Real lessons from real entrepreneurs who describe their successes, their failures and the causes
Thanks for visiting this work in progress. The book will be published in September 2022. Join us as we build a genuinely useful roadmap through the pothole-filled road to happily running your own business.
What we did wrong, what we did right, and what we wish we'd known when we started this lunacy
Get valuable, candid (and often funny) stories that lead to pragmatic lessons. This is not an academic guide - these are real world successes and disasters that will help you as you create a successful enterprise.
Updated Table of contents
Introduction: Are you sure you want to do this?
Several entrepreneurs describe how difficult, soul-shattering, and self-esteem crushing this life can be, and why they'd do it again. Learn how fear is your friend, and how certain essential skills will improve your odds of success.
Chapter One: Rewarding, difficult and over-glamorized. Plus, the one-word key to survival
It's important to encourage entrepreneurship, but in a measured and responsible way. It can be incredibly rewarding, but it's definitely not for everyone
Chapter Two: Who wants what you're selling?
Not who needs it, but who wants it? How will you find them? Who influences them? And who's going to pay you for your brilliance?
Chapter Three: Will your idea meet your financial requirements??
It’s a terrible shame to watch a dedicated, impassioned individual work hard on their business for several years, only to find the business will never make enough money to allow the founder to pay their bills. This chapter includes a little exercise to help you determine the size of the prize before you get seduced.
Chapter Four: Most of us don't get it right the first time
Be prepared for some false starts that look like abject failures. Interviews with two entrepreneurs who tell amazing stories about this.
Chapter Five: Who wins if you win?
Who will prosper if you prosper? And who, therefore, would love to help you prosper? An incredible way to accelerate your growth.
Chapter Six: Building a team - hiring, inspiring and firing
You may be the founder, but your team is EVERYTHING. How to hire the right people and motivate them properly. And eventually, how to fire the ones that don't work out.
Chapter Seven: Sales and managing a sales team
If you'd rather take a hammer and hit all your fingers, this chapter's for you. Sales isn't sleazy and it isn't voodoo - it's something you'd better get comfortable with.
Chapter Eight: Presenting your venture
Visionary leader? Maybe. Head cheerleader? Definitely. You'll constantly be presenting your venture to prospective customers, partners, investors as well as to your staff and probably your spouse. You may as well get good at it.
Chapter Nine: A few thoughts about raising money
This is fraught with peril: do it right and you'll accelerate your company's growth as if you took your foot off the brakes. Do it wrong and you'll let a rattlesnake into your sleeping bag - you just won't sleep comfortably. This chapter is not a comprehensive guide, but it does articulate some guidelines.
Chapter Ten: Anxiety, self-doubt and Imposter Syndrome: your traveling companions
If you start your own company, you will suffer a whole cascade of feelings that people don’t like to talk about. That’s a slippery slope that leads you into the Dumpster of Lost Productivity. Here’s what you can do about it.