It Looks Easy! Is It? Simple Steps for Small Business Success (Hardcover)

by Jerry Shea (Author) "Imagine for just one moment that we could turn the clock ahead five years..." (more)
Key Phrases: common area maintenance, Yellow Page, Fixed Monthly Expenses, Cost of Goods (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Why will one business succeed while a second business selling the same products fail? Author Jerry Shea has owned three small businesses and worked for a large business brokering firm. This book points out many of the pit-falls, financial traps, pricing problems and non-productive encounters that can plague any business owner. Find the real steps necessary for success as told by someone that has actually lived the small business experience.

About the Author
Jerry Shea is a retired small business owner. He has owned three businesses and worked for one of the largest business brokering firms in Los Angeles helping people buy and sell small businesses. His first hand experience in small business makes this a book about the reality of owning your own business and being your own boss.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Icon Holdings, Inc. (October 15, 2001)
• ISBN-10: 0971262209
• ISBN-13: 978-0971262201
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,407,761 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Insight into small business success 101, December 22, 2001

By	John Baldoni - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

So you think you want go into business for yourself -- and who doesn't this is America after all - READ this book first - please! "It Looks Easy! Is It?" is the everyman's guide to the joys and heartaches of owning your own small business.

Author Jerry Shea is a retired business entrepreneur who relates the whys and wherefores of owning your own business, beginning with the dream itself as well as the realities of buying an existing business, a franchise, or starting from scratch. All the big issues, as well as the small realities, are covered: choice of location, rental agreements, advertising and promotion, hiring employees and very importantly, balancing the books

The many wonderful nuggets of information are punctuated by pithy stories with a punch. Shea is a natural storyteller and that aspect frankly is the gift of this book. Reading It Looks Easy Is It? is not like reading a how-to business manual; it's like having your very own conversation with man who has been through the experience, triumphed and wants to share what he knows.

Do not mistake the informality for lack of knowledge! This book has all the prerequisites: expense sheets, business diagrams, and plenty of specific how-to's. For example, Shea relates the story of a couple who bought a yogurt franchise with a second mortgage. It went belly-up in 6 months. The couple could have saved themselves the loss if they had only done some simple math - between mortgage payments and franchise fees they were left with nothing.

And that is the point Shea makes repeatedly - KNOW what you're getting into. The typical wanna-be business owner, as Shea describes, has tunnel vision. All he or she can see is light ahead - never stopping to think it might be an oncoming train.

There is even a handy glossary of business terms, a must for any novice business owner. The book concludes with the Business Owners Test. Designed to be a pre-read and post-read test, it helps focus the reader's attention on salient points of ownership. It also serves as a handy self-assessment as to the reader's ability to run a small business [For reference, Shea annotates each answer with the correct answer.]

The author concludes with Shea's "10 Laws of Small Business." Witty and wise, my favorite is No. 8. "After three years of working without a vacation, you finally take one. Two days later you get a call from your manager that half your employees have walked off the job." Welcome to being your own boss!

Shea's zeal for small business is real. It is clear that this book is a labor of love. Reading between the lines you can tell that the author would like nothing more than for all of his readers to get into business and succeed. But, as a former small business broker, he knows the reality of broken dreams, ones that could have been saved, or nightmares avoided, if only someone had given the prospective owner honest advice.

So if the entrepreneurial dream has bitten you, good luck. But, please, read "It Looks Easy! Isn't It?" You will thank yourself for it! [And maybe your loved ones - not to mention your accountant - will, too.]

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must For Small Businesses, January 8, 2002

By	J. Piorkowski (Long Beach, Ca. United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Shea's book "It Looks Easy! Is It?" is a must read for anyone thinking of starting a small business, or for small businesses that are not meeting their goals.

The book is concise, hard hiting, and to the point. Shea takes the the reader through a realistic step by step process that helps you find the business that is right for you. He then helps you explore the daily decision making steps that determine if your bottom line will be in the red or in the black.

If you are currently struggling with your own small business this book will help you examine your operation in a way that can change your balance sheet from negative to positive.