What Business Should I Start?: 7 Steps to Discovering the Ideal Business for You (Paperback)

~ Rhonda Abrams (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Millions of Americans want to start their own business but don't know what business to start. America's foremost small-business advice guru Rhonda Abrams offers readers seven steps to identifying the right business for them, from determining one's entrepreneurial type with the "What is your e-Type?" self-test to exploring the wide range of business options with 23 in-depth analyses and over 400 at-a-glance ideas. The book is packed with worksheets, resources, and insights from the author's rich experience in this field. Abrams's engaging, upbeat style offers inspiration as well as a step-by-step plan to help would-be entrepreneurs find the business of their dreams.

From the Publisher

"What Business Should I Start?" guides you through a unique seven step process to identifying potential businesses you could start--making certain they meet your needs, suit your personality, fit your interests and goals--and that they have a realistic chance of success. The book then provides a framework for helping you choose among those potential businesses.

This book is for you if:
* You’ve been saying, "Someday, I’d like to own my own business."
* One of the things stopping you from launching your own business is that you aren’t sure which business to start.
* You have a few serious ideas for different businesses but don’t know how to choose one and get going.
* You have absolutely no idea which business to start; you don’t know which businesses would suit you—your needs, personality and interests, financial situation and goals.
* You’ve had hundreds of ideas for new businesses but need help figuring out which ones to eliminate.
* You have an idea for a business but you want to make sure it’s the right one before you take the leap and make the commitment.
* You’re at a turning point in your life or career and are looking for direction.
* You’re about to retire and are considering starting your own business.
* Friends and family keep suggesting business ideas to you, but none seem to be the right fit for you.
* You’re trying to decide whether to launch a business or look for a job.

You probably do not need this book if:
* You have already decided which business you want to start and are confident that it is the right one for you (in which case you may benefit from the companion to this book, Six-Week Start-Up, also by Rhonda Abrams).

Millions of people dream about owning their own business; most never do. This book helps you become one of the fortunate ones who succeed!

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Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: The Planning Shop (July 25, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 096696358X
• ISBN-13: 978-0966963588
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #175,837 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An indispensable book, October 13, 2004

By	Raymond Capiaux - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am a retired executive quite mentally alert and keen on doing something useful with the rest of my life. This book is excessively stimulating in pointing out business opportunities which initially I had not considered,It is probably the book that provides the most in-depth review on the topic. I enjoyed in particular the part that matches your entrepreneurial type with the field of opportunities. This analysis is to my knowledge quite unique and was very useful to me. The info about franchising and franchises is so clearly presented that it denotes on the part of the author a clear, concise intellect. Real life data is most useful and complements a book that is essential to making an informed decision. A must buy.

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Usable info for only 23 businesses, August 29, 2004

By	L. Busch "Here to Seek and Share Info" (Western USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Rhonda Abrams' newspaper columns are so well written, packed with information, and sensible that I have clipped and saved many of them over the years. I had high expectations for this book.

It promises to "find a business that's right for you." Unfortunately, there is little connection between the self-analysis sections of the book and the business sections. Although it tells which general business areas are good for each E-type, it does not tell which E-types (or other attributes) are good for each business. Since it doesn't work both ways, the book doesn't help you make a match.

A possible exception would be the 23 individual businesses profiled in enough detail to guess whether they would be right for you. They are mostly independent contractor-type jobs such as animal groomers or Web site designers with a few larger businesses such as general contracting and restaurants thrown in.

Another criticism is sloppiness: punctuation and capitalization style suddenly changes from question 34 to 36 of the E-type quiz, headings in the abilities inventory worksheet are the same as those on the interest inventory worksheet, and page number references to worksheets are wrong. Furthermore, the worksheets seem repetitive and the index is skimpy; you probably won't be able to use it to go directly to your pet business idea.

On the positive side, the information it does provide seems realistic. There is no false encouragement. And a worksheet for brainstorming peripheral approaches for businesses is especially helpful. If for some reason one of your interests isn't suitable for a business, perhaps you could teach about it, provide equipment for it, maintain it for someone else, and so on.

Overall, though, unless you're interested in one of the 23 businesses you are no better off after reading the book than before.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The "What Color Is Your Parachute" for business owners, July 6, 2004

By A Customer

So many of the start-your-own-business books out there focus on *how* to get a business up and running--but here's one that focuses on deciding *what* business to start, which seems to be just as critical to launching a successful business as anything else.

How do you determine if your business idea will work? How do you turn your past work experiences and training into a business that will be successful? How do you take all your ideas and determine which are best? How do you turn the things you love doing into a way to make a living?

Abrams' book answers these questions (or, rather, shows us how to answer them ourselves) through a series of self-analysis exercises, discussions on what makes a small business successful, and reviews of the most popular industries and businesses for new entrepreneurs.

I'm impressed with how Abrams manages to exercise both sides of our brains in guiding us towards our final business idea. She gives us a lot of right-brained introspective self-discovery tasks to help us understand what we'd like to do and be good at, but also delivers plenty of left-brain oriented data and statistics to help us understand the realites of how our ideas will work out in the real world.

I'm especially grateful for her "can-do" attitude. She makes it clear that you don't need to be a Type A, salesmanish, work-a-holic to own a successful business. That alone was worth the price of the book.