Planet Entrepreneur


Book Description

How to develop an entrepreneurial mindset, begin a successful venture, and change the world for the better We are living in a world of incredible challenge and changes, and for both the entrepreneur and potential entrepreneur alike, this also means it is a world of ample opportunities. From the fall of the Berlin Wall to the rise of e-commerce and social media, there are now, today, more markets, tools, and opportunities for entrepreneurs than ever before. Even better: we are now also living in a world more predisposed to entrepreneurial solutions than ever, and we need those solutions—not just to create the Next Big Thing, but to solve the Next Big Problem. Every issue that individuals, communities, and nations face offers the entrepreneur the chance to make a difference. For anyone ready to embark on a mission to solve problems, create communities, build businesses, tap technology, and think entrepreneurially, this new world is teeming with opportunities for success. Uses real-life examples to explain the full extent of today's global entrepreneurial revolution and its vital importance for our future Explains where the emerging markets are and how to tap into them to achieve success Offers insights on the global entrepreneurial revolution, the future of financing, the rise of the self-employed army, the transformation of innovation, and the view from the "bottom of the pyramid" Learn how the worlds' best entrepreneurs are starting profitable businesses, innovating, or creating organizations to alleviate social needs across the globe. Planet Entrepreneur teaches how anyone can develop an entrepreneurial mindset, begin a successful venture, and change the world for the better. This is the Era of the Entrepreneur.




Planetary Improvement


Book Description

An examination of clean technology entrepreneurship finds that “green capitalism” is more capitalist than green. Entrepreneurs and investors in the green economy have encouraged a vision of addressing climate change with new technologies. In Planetary Improvement, Jesse Goldstein examines the cleantech entrepreneurial community in order to understand the limitations of environmental transformation within a capitalist system. Reporting on a series of investment pitches by cleantech entrepreneurs in New York City, Goldstein describes investor-friendly visions of incremental improvements to the industrial status quo that are hardly transformational. He explores a new “green spirit of capitalism,” a discourse of planetary improvement, that aims to “save the planet” by looking for “non-disruptive disruptions,” technologies that deliver “solutions” without changing much of what causes the underlying problems in the first place. Goldstein charts the rise of business environmentalism over the last half of the twentieth century and examines cleantech's unspoken assumptions of continuing cheap and abundant energy. Recounting the sometimes conflicting motivations of cleantech entrepreneurs and investors, he argues that the cleantech innovation ecosystem and its Schumpetarian dynamic of creative destruction are built around attempts to control creativity by demanding that transformational aspirations give way to short-term financial concerns. As a result, capitalist imperatives capture and stifle visions of sociotechnical possibility and transformation. Finally, he calls for a green spirit that goes beyond capitalism, in which sociotechnical experimentation is able to break free from the narrow bonds and relative privilege of cleantech entrepreneurs and the investors that control their fate.




Disciplined Entrepreneurship


Book Description

24 Steps to Success! Disciplined Entrepreneurship will change the way you think about starting a company. Many believe that entrepreneurship cannot be taught, but great entrepreneurs aren’t born with something special – they simply make great products. This book will show you how to create a successful startup through developing an innovative product. It breaks down the necessary processes into an integrated, comprehensive, and proven 24-step framework that any industrious person can learn and apply. You will learn: Why the “F” word – focus – is crucial to a startup’s success Common obstacles that entrepreneurs face – and how to overcome them How to use innovation to stand out in the crowd – it’s not just about technology Whether you’re a first-time or repeat entrepreneur, Disciplined Entrepreneurship gives you the tools you need to improve your odds of making a product people want. Author Bill Aulet is the managing director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship as well as a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management. For more please visit http://disciplinedentrepreneurship.com/




Minding Your Business


Book Description

In the 21st century new ways of doing business have to be found. Against what has been customary logic in the business world, Aveda and Intelligent Nutrients founder Horst M. Rechelbacher contends that the biggest business opportunities for this century will come from practicing environmentally sound, sustainable business. By creating a merger between self, community, and environment, we will become “eco-preneurs”, reaping the rewards of a healthy abundance and ushering in a new age of enlightened capitalism. Based on his experience as a highly successful entrepreneur and environmentalist, Horst M. Rechelbacher’s Minding Your Business is a profound and poetic manifesto for social responsibility in business. In his emphasis on sustainable agriculture and indigenous products, Rechelbacher is the leading international voice in the urgent and long-overdue crusade for phasing out the multiplicity of toxic ingredients in cosmetics and personal care products in favor of organic materials. This further emphasizes Rechelbacher’s wise and scientifically indisputable warning “Don’t put anything on your skin that you wouldn’t put in your mouth.”




Ecopreneuring


Book Description

Ivanko and Kivirist - innkeepers, authors, and wearers of many other hats - truly walk the green talk, detailing the nitty-gritty of running a green business. - Library Journal I'm not even sure I'd call this a "business book." ECOpreneuring contains plenty of advice on starting a small, eco-conscious business, but the authors focus primarliy on how entrepreneurial efforts can incorporate values and priorities beyond the bottom line. Lifestyle choices trump profit motives, but neither have to be sacrificed in order to create meaning and income. This kind of positive thinking is repeated again and again throughout the book. In addition to sharing their own success, and the stories of others, ECOpreneuring is filled with practical information about starting and running a small green business. A potential ecopreneur will discover ideas on everything from bookkeeping to marketing, and the authors point to numerous other resources that will help you set up your company, and run your business without running afoul of tax codes, licensing agencies, or litigious competitors. I really enjoyed this thoughtful, well-written book - a business book that's inspiring and practical is hard to come by. ECOpreneuring lays out a blueprint for making health, happiness and abundance an integral part of the work we do. Reviewed by Jeff McIntire-Strasburg, Sustainablog Powerful social trends toward green living, relocalization, and self-sufficiency have fanned the fires of would-be ecopreneurs in North America, driving a shift toward prioritizing purpose over profits, and building community over building market share. A nation of nine-to-fivers is giving way to a spirited bunch of innovators, searching for ways to make a life instead of simply making a living. This accessible and inspiring guide includes profiles of successful ecopreneurs and provides an in-depth exploration of: Eco-business basics Purposeful management Marketing in the green economy Running a lifestyle business Ecopreneuring shows how we can earn our daily bread on a local or regional level while saving money, strengthening the economy, and helping restore the planet to ecological health and social stability. Part small business manifesto, part personal finance primer, Ecopreneuring is essential reading for small business owners, prospective entrepreneurs, and anyone who dreams of a livelihood based on independence, creativity, passion, and a commitment to green practices and sustainability. John Ivanko and Lisa Kivirist are innkeepers of the award-winning Inn Serendipity Bed & Breakfast, which is powered by renewable energy. This husband-and-wife duo are national speakers, organic growers, marketing consultants, and authors, whose books include Rural Renaissance and Edible Earth and a number of Global Fund for Children multicultural books.




Small Business Management


Book Description

Small Business Management, Eighth Edition equips students with the tools to navigate important financial, legal, marketing, and managerial decisions when creating and growing a sustainable small business. Author Timothy S. Hatten provides new cases, real-world examples, and illuminating features that spotlight the diverse, innovative contributions of small business owners to the economy. Whether your students dream of launching a new venture, purchasing a franchise, managing a lifestyle business, or joining the family company, they will learn important best practices for competing in the modern business world. This title is accompanied by a complete teaching and learning package. Contact your Sage representative to request a demo. Learning Platform / Courseware Sage Vantage is an intuitive learning platform that integrates quality Sage textbook content with assignable multimedia activities and auto-graded assessments to drive student engagement and ensure accountability. Unparalleled in its ease of use and built for dynamic teaching and learning, Vantage offers customizable LMS integration and best-in-class support. It′s a learning platform you, and your students, will actually love. Learn more. Assignable Video with Assessment Assignable video (available in Sage Vantage) is tied to learning objectives and curated exclusively for this text to bring concepts to life. Watch a sample video now. LMS Cartridge: Import this title’s instructor resources into your school’s learning management system (LMS) and save time. Don’t use an LMS? You can still access all of the same online resources for this title via the password-protected Instructor Resource Site. Learn more.




Eat for the Planet


Book Description

“An indispensable guide for anyone who wants to live to age 100—by making sure there’s a livable world when you get there.” —Dan Buettner, New York Times–bestselling author of The Blue Zones Do you consider yourself an environmental ally? Maybe you recycle your household goods, ride a bike, and avoid too much air travel. But did you know that the primary driver of climate change isn’t plastics, or cars, or airplanes? Did you know that it’s actually our industrialized food system? In this fascinating new book, authors Nil Zacharias and Gene Stone share new research, intriguing infographics, and compelling arguments that support what scientists across the world are beginning to affirm and uphold: By making even minimal dietary changes, anyone can have a positive, lasting impact on our planet. If you love the planet, the only way to save it is by switching out meat for plant-based meals, one bite at a time. “This fascinating, easy-to-read book will give you still another reason to eat plants and not animals: you will be doing a world of good—literally!” —Rip Esselstyn, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Plant-Strong “Eating plants is not just good for your own health, it’s imperative for the health of the planet. This well-argued, well-written book makes it clear why everyone should consider a plant-based diet today.” —Michael Greger, MD, New York Times–bestselling author of How Not to Die “Possibly the single most important environmental book I’ve read in years. A must for everyone.” —Kathy Freston, New York Times–bestselling author of The Lean




Global Warming is Good for Business


Book Description

As consumers demand planet-friendly products and investors look for "green companies" to put their money into, more and more businesses are actively seeking ways to fill this demand. Whether their initial motives are altruistic or not, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and corporate leaders are finding a huge market for green goods and services. Bottom line: Global warming is good for business. In Global Warming Is Good for Business, newspaper journalist K B Keilbach explores the people and forces at work today that deal with and profit from global warming. From universities, whose research projects spin off green business opportunities, to entrepreneurs and large companies scrambling onto the green bandwagon -- all mixed with government agencies attempting to support the effort -- Keilbach's entertaining narrative reveals an expansive community coming together to change the world and make a profit, one joule at a time.




Selling Sunshine


Book Description

"...Chock full of practical ways you can overhaul your approach to branding and customer service. Tony Hartl's tried-and-true list of simple, actionable strategies grew as his took his start-up, Planet Tan, from an enterprise with three locations in Dallas, Texas, to seventeen tanning salons sold for millions of dollars thirteen years later..."--Dust jacket flap.




Solving Product


Book Description

“Solving Product lays out the territory, helps you see where you are, and gets you back on track when you’re in the ditch.” – Amanda Robinson, Product Manager at Salesfloor - Solving Product isn’t your typical business book. It’s not a book that was written to be read front to back, then simply put away. Solving Product was carefully designed to help product teams and entrepreneurs reveal the gaps in their business models, find new avenues for growth, and systematically overcome their next hurdles by leveraging the greatest resource at their disposal: customers. No matter where you are in the product growth cycle—at the idea stage, at maturity, or somewhere in between—Solving Product will help you: - Gain clarity: Reveal gaps and blindsides, know exactly what challenges you’re facing; - Overcome blockers: Lay out clear action plans to fix the most pressing issues and get your business moving forward, fast; - Ignite growth: Find new approaches to get your product growing. The book contains more than 25 case studies and actionable advice from hundreds of product leaders and customer research experts. Solving Product offers a simple, unique, and wildly powerful business compass. It’s a book you’ll find yourself going back to, time and time again.