13: 978-0789471994
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,402,427 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good book to read before you start your business!, December 17, 2006

By 

Jeff Lippincott "JLIPPIN" (Princeton, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Starting Your Business (Small Business Guides) (Hardcover)

I have mixed feelings about this book. I am well-versed on what is involved in starting a small business and can appreciate much of this book's contents. But the book has its problems.

There are four chapters in this book:

1. Before you start
2. Starting out
3. Staying in business
4. Useful information

I was particularly impressed and liked the first chapter (Before You Start). It is without doubt the best part of the book. It covers among other things: researching the market, creating a business plan, and raising the financing. But in the "Starting Out" section I found the coverage to be a little off the mark. Sales and promotion are part of marketing. So why was there a section on marketing and then a section on sales and promotion? Also, why was there a section on exporting included? And where were sections on: implementing the business plan, systematizing the business, and distributing the products and/or services?

I would have liked the book better if it had covered business models a little. It's possible to write a great business plan for a business with a poor business model and then fail. Business models are blueprints regarding how a business makes money. I think they should have been covered to some extent.

I thought the "Choosing Your Business Status" part was lacking. I only saw a discussion of sole proprietorship, partnership, and corporation. There was no talk about the different types of partnerships or corporations. And most importantly, there was no talk about Limited Liability Companies (LLCs). An LLC is the predominant choice of entity for small businesses today.

Even though the book has considerable shortcomings, I liked it. There was lots of content in the front part of the book and that enables me to overlook the other parts that were not so good. 4 stars!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars For beginners, February 28, 2002

By 

"kangaru" (Sydney,OZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Starting Your Business (Small Business Guides) (Hardcover)

This book is visually appealing. It is well designed with good use of colour. There is a colour photo about every 4 pages, and illustrations, graphs and tables on almost every page. It is a hardcover book with proper sewn-in binding.

It looks good, and covers the basics, but is generally un-inspired. The tendecy to talk in generalities and state the obvious becomes tedious at times. There are very few references to external information sources.

Best chapter: preparing a business plan.

Worst chapters: Employment, Exporting.