SUMMARY
In the summer of 2008, I started blogging on a regular basis. I had a simple objective: to share short, sharp pieces of operational advice that had worked for me over the last 25 years.
Specifically I aspired to help business owners and their teams:
- Run their business better
- Have more fun
- Make their business more valuable and saleable one day
- Fulfill the potential of their business
Ultimately, I wanted to help them create business value.
I know I was expecting a lot.
Creating business value is not easy. The facts are sobering: Out of 27.3m US enterprises, 26.7m are employing less than 20 people and only 5,000 to 10,000 US enterprises are selling out for $10m or more each year. That’s a 1 in 6,000 chance. Therefore, I ask you, are you sure you are increasing business value? Operational tips are needed more than ever.
After nearly 100 posts—and many requests for a compilation–I decided to bring these one-page business tutorials together in one place and in a sequence that makes sense.
You start with a great a story and build a business around it!
I actually wrote my blog posts to a plan. The plan was to answer 9 big questions that make a significant difference to the success of a private company. The book is therefore divided into 9 Parts with 60 Chapters:
- How do you define and dominate your unique market?
- How do you create a high growth business?
- How do you build innovation into your culture?
- How do you attract and nurture the best talent?
- How do you build a metrics culture that is relentlessly curious?
- What are the best business models?
- How do you raise venture or private equity money?
- How do you minimize risk and build robustness into your business?
- How do you do acquisitions and integrate them seamlessly?
60 Chapters, 2 to 5 pages long, laconic, to the point, no-nonsense advice from an operator not a consultant. Each chapter packed with ideas and models that worked for me after many years of fine tuning them.
Tom Deans who has sold 100,000s of the best Family Business Book – Every Family’s Business kindly offered this testomonial:
“This is one of those rare books CEOs will keep in the top right – hand drawer of their desk. Over time its worn edges and dog-eared cover will evidence its reliable straight shooting advice that kept its owner coming back for more elixir to the challenges of creating and monetizing value.”
Buy the paperback on Amazon.
Come to my Workshop in Salem, MA.
Ian
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