The 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 Business Man's Handbook


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Business Model Generation


Book Description

Business Model Generation is a handbook for visionaries, game changers, and challengers striving to defy outmoded business models and design tomorrow's enterprises. If your organization needs to adapt to harsh new realities, but you don't yet have a strategy that will get you out in front of your competitors, you need Business Model Generation. Co-created by 470 "Business Model Canvas" practitioners from 45 countries, the book features a beautiful, highly visual, 4-color design that takes powerful strategic ideas and tools, and makes them easy to implement in your organization. It explains the most common Business Model patterns, based on concepts from leading business thinkers, and helps you reinterpret them for your own context. You will learn how to systematically understand, design, and implement a game-changing business model--or analyze and renovate an old one. Along the way, you'll understand at a much deeper level your customers, distribution channels, partners, revenue streams, costs, and your core value proposition. Business Model Generation features practical innovation techniques used today by leading consultants and companies worldwide, including 3M, Ericsson, Capgemini, Deloitte, and others. Designed for doers, it is for those ready to abandon outmoded thinking and embrace new models of value creation: for executives, consultants, entrepreneurs, and leaders of all organizations. If you're ready to change the rules, you belong to "the business model generation!"




Businessman's Handbook


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Businessman's Handbook


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The B Corp Handbook


Book Description

Using Business as a Force for Good Join a Growing Movement: Learn how you can join more than 1,000 Certified B Corporations from 80 industries and 35 countries—led by well-known icons like Patagonia and Ben & Jerry's and disruptive upstarts like Warby Parker and Etsy—in a global movement to redefine success in business. Build a Better Business: Drawing on interviews, tips, and best practices from over 100 B Corporations, author and B Corp owner Ryan Honeyman shows that using business as a force for good can help you attract and retain the best talent, distinguish your company in a crowded market, and increase customer trust, loyalty, and evangelism for your brand. More than 1,000 companies from 80 industries and 30 countries are leading a global movement to redefine success in business. They're called B Corporations—B Corps for short—and these businesses create high-quality jobs, help build stronger communities, and restore the environment, all while generating solid financial returns. Author and B Corp owner Ryan Honeyman worked closely with over 100 B Corp CEOs and senior executives to share their tips, advice, and best-practice ideas for how to build a better business and how to meet the rigorous standards for—and enjoy the benefits of—B Corp certification. This book makes the business case for improving your social and environmental performance and offers a step-by-step “quick start guide” on how your company can join an innovative and rapidly expanding community of businesses that want to make money and make a difference.




HBR's 10 Must Reads on Entrepreneurship and Startups (featuring Bonus Article “Why the Lean Startup Changes Everything” by Steve Blank)


Book Description

The best entrepreneurs balance brilliant business ideas with a rigorous commitment to serving their customers' needs. If you read nothing else on entrepreneurship and startups, read these 10 articles by experts in the field. We've combed through hundreds of articles in the Harvard Business Review archive and selected the most important ones to help you build your company for enduring success. Leading experts and practitioners such as Clayton Christensen, Marc Andreessen, and Reid Hoffman provide the insights and advice that will inspire you to: Understand what makes entrepreneurial leaders tick Know what matters in a great business plan Adopt lean startup practices such as business model experimentation Be prepared for the race for scale in Silicon Valley Better understand the world of venture capital--and know what you'll get along with VC funding Take an alternative approach to entrepreneurship: buy an existing business and run it as CEO This collection of articles includes "Hiring an Entrepreneurial Leader," by Timothy Butler; "How to Write a Great Business Plan," by William A. Sahlman; "Why the Lean Start-Up Changes Everything," by Steve Blank; "The President of SRI Ventures on Bringing Siri to Life," by Norman Winarsky; "In Search of the Next Big Thing," an interview with Marc Andreessen by Adi Ignatius; "Six Myths About Venture Capitalists," by Diane Mulcahy; "Chobani's Founder on Growing a Start-Up Without Outside Investors," by Hamdi Ulukaya; "Network Effects Aren’t Enough," by Andrei Hagiu and Simon Rothman; "Blitzscaling," an interview with Reid Hoffman by Tim Sullivan; "Buying Your Way into Entrepreneurship," by Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff; and "The Founder's Dilemma," by Noam Wasserman.




Harvard Business Review Family Business Handbook


Book Description

Navigate the complex decisions and critical relationships necessary to create and sustain a healthy family business—and business family. Though "family business" may sound like it refers only to mom-and-pop shops, businesses owned by families are among the most significant and numerous in the world. But surprisingly few resources exist to help navigate the unique challenges you face when you share the executive suite, financial statements, and holidays. How do you make the right decisions, critical to the long-term survival of any business, with the added challenge of having to do so within the context of a family? The HBR Family Business Handbook brings you sophisticated guidance and practical advice from family business experts Josh Baron and Rob Lachenauer. Drawing on their decades-long experience working closely with a wide range of family businesses of all sizes around the world, the authors present proven methods and approaches for communicating effectively, managing conflict, building the right governance structures, and more. In the HBR Family Business Handbook you'll find: A new perspective on what makes family businesses succeed and fail A framework to help you make good decisions together Step-by-step guidance on managing change within your business family Key questions about wealth, unique to family businesses, that you can't afford to ignore Assessments to help you determine where you are—and where you want to go Stories of real companies, from Marchesi Antinori to Radio Flyer Chapter summaries you can use to reinforce what you've learned Keep this comprehensive guide with you to help you build, grow, and position your family business to thrive across generations. 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, and real-life stories, each comprehensive volume helps you to stand out from the pack—whatever your role.




The Small Business Owner's Manual


Book Description

An Owner's Manual provides fast, practical, and direct advice and that's what you get with this book! The Small Business Owner's Manual is useful for newly minted entrepreneurs as well as seasoned business owners and can be read from cover-to-cover or to quickly look up information in the midst of a crisis. For example: Choose among 13 ways to get new financing and the 17 steps to building a winning loan package. Weigh the pros and cons among 8 legal structures, from corporations to LLCs. Write winning ads and analyze 16 advertising and marketing alternatives including the latest in Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimization. Develop a powerful business plan in half the time. Learn to sell products and services by considering 10 possible sales and distribution channels. Discover the latest trends to quickly and inexpensively set up a website and e-store. Get taxes paid on time, collect from deadbeats, protect the business from litigation, and get legal agreements with teeth by effectively finding and partnering with CPAs and attorneys. Get a quick overview of the 14 top forms of business insurance including workers comp and medical. Looking to lease? Exploit a comprehensive review of the top 18 critical factors used to evaluate locations and 24 of the most important clauses in lease agreements. Understand the legal side of hiring, firing, and managing employees and contractors. Minimize taxes by learning the ins-and-outs of business income taxes, the top 5 payroll taxes, sales and use taxes, common tax dodges, and the latest loopholes for business owners. Filing schedules, form names, form numbers, and download links are also included. Credit cards are critical these days, so learn how the system really works and minimize chargebacks, disputes and headaches. Includes 35 important definitions and 12 ways to minimize fraud and lots more too! Joe Kennedy has more than twenty years of experience in operating and working with hundreds of small businesses, a degree in finance and an MBA. He knows how entrepreneurs think and their drive to get to the essence of an issue, make the right decision, and quickly move on. Impatient business owners will prefer this book since only the most relevant information is provided. A few bigger books are out there but this one is not puffed out with clutter and other information you already knew. With years of experience in the IT industry, Joe knows a lot about the Internet too so the content here is better than web-based searches. The Small Business Owner's Manual is great for those starting a business, operators of existing enterprises, or as a gift.




The Business Sergeant's Field Manual


Book Description

There's a big difference between having a leadership title and being a confident, respected, and effective leader. Chris Hallberg's Business Sergeant's Field Manual is written for business owners and leaders who need a hand with the day to day rigors of operating a successful business. If you're committed to leading, then this book will help you get where you want to go, and it will give you the tools you need to get there. The Field Manual is a crucial weapon in the arsenal of any small business leader whose spirit is willing. Chris brings decades of military, paramilitary, and entrepreneurial management experience to bear and delivers a no-nonsense, easy-to-follow handbook full of operational advice that, if applied, will help you make the kind of change that can right a listing ship, or propel a fledgling startup into star-bound success. Inside you'll find 82 Real world lessons covering topics such as: Commitment * Leadership * Shared Vision Culture * Accountability * Marketing and Branding Sales and Sales Management * Understanding Financials * Execution Strategic Partners *Work-Life Balance *Downloadable Tools Chris Hallberg spends the majority of his time "In the trenches" helping business owners and their leaders execute their mission with military precision. He lives in Denver Colorado with his wife and two sons.