The Successful Business Organizer [Hardcover]

Rhonda Abrams (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 14, 2001

FINALLY! A complete way to organize the hundreds of things you need to do to start and grow your business!

This one-of-a-kind book is designed to help the entrepreneur organize and streamline the often-complex and overwhelming process of starting a business. Packed with checklists, worksheets, and forms, the Organizer takes entrepreneurs step-by-step through everything they’ll need to do to get their business up and running—successfully.

Written by Rhonda Abrams, America’s best-read small business columnist and a successful business planning consultant, the Organizer is packed with Rhonda’s level-headed advice and insight on every aspect of starting and running a business.

Trying to determine if there's a market for your business and if it will make money? The Successful Business Organizer takes entrepreneurs through the process of market research and risk assessment. Choosing a location or buying equipment and furniture for the office? The Organizer helps business owners keep track of vendor names, payment terms, and delivery dates of everything purchased. Need to raise money for the business? The Organizer helps with budget writing and searching for investors. The book not only guides readers through all of these steps but also organizes and stores information.

Designed as a personalized planner, the book is spiral bound and lies flat, making it a perfect hands-on resource for you to use as you plan and grow your business.

Special Features:
- Over 25 planning worksheets
- Comparison shopping charts
- A year-long checklist of important business startup things-to-do
- “Questions to Ask:” lawyers, accountants, partners, investors, and others
- “Red Tape Alerts:” keep you out of trouble with government agencies
- “Hot Links” to key information on the Internet
- Tips and secrets to save you money

Takes You Step-By-Step Through:
- Outlining a fool-proof business concept
- Choosing your best corporate structure
- Planning powerful and effective sales and marketing campaigns
- Hiring, managing, and retaining great employees
- Starting operations: from choosing a location to determining technology needs
- Keeping track of critical information
- Managing your money and financing your business for highest returns
- Developing an effective crisis management plan

Other Features:
- Address Pages for storing important contact information
- Comparison shopping guides for purchasing business equipment, inventory, etc.
- File folder labels to help you quickly get your filing system up and running
- Glossary of key business terms

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

(excerpted from the book’s Introduction)

Congratulations! You’re engaged in one of the most exciting projects of all -- growing a business. And I want to help you succeed.

This Organizer will:
- Help you stay on top of all the things you have to do
- Help you keep all your info and stuff together
- Give you good ideas, tips and shortcuts
- Warn you of potential problems and pitfalls
- Help you think through your decision-making process
- Help you budget and plan
- Increase your chances of success

I’ll take you through all the steps you’ll need to follow when planning your new, changing, or growing company. And my team and I have created a number of handy tools to guide you through that process. Things like:

- Shopping
- Choosing a location
- Comparing options
- Coming up with marketing and sales pitches
- Keeping track of names, numbers, and information
- Figuring out what to ask consultants and advisors.

There’s nothing else like this Organizer available; that’s why we created it. I wish I’d had something like this to guide me when I started my own businesses.Don’t be intimidated by how much there is in this Organizer. We tried to include as much as possible. It’s your tool -- use it to help you succeed.

Okay, let’s get started.

Warmly, Rhonda

About the Author

Rhonda Abrams writes the nation’s most widely read small business column, which appears on USATODAY.com and Inc.com, in over 130 newspapers throughout the country, and in the Costco Connection. In her column, Rhonda focuses on the concerns and challenges of entrepreneurs, offering common-sense advice based on solid business experience and real-life examples. This has earned her the reputation as “America’s Most Trusted Small Business Advisor.”

Rhonda is also the author of The Successful Business Plan: Secrets & Strategies and Wear Clean Underwear: Business Wisdom from Mom.

With more than 250,000 copies in print, The Successful Business Plan was acclaimed by Forbes, Inc., Home Office Computing, and others as one of the best books for entrepreneurs and is used by business schools nationwide.

Wear Clean Underwear (Dell, 2000) examines the business practices of outstanding companies and was chosen as a Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club, the Money Club, and the Quality Paperback Book Club. It has been translated into many languages, including Dutch, Korean, and Japanese.

Rhonda not only writes about business — she lives it! She has started three successful companies, including a successful small business consulting firm. Rhonda’s experience gives her an extraordinary depth of experience and a real-life understanding of the challenges facing entrepreneurs.

Rhonda started her first company in 1986: a management consulting practice working with clients ranging from one-person startups to Fortune 500 companies. In 1995, she was an Internet pioneer, founding a web-content company for small business, which she later sold.

In 1999, Rhonda started Running ‘R’ Media, a publishing and content creation company focusing exclusively on topics of entrepreneurship, small business, and new business development. And in 2000, Rhonda extended her business by starting RhondaWorks, an online and offline company to assist entrepreneurs in starting and growing their companies.

A popular public speaker and lecturer, Rhonda is regularly invited to address leading industry associations, corporate events, and business schools. She was educated at Harvard University and UCLA, where she was named Outstanding Senior. Rhonda lives in Palo Alto, California.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 243 pages
• Publisher: Planning Shop (June 14, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0966963539
• ISBN-13: 978-0966963533
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 9.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,175,627 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Resource for Starting a Business, July 19, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Successful Business Organizer (Hardcover)

A counselor at my local Small Business Development Center turned me onto this book, and I've been really impressed. The book is full of checklists, worksheets, and a ton of information for someone starting up a business. The earlier chapters of the book forced me to rethink my whole business concept--there were some key things I hadn't really considered. I'm still working through the later chapters, but am completely convinced that this book will end up having saved me several thousand dollars in mistakes and a whole lot of time.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for Finally Getting On Top of My Business!, October 30, 2001

By 

Annabelle Garr (Denver, CO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Successful Business Organizer (Hardcover)

The other reviews make this Organizer sound like it's just for someone starting out, but I can highly recommend it for someone like myself, too, who's already in business. Running a business, I've got so many things to keep track of that I really found this book useful for getting -- and staying on top of all the administrative details I hate dealing with. The author comes up with many things I've never thought of before -- like how to track my credit cards to keep my payments lower, how to prepare for emergencies, how to save money on marketing. And this book reminded me of so many things I promised myself I'd get around to "one day," but kept putting on the back burner. I also REALLY liked the format: hardback and wire-bound -- it was easy to use on a daily basis and is solid for keeping as an important reference of my company data. Everyone talks about getting organized -- this book actually helped me do it!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Patience is a virtue, January 1, 2008

By 

Steve G. (Traverse City, MI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Successful Business Organizer (Hardcover)

This book covers far more than the basics, it's actually more of a "project management" plan for starting a new business, laid out pretty much over the course of a year.

If you're looking to write up a "business plan in a day" you won't find it here.

However, if you're looking for covering nearly every nuance of a small business plan, and do your homework (this is a workbook as much as a readable book) - this is for you.

A great feature - it's a workbook, not on a PC.

That's not to say you can't use a PC to do your "homework", but it's definitely a bonus if your computer crashes, or for the Mac user who doesn't have (or want) access to biz plan warez - most of which don't "teach" anyhow.

If your business idea is a true small business, this is a great resource. If you're looking to start a SOHO, solo gig - it's probably overkill, but still useful.