Thinking Like An Entrepreneur: How To Make Intelligent Business Decisions That Will Lead To Success In Building And Growing Your Own Company (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"I can't say enough good stuff about this book. My copy--I've read it twice--is highlighted and written in. Some of the chapters--like the one dealing with marketing--I've already used. And, others have taught me things I didn't know. It's twenty-seven chapters of jammed packed, good reading." -- Carmen Slaybaugh, FindYourDream

"I have not read a better book for entrepreneurs." -- Paul Tulenko, Syndicated Small Business Columnist

"It may look like a book, but it reads like a friend--that kindly uncle who sits you down and takes away your fears of going into business. Have more fun and earn more money; he tells you how. Before you know what hit you, you're calculating expectation values. You're comparing risk taking with risk shifting. You're crunching numbers. Voluntarily! ... ...Take it from someone who entered the business world bitching and moaning and wishing she had expendable hair to tear. Whether you're just starting up or you're a company owner with success under your belt and an appetite for more, you'll be glad you let Peter teach you to think like an entrepreneur." -- Rose Rosetree writes in the Winter Issue of Pathways

"Peter Hupalo's Thinking Like An Entrepreneur is a superb guide to making intelligent business decisions. Comprehensive, easy-to-read, even inspirational, Hupalo focuses on the key factors of good entrepreneurial decision making..." -- Midwest Book Review's December issue of Internet Book Watch

"The book is broad on topics and brief in content, hitting main points and driving home the realities of being an entrepreneur. With its diverse topics and solid information, you'll get a well-balanced meal on making healthy business decisions as an entrepreneur." -- IdeaCafe

Product Description

Thinking Like An Entrepreneur is a yes-you-too-can-achieve-your-dream-power-of-positive-thinking self-help motivational book coupled with some very serious business analysis. While some people dream of coming up with a hot idea and taking the next great Internet company public, this book focuses on building a real business with real profits. Such businesses can make the founder worth millions of dollars in only a few short years without the company ever becoming public. This book is written for entrepreneurs who want to make their company profitable ASAP.

But to build such a business demands an understanding of simple financial and business decision making. Thinking Like An Entrepreneur teaches you to understand the fundamentals that underlie intelligent decision making for your small company.

The book covers many important topics (cash flow, profit margins, and the time value of money, etc.) and will help get a new entrepreneur started. Whether or not you wish to grow your company to a substantial size, this book will help you succeed in business by teaching you to think more like successful entrepreneurs--to make fundamentally sound decisions. Some of the book's highlights:

If you choose not to grow your business, but just to do "your own thing," Chapter 23 covers becoming a consultant in some depth. This is a viable avenue for computer programmers, graphic artists, videographers, and, of course, web page designers today. The chapter is a short primer for deciding if you want to become a consultant and is an introduction to some of the basic issues consultants face. The new area of online consulting is briefly discussed.

If you choose not to start from scratch, but rather, buy an existing business, Chapter 26 goes into detail into buying a business. You will learn how to value a smaller company, including valuing intellectual capital. A rather lengthy chapter you might choose to skip unless you really are going to seek a business to buy.

Chapter 17 shows you why it is important to incorporate your company and discusses the option of creating an S-corporation. Issues of taxation and liability are discussed. The chapter helps you understand how to minimize your overall tax bite and get the best liability protection possible.

Chapter 9 discusses the role of personality type in building a company. It is important that you start a business that is suited to who you are as a person. A great market opportunity is not a great personal opportunity if you won't enjoy the business. This chapter is written to help you find a business suited to you.

Chapter 4 and 5 go into detail explaining how thriving businesses bootstrap themselves to financial success. You are introduced to the concept of compounding intervals and rates of return (which are further developed on Chapter 16 which is dedicated to the nature of compounding money within a business). Proprietary products are discussed. This tread of thought is continued in Chapter 12 which deals with cash flow and how cash flow issues can affect your company's growth rate. A hypothetical game company making "Lifers" is considered. These chapters alone probably make the book worth reading.

Chapter 7 discusses the author's personal views on how the Internet is changing business today and what the Internet means for Microsoft and other established companies. An easy-to-read chapter, but with no hands-on advice on how to create your site.

Chapter 13 is a comparison of the fields of computer programming and computer-based training (CBT). The goal is to get the reader to see where value is created within the type of business he or she will start.

Chapter 15 discusses the role of luck in business and explains why Bill Gates is the richest man alive today. You will learn how to play the "game" of business appropriately allowing for the role of luck.

The book is written in an irreverent fashion, and might be subtitled, "Entrepreneurship Lessons From The Movies" as the author refers to several films to make his points. Although light-hearted in fashion, the book gets a bit mathematical in a few chapters. But those chapters are well worth the read to anyone serious about building a company.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: HCM Publishing; First Edition 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 edition (September 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0967162408
• ISBN-13: 978-0967162409
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #389,369 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for [inexperienced] and veteran entrepreneurs, May 26, 2002

By	Terry Gold (Boulder, CO USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

Peter Hupalo has written a unique book for Entrepreneurs. I've read a lot of books about business and entrepreneurship, but this one is different. It speaks to people just thinking about starting a business and yet it has a lot to offer to the veteran entrepreneur.

If you're thinking about starting a business, the first few chapters will do a great job of helping you think about the risks in quitting a "safe" job and starting your own company. It's not as risky as you might think. This isn't the book to read about business licenses or accounting systems - it is much more important than that! It really is as the title suggests a book about thinking like an entrepreneur.

I've been in business for more than 10 years, but I'm still making mistakes and trying to learn new things. A mark of a good book for me is the number of pages that I dog-ear to mark interesting ideas. My copy of Thinking Like an Entrepreneur has at least 20 pages marked, and I've referred back to it many times since I finished reading it. It will definitely go on my favorites shelf of business books. I've already recommended it to my entrepreneur friends.

The author's style is to mix stories about experiences from actual entrepreneurs with good step-by-step walkthroughs of "thinking like an entrepreneur". It is 272 pages with 27 chapters. Each chapter can stand alone, making it easy to focus on the areas you're really interested in while skimming the ones that don't apply so much to your business. Peter seems to have a technology background, but I think any businessperson will find a lot to learn in this book.

My favorite chapters include:

* Don't Get Bournouillied - an interesting discussion of risk

* Men are cheaper than guns

* The importance of margins - Most books don't cover this VERY important topic

* Expectation Values and Decision Making

* Personality and Business Choice

* You Know Enough, But Keep Learning Anyway

* The Role of Luck in Business

* An introduction to the Nature of Compounding and the Time Value of Money

* Relationship Marketing - The cost of losing clients

* The Value of Time

This is a very readable book. It is entertaining while having good solid information on important topics that you'll find yourself rereading several times. Highly recommended!

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Smart Choices for Entrepreneurs -- Great Stallbusting Ideas!, September 24, 2004

By	Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Thinking Like An Entrepreneur: How To Make Intelligent Business Decisions That Will Lead To Success In Building and Growing Your Own Company (Paperback)

The title of this book is a little misleading. It is not helping you learn how to think like an entrepreneur. In fact, the book teaches you how to more accurately make assessments that entrepreneurs have to make. If you do that, your entrepreneurial success should be higher.

I like books about avoiding thought patterns that delay or derail progress, and thoroughly enjoyed this one. In many ways, the book parallels the outstanding book about personal decision-making, Smart Choices, that I strongly recommend you read as well.

Why, then, did I rate the book at four stars rather than five? Basically, the book didn't quite get the editing it deserved. There are some minor misspellings of the sort that should have been caught. More seriously, the book indulges in unnecessary vulgar language in a few places. If those things don't bother you, see this as a five star book. It certainly is in every other way.

Some of the subjects include how to overcome risk aversion, how to lay off risk, picking the type of business to go into, establishing a business model that has the best chance of success, and how to have the business match your personality and preferences. These are subjects I feel are important for any entrepreneur, and are often not covered by business books. I was especially impressed by the focus on ethics and high moral tone of the advice.

This book will have value both for people who are thinking about becoming entrepreneurs and those who are already running small businesses. Since the book often focuses on computer consulting and computer-based training, those who are in those fields will find the book to be especially valuable.

As a test of the value of the book's content, I applied the concepts to my own management consulting firm and found that the analyses were accurate and useful. So you can add management consulting as another business type for which this book is good.

One of the things I liked about the book is that it realistically encourages people to think about entrepreneurship. Even if you decide that having your own business is not for you, this book will give you a better basis for feeling confident about that decision.

If you do decide you want to buy or start a business, I suggest you share this book with your spouse and a person who already has a business in the same area. Then discuss your ideas with each of them in terms of the concepts in the book. Their feedback will help you form a more realistic view of your ideas.

33 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The When, the Why, and the How, October 18, 2000

By	Gadgester "No Time, No Money" (Mother Earth) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

Initially I was a little skeptical about this book, because I could not find anything about what the author actually does for a living. I was expecting another "let me show you how to write the best business plan" kind of book. Instead, I found a very enjoyable and practical book that should be a must-read for every aspiring entrepreneur, regardless of which industry this aspiration may lie in.

The 266-page book is divided into 27 chapters, each covering a specific topic. That makes about 10 pages per chapter, which translates into material that's easily understandable and digestable. Topics covered range from risk assessment to basic accounting (very basic indeed, but an excellent way to start especially becuase many of us find accounting unbearably boring) to managing resources to, yes, writing a business plan. The author mixes his philosophical musings along with anecdotes and hard business lessons (like calculating NPV and profits). His constant humor and approachable style make the book very easy and fun to read.

The emphasis of the book is on how an entrepreneur should *think*. Of course, thinking often is not enough; action is also paramount. But starting with the right mindset increases the chance of success -- and also helps one live more happily. The author points out very early on that we all fear failure, and this fear holds most of us back from starting our own businesses. He then delves into how we can overcome this fear partially by analyzing the risks associated with an adventure. This approach makes the subject much less boring than one otherwise expects and also makes the material easier to absorb. As Zhuangzi, the ancient Chinese philosopher, once said, "Starting with the right mind set increases your chance of success tenfold." The constant mind coaching from this book is what I appreciate the most.

The author writes as he speaks, so there are a few grammatical and punctuation errors, but overall this book is highly readable and you may be like me and not want to stop in the middle of a chapter. Each chapter should be read at least twice. In this regard, this book reminds me of Dale Carnegie's classic volume on achieving popularity: full of useful and practical information so that you can never re-read it too many times.