The Entrepreneur's Manual


Book Description

You are holding in your hands the ultimate guide to transforming your dream business into a reality. Drawing upon years of trial and error, Richard White imparts his insights on how to establish a successful business and keep it running strong. Substituting complex theories for critical advice rooted in real-life experience, White makes designing and managing a successful business model more accessible than ever. The Entrepreneur's Manual covers everything entrepreneurs need to know, from identifying your niche market, to forecasting and controlling sales, to building a solid foundation of effective employees. White's rare advice has made this manual mandatory reading not only for entrepreneurs, but for anyone who wants to better understand the business world. In addition to motivating prospective business owners, this book, above all others in its field, delivers results. This superior guide on the secrets behind successful entrepreneurship possesses the qualities of a true classic: its advice remains as relevant as ever. Find out why The Entrepreneur's Manual has been the mandatory business guide for nearly half a century.




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.




Harvard Business Review Entrepreneur's Handbook


Book Description

The one primer you need to develop your entrepreneurial skills. Whether you're imagining your new business to be the next big thing in Silicon Valley, a pivotal B2B provider, or an anchor in your local community, the HBR Entrepreneur's Handbook is your essential resource for getting your company off the ground. Starting an independent new business is rife with both opportunity and risk. And as an entrepreneur, you're the one in charge: your actions can make or break your business. You need to know the tried-and-true fundamentals--from writing a business plan to getting your first loan. You also need to know the latest thinking on how to create an irresistible pitch deck, mitigate risk through experimentation, and develop unique opportunities through business model innovation. The HBR Entrepreneur's Handbook addresses these challenges and more with practical advice and wisdom from Harvard Business Review's archive. Keep this comprehensive guide with you throughout your startup's life--and increase your business's odds for success. In the HBR Entrepreneur's Handbook you'll find: Step-by-step guidance through the entrepreneurial process Concise explanations of the latest research and thinking on entrepreneurship from Harvard Business Review contributors such as Marc Andreessen and Reid Hoffman Time-honed best practices Stories of real companies, from Airbnb to eBay You'll learn: Which skills and characteristics make for the best entrepreneurs How to gauge potential opportunities The basics of business models and competitive strategy How to test your assumptions--before you build a whole business How to select the right legal structure for your company How to navigate funding options, from venture capital and angel investors to accelerators and crowdfunding How to develop sales and marketing programs for your venture What entrepreneurial leaders must do to build culture and set direction as the business keeps growing HBR Handbooks provide ambitious professionals with the frameworks, advice, and tools they need to excel in their careers. With step-by-step guidance, time-honed best practices, real-life stories, and concise explanations of research published in Harvard Business Review, each comprehensive volume helps you to stand out from the pack--whatever your role.




The Founder's Manual


Book Description

Starting a company is an irrational act. Most successful Founders bring a unique combination of drive, determination, product knowledge, creative problem-solving skills, business acumen, stamina, and a keen sense of timing, to their fledgling enterprises. And the best of these know how to communicate with a variety of audiences by telling a great story. In the first section of this manual, author Ryan Frederick create a profile of the combination of skills, personality, and discipline that are common to successful Founders. A Founder has many audiences that compete for attention-The Core Team, Investors, Suppliers, and Customers to name a few. Each is critical to the success of a new enterprise and the ability to prioritize, communicate with them, and engage them at just the right time, is essential to the success of any start-up. With limited resources, failure to engage with any one of these important audiences at the right moment can be the difference between success and shutting down. The second section of the Founder's Manual focuses on strategy and the business decisions that go into moving from a concept to producing a deliverable and building a customer base. Here, Frederick focuses on defining a niche, becoming investable, finding customers, finding investors, working with accelerators, timing, and knowing limitations. Another important focus of this section is a Founder's role in establishing a culture that will ultimately define the enterprise, affect operations, and shape brand messaging as the organization evolves. The third section of this guidebook focuses on the process of creating a product that customers care about and will pay for. In addition to sound advice for managing your product and business relative to competing products, this section focuses on getting to know your customers, understanding the problem along with changing requirements, and designing solutions that customers will appreciate. It covers the important topics of timing, releasing early versions of a product, adding features, and keeping customers engaged throughout the process. In this essential guide, Ryan Frederick shares insights, gained from years spent working closely with start-up companies, will assist you in becoming a successful Founder.







Scale-up Manual, The: Handbook For Innovators, Entrepreneurs, Teams And Firms


Book Description

It is widely accepted that innovation holds the key to sustainable commercial growth globally, but in practice there is limited understanding of how to successfully exploit its full commercial and social value. The Scale-up Manual provides a unified approach to manage the creation and commercialisation of innovative products and services, enabled by four data-driven building blocks: the Triple Chasm Model, modified commercialisation readiness levels, meso-economic vectors and the commercialisation canvas. The approach supports different strategies for resource allocation, ranging from 'lean' techniques to sustainability initiatives based on the circular economy. The Manual includes many case studies and insights, which different 'Actors' can use at different points along the commercialisation journey.Related Link(s)




The Ultimate Practical Business Manual


Book Description

The author's previous book was reviewed by Forbes as "1 of 6 books that all entrepreneurs need to read right now." The Ultimate Practical Business Manual will teach you everything you need to know about business....from starting a company to taking it public. Most business books are significantly outdated. This book leverages many online resources and makes the general business, accounting and finance process very easy to understand (and enjoyable too)! There are many incredibly engaging and entertaining video links in the book to YouTube and other sources; 'edutainment' works! Although this book is close to 400 pages, I tried to visualize the content of this book as much as possible as this is a more impactful and enjoyable way to learn (think Pinterest versus the tiny words in the Economist)! The contents of this book are all based on my work experience at several firms, including Goldman Sachs, the consulting industry at Accenture, a few companies I have started, the hedge fund industry where I worked at Citadel and most recently, based on my experience at a prominent San Francisco based venture capital firm. I also included many helpful practical business concepts I learned while I did an MBA at Columbia University and a Bachelor of Commerce degree at McGill University. Think of this book as a "greatest hits" business summary from my MBA, undergraduate business degree, work experience in consulting, equities, hedge funds, venture capital and starting my own companies. As the title of this book suggests, this is a practical manual to help you accomplish your business career goals. I have minimized "boring theoretical concepts" in this book in order to keep it as close to reality as possible. I hope you enjoy it! In addition to teaching at 4 universities in the San Francisco Bay Area, you can find other courses that I teach online at www.udemy.com/user/chris-haroun/. About the Author: Chris Haroun is an award winning business school professor, venture capitalist and the author of "101 Crucial Lessons They Don't Teach You In Business School ." Forbes recently called this book 1 of 6 books that all entrepreneurs must read right now. Chris Haroun has had the opportunity in his career to invest in and meet with the top CEOs, entrepreneurs and investors in the world, including Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Marc Benioff and the CEOs of most large technology companies. Chris is currently a venture capitalist at a prominent San Francisco Bay Area venture capital firm and has previous work experience at Goldman Sachs, hedge fund giant Citadel, consulting firm Accenture and several firms that he has founded. He has successfully raised and has also managed over $1bn in his business/finance career. He has an MBA in Finance from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Commerce Degree with a major in Management Information Systems and International Business from McGill University where he was awarded a McGill University Dobson Fellowship for student venture capital and business model mentoring. Chris is also a frequent guest lecturer at several Bay Area business schools including Berkeley and Stanford. He has written numerous articles and has been interviewed in Forbes, VentureBeat, Entrepreneur Magazine, Wired Magazine, AlleyWatch and Pulse. He has also been interviewed on various business and venture capital topics on several radio stations, podcasts etc., including Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) which is Hong Kong's oldest and sole public service broadcaster. He serves on the boards of several Bay Area technology companies and charities and he lives in Hillsborough, California. Chris Haroun's goal is to "make business education impactful and entertaining with no boring theory; edutainment works!"










A Design Driven Guide for Entrepreneurs


Book Description

A new wave of entrepreneurs is leading a global paradigm shift towards values-driven business. This book empowers you to challenge the status quo and create value through its unique and adaptive approach to venture-building by design. Authored by a multidisciplinary team of practicing design strategists, business leaders, academics, and entrepreneurs, this hands-on guide models strategic design as a mindset for starting up: framing problems, applying methods, identifying opportunities, and creating pathways forward through futures and systems thinking. Carefully curated case studies of young impact-driven entrepreneurs along with resources, including action-based frameworks, diagrams, and templates for founders to replicate, and a reader’s checklist to enable the transformation of daily practice, will open new dimensions that amplify the global shift towards a more regenerative world and a multiverse of possibilities. Are you ready to journey to places where ideas for products, services, and experiences transform how we live and work? Then this guide is for you: the Design-Driven Entrepreneur.