What If? and Why Not?: How to Transform Your Fears Into Action and Start the Business of Your Dreams [Hardcover]

Jen Groover (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2, 2010

Starting your own business is hard. But the biggest obstacles often have less to do with time and money, and more to do with fear and doubt.

In What If? and Why Not? serial entrepreneur and small business advocate Jen Groover—creator of the Butler Bag and creator and host of Launcher’s Café, an online community for entrepreneurs—shows you how to transform your fears into action by rethinking the negative questions that can lead to failure before you even get started.

Being an entrepreneur, Groover says, isn’t just about selling a product. It’s about personal growth—about taking your vision and bringing it to fruition, and about always pushing yourself to take that vision further. What gets in your way isn’t the money you don’t have, or what you don’t know about the industry you want to get into—it’s believing you can’t do it, that you don’t have the power or the resources you need to make your dream into a reality.

Groover walks you step by step through ten negative “What If?” questions—What if I don’t know what I’m doing? What if I don’t have the money? What if I fail?—and how to turn them around by asking yourself: What if I can learn? What if I don’t need much money? What if I succeed? She also asks “What Not?”: Why not find a mentor or take a class? Why not ask for investors? Why not try?

With dozens of personal stories from successful entrepreneurs in areas as diverse as dog walking and handbag-invention, plus practical advice for every step of your journey, What If? and Why Not? is the most complete guide available to help you you start the business of your dreams.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Tagged by Success Magazine as a "One-Woman Brand" and “Creativity and Innovation Guru”, a leading "Serial Entrepreneur" by Entrepreneur Magazine and having drawn comparisons to Walt Disney and Benjamin Franklin, Jen Groover's name has quickly become synonymous with innovation, entrepreneurship and evolution. She has gone from guest-hosting spots on QVC to inking deals with some of the industry’s biggest heavyweights.

Jen’s innovative handbag company is the award-winning Butler Bag Company, which launched just under 3 years ago and is now being tracked as one of the fastest growing handbag brands in history. She has become a regularly featured business and lifestyle expert for such programs as Fox News’ “Strategy Room”, ABC’s “Money Matters”, CBS’ “Early Show”, CNBC’s “The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch”, and Meredith Corporation’s “Better TV” and a business contributor to the Huffington Post. Jen and her products have been featured in hundreds of media outlets such as O, The Oprah Magazine, Redbook, Us Weekly, People, Success and Entrepreneur.

Jen is a highly sought-after speaker and author – contributing editorial pieces to several prominent business magazines and booking speaking engagements that include political conferences, charity fundraisers, Learning Annex seminars, and women’s leadership conferences. She is also the National Spokesperson for Girls Take Charge, a leadership organization for girls 9-18 years of age.

Jen has recently created and hosts Launchers Café - a cutting-edge entrepreneurial, multimedia, and interactive brand with tens of thousands of members that is changing the way entrepreneurs/launchers learn, share information, do business and accelerate business growth.

She has received numerous accolades and honors from women’s organizations such as the Momentum Award from Ceslie Network/Ceslie.com recognizing her as one of the best and brightest women in business. Most recently Jen is the 2009 Honoree for the Women’s Venture Fund for her prominent work in being a role model and advocate for female entrepreneurs.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 248 pages
• Publisher: BenBella Books (March 2, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1935251678
• ISBN-13: 978-1935251675
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #841,474 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:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read For Anyone Who Wants To Own Their Own Business, June 13, 2010

A Kid's Review

This review is from: What If? and Why Not?: How to Transform Your Fears Into Action and Start the Business of Your Dreams (Hardcover)

I sat down yesterday with a highlighter pen and read What If? & Why Not? in a few hours. I started my own business this year and her tips, inspiration, the way she explains everything is so user friendly. I will be referring back to this book often. I have met Jen twice and she is charming and down to earth. If you buy this book and No More Monday's by Dan Miller for your library, you will have all of the tools and information that you need to succeed.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fills a needed gap, March 12, 2010

By 

Norris Krueger "recovering entrepreneur and e... (Boise, ID) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What If? and Why Not?: How to Transform Your Fears Into Action and Start the Business of Your Dreams (Hardcover)

As one reviewer already said, Jen's voice comes through loud & clear. For anyone who follows @jengroover [and [..] - you'll know exactly what I mean.

As an entrepreneurship educator and as an economic developer, there is a real need for an "entry-level" book for those wrestling with the decision of how to take control of their lives. It's not enough to want to - they have to believe that they can. It's not too corny to refer to "life-changing"; to unleash your inner entrepreneur requires seeing the world very differently. Yet Jen shows how it's not *that* different. As such, this is a great guide for those who are completely new to this whole notion of entrepreneurship.

On the other hand, as a recovering tech entrepreneur (and a research PhD in entrepreneurship) you'd think that this would seem a bit over-simplified for me, eh? Nope. Not at all. Learning to think more like an expert entrepreneur - to build the cognitive scripts & maps necessary - requires changing some very deep beliefs that we not only take for granted, we aren't even mindful of them. The barriers we see to entrepreneurship are mostly in the eye of the beholder & Jen walks the reader through several of the most obvious (and several of the sneakiest.) Jen's questions seem artful - and powerful - from that perspective. (Stop me before I design a research project around these questions... but I'd love to see what happens at each "Aha!" moment through all this. Anyone lend me an fMRI?)

Beginner books rarely keep my attention; this one I read in one sitting and I've already loaned it out.. twice.

Entrepreneur Up!

[p.s. Would I suggest this book to an MBA? No, but only because they wouldn't read it, LOL. But for the average Jane or Joe on the street... it's worth the sticker price.]

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It just WORKS, March 4, 2010

By 

K Dog "Media Junkie" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What If? and Why Not?: How to Transform Your Fears Into Action and Start the Business of Your Dreams (Hardcover)

This book is a fun, easy read, and you can really hear the author's voice come through. To me, the most resonating passages had to do with believing in yourself. As a woman who has dreamed up at least ten ideas for a business, and followed up on a whopping three - inspiring messages of courage, encouragement, and "nothing to lose" are the killer app of this book. I believe Jen Groover; she has obviously walked the walk before talking the talk. This book has helped me believe in ME.