The Startup Owner's Manual


Book Description

More than 100,000 entrepreneurs rely on this book. The National Science Foundation pays hundreds of startup teams each year to follow the process outlined in the book, and it's taught at Stanford, Berkeley, Columbia and more than 100 other leading universities worldwide. Why? The Startup Owner's Manual guides you, step-by-step, as you put the Customer Development process to work. This method was created by renowned Silicon Valley startup expert Steve Blank, co-creator with Eric Ries of the "Lean Startup" movement and tested and refined by him for more than a decade. This 608-page how-to guide includes over 100 charts, graphs, and diagrams, plus 77 valuable checklists that guide you as you drive your company toward profitability. It will help you: Avoid the 9 deadly sins that destroy startups' chances for success Use the Customer Development method to bring your business idea to life Incorporate the Business Model Canvas as the organizing principle for startup hypotheses Identify your customers and determine how to "get, keep and grow" customers profitably Compute how you'll drive your startup to repeatable, scalable profits. The Startup Owners Manual was originally published by K&S Ranch Publishing Inc. and is now available from Wiley. The cover, design, and content are the same as the prior release and should not be considered a new or updated product.




HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business


Book Description

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.




Starting a Tech Business


Book Description

The non-technical guide to building a booming tech-enabled business Thinking of starting a technology-enabled business? Or maybe you just want to increase your technology mojo so you can do your job better? You do not need to learn programming to participate in the development of today’s hottest technologies. But there are a few easy-to-grasp foundation concepts that will help you engage with a technical team. Starting a Tech Business explains in practical, actionable terms how to formulate and reality test new ideas package what you learn into frameworks that are highly actionable for engineers understand key foundation concepts about modern software and systems participate in an agile/lean development team as the ‘voice of the customer’ Even if you have a desire to learn to program (and I highly recommend doing whatever unlocks your ‘inner tinkerer’), these foundation concepts will help you target what exactly you want to understand about hands-on technology development. While a decade ago the barriers to creating a technology-enabled business required a pole vault, getting started today only requires a determined step in the right direction. Starting a Tech Business supplies the tools prospective entrepreneurs and business enterprises need to avoid common pitfalls and succeed in the fast-paced world of high-tech business. Successful execution requires thoughtful, evidence-based product formulation, well-articulated design, economic use of systems, adaptive management of technical resources, and empathetic deployment to customers. Starting a Tech Business offers practical checklists and frameworks that business owners, entrepreneurs, and professionals can apply to any tech-based business idea, whether you’re developing software and products or beginning a technology-enabled business. You’ll learn: 1. How to apply today’s leading management frameworks to a tech business 2. How to package your product idea in a way that’s highly actionable for your technical team 3. How to ask the right questions about technology selection and product architecture 4. Strategies to leverage what your technology ecosystem has to offer 5. How to carefully define the roles on your team, and then effectively evaluate candidates 6. The most common disconnects between engineers and business people and how to avoid them 7. How you can apply process design to your tech business without stifling creativity 8. The steps to avoid the most common pitfalls tech founders encounter Now is one of the best times to start a technology-enabled business, and anyone can do it with the right amount and kind of preparation. Starting a Tech Business shows you how to move a product idea to market quickly and inexpensively—and to tap into the stream of wealth that a tech business can provide.




How to Start a Business in Oregon


Book Description

This series covers the federal, state, and local regulations imposed on small businesses, with concise, friendly and up-to-the-minute advice on each critical step of starting your own business.




Starting Your Own Business


Book Description

(2nd Edition - Published July 30, 2018) - This practical small business guide is full of real-world tips, advice, and strategies for starting your own successful small business. Learn step-by-step from an experienced entrepreneur how to go from idea to profitable business for under $250. Topics covered include: - What makes entrepreneurs successful - How to come up with a great business idea - How to use market research to assess your market and competition - Finding the funding you need - Business planning and alternatives - Marketing your business on a budget - Harnessing social media to drive traffic and make sales Get the real-world advice, examples, and coaching you need to start your own successful business today!




The Fashion Business Manual


Book Description

The Fashion Business Manual is everything you need to start building your fashion brand. It takes you step by step through building a brand from startup to retailing, using illustrations to break down complex business information into an easy-to-read visual format - making it a dynamic resource for fashion students, entrepreneurs and people in the fashion industry.




The Lean Startup


Book Description

Most startups fail. But many of those failures are preventable. The Lean Startup is a new approach being adopted across the globe, changing the way companies are built and new products are launched. Eric Ries defines a startup as an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty. This is just as true for one person in a garage or a group of seasoned professionals in a Fortune 500 boardroom. What they have in common is a mission to penetrate that fog of uncertainty to discover a successful path to a sustainable business. The Lean Startup approach fosters companies that are both more capital efficient and that leverage human creativity more effectively. Inspired by lessons from lean manufacturing, it relies on “validated learning,” rapid scientific experimentation, as well as a number of counter-intuitive practices that shorten product development cycles, measure actual progress without resorting to vanity metrics, and learn what customers really want. It enables a company to shift directions with agility, altering plans inch by inch, minute by minute. Rather than wasting time creating elaborate business plans, The Lean Startup offers entrepreneurs—in companies of all sizes—a way to test their vision continuously, to adapt and adjust before it’s too late. Ries provides a scientific approach to creating and managing successful startups in a age when companies need to innovate more than ever.




Start Your Own Business


Book Description

In 2017 34% of the workforce was considered part of the gig economy. This growing workforce of freelancers and side-giggers is also estimated to grow to 43% by 2020. That’s 4 million freelancers, soon to be 7 million by 2020. Whether it’s people looking to earn extra money, those tired of their 9-to-5, to entrepreneurs looking to grow their side hustle, Entrepreneur is uniquely qualified to guide a new generation of bold individuals looking to live their best lives and make it happen on their own terms. Whatever industry or jobs this new workforce takes, Start Your Own Business will guide them through the first three years of business. They’ll gain the know-how of more than 30 years of collective advice from those who’ve come before them to: How to avoid analysis paralysis when launching a business Tips for testing ideas in the real-world before going to market with insights from Gary Vaynerchuk Decide between building, buying, or becoming a distributor What to consider when looking for funding from venture capitalists, loans, cash advances, etc. Whether or not a co-working space is a right move Tips on running successful Facebook and Google ads as part of a marketing campaign Use micro-influencers to successfully promote your brand on social media




How to Start Your Own Business


Book Description

This is your foolproof guide on how to make your start-up stand out from the crowd! Get professional business advice in the palm of your hands. This uniquely visual guide equips you with everything you need to know about setting up and running your own business. Are you looking to start a business? You’ll need advice on how to identify your customer, what pitfalls to anticipate, and how best to spend your time and money to turn your idea into a profitable venture. This insightful business book takes you through everything from balancing the books to building a brand. It inspires you to take that giant leap towards making your entrepreneurial dreams come true. The Simplest, Most Visual Guide to Becoming an Entrepreneur - Ever! This comprehensive guide to starting your own business acts as an invaluable blueprint for your path to business success. It’s the ultimate gift for entrepreneurs or anyone who wants to learn more about the world of business management. This informative reference book is packed with: - Practical, authoritative information on the skills required to run a small business. - Easy-to-understand graphics. - No-nonsense advice and jargon-free language. - Insightful and inspiring quotes from the most successful minds in business. This entrepreneur book gives you all the tools you need to understand how a modern start-up works and then start your own. Whether you're a CEO or an aspiring tech entrepreneur, the information and advice in How To Start Your Own Business can be applied to anyone. Complete the Series: This guide to setting up a small business is part of the How It Works Series from DK Books. Expand your knowledge about business and management even further with How Business Works and How Management Works.




The Startup Checklist


Book Description

25 Steps to Found and Scale a High-Growth Business The Startup Checklist is the entrepreneur's essential companion. While most entrepreneurship books focus on strategy, this invaluable guide provides the concrete steps that will get your new business off to a strong start. You'll learn the ins and outs of startup execution, management, legal issues, and practical processes throughout the launch and growth phases, and how to avoid the critical missteps that threaten the foundation of your business. Instead of simply referring you to experts, this discussion shows you exactly which experts you need, what exactly you need them to do, and which tools you will use to support them—and you'll gain enough insight to ask smart questions that help you get your money's worth. If you're ready to do big things, this book has you covered from the first business card to the eventual exit. Over two thirds of startups are built on creaky foundations, and over two thirds of startup costs go directly toward cleaning up legal and practical problems caused by an incomplete or improper start. This book helps you sidestep the messy and expensive clean up process by giving you the specific actions you need to take right from the very beginning. Understand the critical intricacies of legally incorporating and running a startup Learn which experts you need, and what exactly you need from them Make more intelligent decisions independent of your advisors Avoid the challenges that threaten to derail great young companies The typical American startup costs over $30,000 and requires working with over two dozen professionals and service providers before it even opens for business—and the process is so complex that few founders do it correctly. Their startups errors often go unnoticed until the founder tries to seek outside capital, at which point they can cost thousands of dollars to fix. . . or even completely derail an investment. The Startup Checklist helps you avoid these problems and lay a strong foundation, so you can focus on building your business.