Ready, Fire, Aim: Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat (Agora Series) (Hardcover)

by Michael Masterson (Author)
Key Phrases: big promise, optimum selling strategy, allowable acquisition cost, Stage Two, Stage One, Stage Three (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Whether you’re thinking about starting a new business or growing an existing one, Ready, Fire, Aim has what you need to succeed in your entrepreneurial endeavors. In it, self-made multimillionaire and bestselling author Masterson shares the knowledge he has gained from creating and expanding numerous businesses and outlines a focused strategy for guiding a small business through the four stages of entrepreneurial growth. Along the way, Masterson teaches you the different skills needed in order to excel in this dynamic environment.

From the Inside Flap

If you had the opportunity to work where, when, and with whom you wanted—all while getting paid very well—would you take it? Self-made multimillionaire and bestselling author Michael Masterson did, and with Ready, Fire, Aim he'll show you how to do the same.

Whether you're thinking about starting a new business or growing an existing one, Ready, Fire, Aim has what you need to succeed in your entrepreneurial endeavors. In it, Masterson shares the knowledge he has gained from creating and expanding numerous businesses and outlines a focused strategy for guiding a small business through the four stages of entrepreneurial growth. Along the way, Masterson teaches you the different skills needed in order to excel in this dynamic environment.

While some of the concepts covered may seem novel, all of them have been proven to work time and again. Among other things, you'll discover:

• Why selling is your first business priority and the one thing you should never stop doing

• The handful of numbers that are critical to every business

• When to cut your losses short and when to let your winners run

• The front-end/back-end method of doubling profits easily

• Why having a Plan B is as important as Plan A, and when and how to create it

• The difference between pushers, thinkers, organizers, and sellers, and how to attract the ones you need for your business

Over the course of his remarkably successful career, Michael Masterson has helped start and develop dozens of multimillion-dollar businesses, including one whose revenues exceeded $135 million and another still growing at $300 million. Now, with Ready, Fire, Aim, he'll show you how to make your way to the top by designing powerful marketing campaigns that will regularly outsell your competitors; implementing innovative operational procedures that will reduce costs and hassles; and using the revolutionary power of the Internet to reduce customer complaints and increase profits.

To start and grow multimillion-dollar businesses over and over again you have to master certain skills. Ready, Fire, Aim reveals what those skills are and shows you how to quickly master them. Filled with in-depth insights and expert advice, this remarkable guide for entrepreneurs gives you a blueprint for business and financial success that will allow you to enjoy life to its fullest.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; First Edition edition (January 2, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470182024
• ISBN-13: 978-0470182024
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (70 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #31,038 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

67 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Massive self-promotion with some marketing tips thrown in, June 2, 2008

By	Jerry Saperstein (Evanston, IL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

I enjoy the occasional book on marketing and how to acheive success. The cover blurbs for "Ready, Aim, Fire" seemed promising as did some of the Amazon reviews. So I figured why not.

I can now answer the question "why not" in detail and at length.

First, the good news. Michael Masterson does a reasonably good job of distilling the advice offered in dozens of other books on advertising and marketing, from Napoleon Hill to Rosse Reeve's "Reality In Advertising". However, the solid advice gleaned from those classics is diluted with Masterson's endless preening and outright bragging.

The overall experience is not necessarily enjoyable or instructive, unless you are inspired by someone telling you, over and over and over again, of how successful and great he is.

A careful reading led me to become very suspicious of Michael Masterson and to do some quick research. Masterson claims to have had titles on the New York Times, Wall St. Journal and Amazon best seller lists. Indeed, on two occasions - and that means two distinct dates - Masterson was on the Wall St. Journal best seller list. This is not like being on that list week after week: it was twice for one time each. As for the New York Times, a Nexis search shows Michael Masterson appearing in the Times just once, with a comment in an article. No appearances on their best seller list. Amazon's best seller lists are very different and appearing on them is on meaningless. It is said that having 30 friends order a book at the same time will put you on their best sellers list for a little while at least.

More disturbing are Masterson's associations, one of which is Agora International, which publishes a number of investment newsletters which seem to be of the "we have a tip for you" variety. Agora was sued for fraud by the SEC at one point. This does not reflect directly on Masterson since he claims a nebulous role of "consultant" with them. It does, however, reflect on the company he keeps.

The company he keeps also includes AWAI, American Artists & Writers, Inc. Masterson doesn't say that he authored a product for them, a course on copywriting. Both AWAI and Masterson are the subject of literally hundreds of online complaints.

As I said, much of this book is borrowed and adapted. I don't have a problem with that since solid knowledge is intended to be passed on, as long as it is not plagarized in violation of copyright laws. But even here, Masterson leaves himself open to question. He attributes the concept of the "unique selling proposition" to a 1980 book called "Positioning". In fact, Rosser Reeves first put forth the expression and the concept in his 1961 "Reality In Advertising".

Would I recommend that someone read this book? Sort of. It is an adequate distillation of marketing advice from many reputable sources. To his credit, Masterson doesn't claim to be the original thinking here. On the other hand, Masterson's personal credibility is questionable and you really have to take what he says of his own success with a very large grain of salt. Personally I think there are better books in this area to be found.

Jerry

61 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good guide for the entrepreneur, January 10, 2008

By	Susanna Hutcheson "Copywriting for the Discri... (Midwest U.S.A.) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

"Nothing matters more than selling," says the author. "Many first-time entrepreneurs have the impression that they are doing things in a logical order when they look for the perfect office space, have logos designed, and order a lot of inventory. The reality is they are wasting valuable resources on secondary and tertiary endeavors. If no one is going to buy what you want to sell, you've just wasted a bunch of money on a business that will never be."

I see this when a client comes to me and has spent most of his small budget on Web site design and left the important thing, the sales message, for least --- just to fill in the beautiful design. They've spent their money on the least important and have no money left for the most important. This book addresses just these issues.

In this new book Masterson gives a three-step process that entrepreneurs should follow in order to have a successful business. Unfortunately, most do not. I've seen this first hand in my own consulting business. Entrepreneurs tend to put their values and their money on all the wrong things --- and this leads to certain failure.

Here are the steps according to Masterson:

Step one: Get the product ready enough to sell, but don't worry about perfecting it. Step two: Sell it. Step three: If it sells, make it better. While this all sounds fairly easy, it's not.

"Selling can be terrifying," Masterson says. "It can be tough, gritty, unglamorous work. But when you make that first big sale, you realize it's also exhilarating. And like it or not, you probably won't become a successful entrepreneur until you can sell your product or service in your sleep."

When your business is new, you should begin to build a base of customers or clients --- that means you have to sell. Online, that would mean you have to have a powerful sales message on your Web site and in all of your online advertising.

Successful entrepreneurs should (and generally do) spend most of their time --- especially in the beginning --- on selling. Most are very bad at it.

"As the business grows out of its infancy--as it goes beyond the million-dollar revenue mark by selling many more products through many more channels--you can let other people do most of the selling," says the author.

"But by establishing your marketing credentials during the first stage, when the selling secrets of your business are still unknown, you will gain a deep understanding of your business that will serve you well for the rest of your career."

The author writes in an engaging style. This material should help those starting their own business and even those already in business. I see so many mistakes that entrepreneurs make and they tend to be the same things all the time.

If you can avoid those mistakes, you can quickly leap over everyone else and become successful.

23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wish I'd read this about 15 years ago, January 7, 2008

By	Aspiring Wealth Builder - See all my reviews

I've read well over a dozen business books in just the past few months (Made to Stick, We are Smarter than Me, etc) and this is right up there with the best. Maybe THE best.

It's much less about the latest hot new trends (social media, web 2.0 etc) and much more about getting back to a basic truth about business. It is a truth that seems obvious and even boring but yet you hardly ever hear it.

What he's talking about is that success in business is quite simply about selling. Not endless planning, not org charts and flow charts and meetings and stationary, but simply getting a sale made. Do that and everything else takes care of itself. The other key point is the interesting twist to Jack Welch's "Speed" manta which Masterson calls "accelerated failure". (Thus the Ready Fire Aim title). The idea here is that you only learn the secrets of a business through mistakes - and the faster you make them (and of course learn from them and change your strategy) the better off you're going to be.

All kinds of very unique and interesting ideas in here. It's got a lot of things I've not heard elsewhere that make a lot of sense.

I only wish I'd read this about 15 years ago, I'd probably be retired by now.