* The first edition of this book won the prestigious Book of the Year Award presented by the Professional Association of Small Business Accountants Many entrepreneurs fail, not because they have bad ideas, but because they don't have the knowledge it takes to convert their ideas into success. In Six Steps to Small Business Success, five seasoned CPAs provide practical advice, step-by-step guidance, and proven ideas to help you dream big, think realistically, and plan and manage carefully, ultimately achieving more than you ever imagined. Take these six simple steps to convert your dreams into reality: 1. PRE-BUSINESS PLANNING. Learn from others who have succeeded how a little front end planning can ensure your success. 2. START-UP: FINANCES, BUDGETS, AND NUMBERS. Discover the key fundamentals that must be put in place for your business to grow. 3. HUMAN RESOURCES(PEOPLE). Learn best practices in hiring, training, managing, and terminating employees. 4. OPERATIONS: WORK FLOW, CUSTOMERS, AND SALES. Learn how to make good decisions about products and customers. 5. BUILDING A SALABLE BUSINESS AND THE SALE. Learn how to plan for your eventual sale. 6. TRANSITIONING TO LIFE AFTER BUSINESS. Finally, learn how to plan for life after work - personal adjustments, wealth management, leaving a legacy.

An insightful look at how you can put net profit income at theforefront of your small to mid-sized business Enable you to make changes that will create a profitable,sustainable business future, Six Steps to Creating Profitauthoritatively shows you how to maximize profit for your small tomid-sized, privately-held, service-based business. Shows how to avoid the business model where all income isdevoured by expenses, leaving a valuation that would not render anymeasurable sales revenue if the business should be sold Discusses how to create a company where actual profitgeneration is one of the primary goals Provides the steps necessary to create "true" profit Features coverage of rules of operation, visibility in themarketplace, marketing, cash flow, and management costs Demonstrating how measuring the results of change is vital andpart of the ultimate, ongoing, profit-based solution, Six Stepsto Creating Profit reveals how the before and after of eachoperational area is as important to evaluate as the intended changeitself.

A predictable pattern of success Entrepreneurs who have read early drafts of The Start-Up J Curve responded, ''I wish I had this book years ago.'' A start-up unfolds in a predictable pattern; the more aware entrepreneurs are of this pattern, the better able they will be to capitalize on it. Author Howard Love calls this pattern the start-up J Curve: The toughest part of the endeavor is the time between the actual start of a new business and when the product and model are firmly established. The Start-Up J Curve gives entrepreneurs the tools they need to get through the early challenges so they can reach the primary value creation that lies beyond. Love brings thirty-five years of start-up experience to this comprehensive guide to starting a business. He outlines the six predictable stages of start-up growth and details the activities that should be undertaken at each stage to ensure success and to avoid common pitfalls. Instead of feeling lost and confused after a setback, start-up founders and investors can anticipate the challenges, overcome the obstacles, and ride the curve to the top.

If you want your startup to succeed, you need to understand why startups fail. “Whether you’re a first-time founder or looking to bring innovation into a corporate environment, Why Startups Fail is essential reading.”—Eric Ries, founder and CEO, LTSE, and New York Times bestselling author of The Lean Startup and The Startup Way Why do startups fail? That question caught Harvard Business School professor Tom Eisenmann by surprise when he realized he couldn’t answer it. So he launched a multiyear research project to find out. In Why Startups Fail, Eisenmann reveals his findings: six distinct patterns that account for the vast majority of startup failures. • Bad Bedfellows. Startup success is thought to rest largely on the founder’s talents and instincts. But the wrong team, investors, or partners can sink a venture just as quickly. • False Starts. In following the oft-cited advice to “fail fast” and to “launch before you’re ready,” founders risk wasting time and capital on the wrong solutions. • False Promises. Success with early adopters can be misleading and give founders unwarranted confidence to expand. • Speed Traps. Despite the pressure to “get big fast,” hypergrowth can spell disaster for even the most promising ventures. • Help Wanted. Rapidly scaling startups need lots of capital and talent, but they can make mistakes that leave them suddenly in short supply of both. • Cascading Miracles. Silicon Valley exhorts entrepreneurs to dream big. But the bigger the vision, the more things that can go wrong. Drawing on fascinating stories of ventures that failed to fulfill their early promise—from a home-furnishings retailer to a concierge dog-walking service, from a dating app to the inventor of a sophisticated social robot, from a fashion brand to a startup deploying a vast network of charging stations for electric vehicles—Eisenmann offers frameworks for detecting when a venture is vulnerable to these patterns, along with a wealth of strategies and tactics for avoiding them. A must-read for founders at any stage of their entrepreneurial journey, Why Startups Fail is not merely a guide to preventing failure but also a roadmap charting the path to startup success.

Introduction to Business covers the scope and sequence of most introductory business courses. The book provides detailed explanations in the context of core themes such as customer satisfaction, ethics, entrepreneurship, global business, and managing change. Introduction to Business includes hundreds of current business examples from a range of industries and geographic locations, which feature a variety of individuals. The outcome is a balanced approach to the theory and application of business concepts, with attention to the knowledge and skills necessary for student success in this course and beyond. This is an adaptation of Introduction to Business by OpenStax. You can access the textbook as pdf for free at openstax.org. Minor editorial changes were made to ensure a better ebook reading experience. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

An all-in-one guide to helping you buy and own your own business. Are you looking for an alternative to a career path at a big firm? Does founding your own start-up seem too risky? There is a radical third path open to you: You can buy a small business and run it as CEO. Purchasing a small company offers significant financial rewards—as well as personal and professional fulfillment. Leading a firm means you can be your own boss, put your executive skills to work, fashion a company environment that meets your own needs, and profit directly from your success. But finding the right business to buy and closing the deal isn't always easy. In the HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business, Harvard Business School professors Richard Ruback and Royce Yudkoff help you: Determine if this path is right for you Raise capital for your acquisition Find and evaluate the right prospects Avoid the pitfalls that could derail your search Understand why a "dull" business might be the best investment Negotiate a potential deal with the seller Avoid deals that fall through at the last minute Arm yourself with the advice you need to succeed on the job, with the most trusted brand in business. Packed with how-to essentials from leading experts, the HBR Guides provide smart answers to your most pressing work challenges.

This book is perfect for anyone who's ever dreamed of starting their own business, or for small-business owners who want to grow the business they already have. Inside, entrepreneurial wiz Marty Grunder offers readers a step-by-step approach to formulating good business ideas, then executing them successfully. Grunder derived these nine simple strategies from the traits shared by all successful business people. He devotes one lengthy chapter to each step, along with illustrative anecdotes and Reality Check sidebars, which offer warnings and issues for further thought. To ensure readers clearly understand what steps to take and why, Grunder also provides examples from both his own business and those of other management experts. Marty Grunder is the founder and president of Grunder Landscaping Co., which generates $3 million a year in sales and continues to grow. He started the business as a 15-year-old with a $25 used lawnmower. Marty is a two-time Young Entrepreneur of the Year for the state of Ohio and in 2001 won the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for Dayton/Miami Valley. He also holds seminars on entrepreneurship and business management through the Winner's Circle, a small-business consulting firm he founded in 1995 (at age 27). He publishes Winning Strategies for Business and Life, a motivational newsletter on marketing and management. He lives in Dayton, Ohio.