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Entrepreneurial exertions
A friend in the business of funding start-up ventures has a theory: Entrepreneurs are a force of nature. Hypothesize all you want about the effects of tax incentives or bureaucratic disincentives on capital formation, he says -- the fact is, people start businesses, often against all good judgment, because they just have to. I think he's right. Entrepreneurship seems to be a constant in today's society, if only because there are always some people too ornery to work for others. The market conditions of the moment don't seem to make a great difference. For all the pop-culture adulation heaped on dot.com instant zillionaires in the past few years, bootstrap capitalism of the old style continues to flourish -- and probably generates much more aggregate wealth in the American economy. If hardscrabble business folk are born, not made, then maybe they don't need guidebooks. But winning entrepreneurs know they don't know it all, and they seek out both expertise and inspiration in the stories of those who have gone before them. This month's featured titles offer both of those elements in spades. |
REVIEWS BY E. THOMAS WOOD
These chapters take on real-world issues that are far from obvious to most self-employed rookies. Case in point: When should you go to the bank? Do you go when you need to borrow money? Certainly not, DeLuca argues. You borrow money when times are good, so you'll have access to it when times get lean. And how do you make key business decisions? Gather all required data and come to a reasoned judgment? Nope: Analysis-paralysis will do you in. DeLuca's instructions: "Ready, Fire, Aim!" If you're wrong, you'll get it right on the rebound. A guy who ran a company for six years before he learned what a financial statement was would not seem to be an ideal business professor, but DeLuca's street smarts have overcome his lack of book learning. And Start Small is much more than one sandwich vendor's tale of success. It's an engaging narrative that tells aspiring business people things they need to know, without either speaking over their heads or talking down to them. They'll find it a nourishing read.
Fifteen Key Lessons to Start -- and Run -- Your Own Successful Business By Fred DeLuca with John P. Hayes Warner Books, $25.95 ISBN 0446524026
Moore defines women's entrepreneurship as broadly as possible. Thus, her book's role models represent many different approaches to achieving self-sufficiency in the workplace. There are "intentional entrepreneurs" and "lifetime business owners" who take more-or-less linear paths toward their goals, and then there are "delayed entrepreneurs" who enter the workplace after raising families, as well as "organizational entrepreneurs" who emerge after years of toil within corporations. One type of entrepreneur, in fact, remains within the corporate walls -- the "intrapreneur," who creates an enterprise for herself as part of a larger organization. In exploring these and other modes of self-motivated work, Moore provides thoughtful analysis of the merits of each style. Her well-chosen examples (drawn from interviews with a broad sampling of accomplished businesswomen) show how women can proceed toward success down any of several disparate paths. I suspect most readers of Careerpreneurs will be women who already possess deep entrepreneurial drives and who (as my friend asserts) hardly need further inspiration -- but from this book, they can learn to focus their energies in the manner best suited to their talents.
Lessons from Leading Women Entrepreneurs on Building a Career Without Boundaries By Dorothy Perrin Moore Davies-Black, $28.95 ISBN 0891061444
One lesson: There are many routes to the summit. Wawro's revolutionaries emerged anonymously from a Texas dorm room (computer-seller Michael Dell), from a missionary family in China (Time publisher Henry Luce), and from a predawn trash-hauling job in Fort Lauderdale (Waste Management/Blockbuster Video tycoon Wayne Huizenga). Another lesson: A courageous entrepreneur can overcome daunting setbacks. Marauding kids in the streets of New York once stole all of Milton Hershey's chocolate supply, bankrupting him. A perm gone wrong once left Oprah Winfrey bald. L.L. Bean's first batch of hunting shoes fell apart on customers' feet. Wawro tells the stories of famous and not-so-famous business pioneers in concise, well-turned vignettes. Readers can surely find someone to identify with, since the backgrounds of those profiled are as diverse as America itself. Among other things, this is an ideal gift for the committed entrepreneur in your life.
The True Life Stories Behind the Entrepreneurs Who Revolutionized the 20th Century By Thaddeus Wawro Entrepreneur Press, $17.95 ISBN 1891984136
It can almost seem as though "the system" tests the resolve of would-be business people by setting up obstacles and complications at the beginning of the process of business formation. Insurance issues, zoning issues, technology issues, family-management issues, and more can all come into play, even if all you want to do is sell some macram. Indeed, a quick scan of 101 Tips might actually scare off a dilettante, but the book will prepare brave-hearted beginners to cope with the hassles all home-based businesses face. This slim volume is also valuable for its no-nonsense advice on the personal issues that entrepreneurs often ignore when they first get started. The presumption that the business can operate smoothly amid a houseful of kids, or that you'll love the work so much you'll never want a vacation, or that working alone all day won't lead to feelings of isolation, are all sure to lead to unanticipated stress as your enterprise starts to take over your life. The Henrys's tips are rich not only in hard facts, but also in wise acknowledgements of the realities of working life for home-based entrepreneurs.
Proven Strategies & Sage Advice for the At-Home Entrepreneur By Maxye and Lou Henry Roxbury Park/Lowell House, $12.95 ISBN 0737304219
Briefly noted: In Secrets of a Millionaire Real Estate Investor, Nashville property mogul Robert Shemin offers a clear and comprehensive primer to making money in small-scale real estate deals. He's not just concerned with cash, either: Shemin repeatedly shows how it can be good business to be honest with sellers, invest in disadvantaged neighborhoods, and treat tenants well.
By Robert Shemin Dearborn, $18.95 ISBN 0793137055
The Retirement Catch-Up Guide: 54 Real-Life Lessons to Boost Your Retirement Resources Now!, by Ellen Hoffman, is the latest entry in a growing genre of eat-your-asparagus books that Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers know they need to read, whether they want to or not. All available data suggest that large segments of the population are doing a lousy job preparing for retirement. Hoffman offers tested strategies for beginning to make up the gap.
54 Real-Life Lessons to Boost Your Retirement Resources Now! By Ellen Hoffman Newmarket Press, $19.95 ISBN 1557044112
In Networlding: Building Relationships and Opportunities for Success, Melissa Giovagnoli and Jocelyn Carter-Miller move beyond the well-worn concept of "networking" to set forth an entire science of contact-building for the corporate climber. Cast your net properly, they argue, and the results will benefit both you and the people drawn into your world.
Building Relationships and Opportunities for Success By Melissa Giovagnoli and Jocelyn Carter-Miller Jossey-Bass, $25 ISBN 0787948195
Journalist and entrepreneur E. Thomas Wood is working with author John Egerton on a book about Nashville.
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For a healthy serving of small-business common sense, pick up Start Small, Finish Big: Fifteen Key Lessons to Start -- and Run -- Your Own Successful Business, by Subway sandwich chain co-founder Fred DeLuca, with John P. Hayes. DeLuca's own story is entertaining: Starting at age 17 with $1,000 of someone else's money and a blissful ignorance of the obstacles facing him, DeLuca built a multinational corporation with annual sales of over $3 billion. Equally fascinating, however, are the book's tales of other adventurous ventures that illustrate object lessons in entrepreneurship. In each chapter, DeLuca pairs his own experience in a particular field of business with the experience of another business owner who has succeeded against the odds.
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Dorothy Perrin Moore addresses a wide range of women's workstyles and lifestyles in Careerpreneurs -- Lessons from Leading Women Entrepreneurs on Building a Career Without Boundaries. We all have our boundaries in life, whether corporate hierarchies, gender roles, or our own aspirations and limitations are to blame for them. Moore dissects the structures that create boundaries, and she shows, by example, how those boundaries can be surmounted. She has plenty of evidence to support her assertions, since the number of women succeeding in an ever-expanding variety of businesses has risen dramatically over the past two decades.
Look for well-thumbed copies of Thaddeus Wawro's Radicals & Visionaries: The True Life Stories Behind the Entrepreneurs Who Revolutionized the 20th Century on the desks of your self-employed friends in the near future. Here's a volume that will fuel ambitions and stoke dreams. Its 73 brief profiles are sure to become daily affirmations for entrepreneurs on the way up.
If books like these give you the nudge you need to plunge into small business on your own, you may want to consult a solid how-to manual like 101 Tips for Running a Successful Home Business: Proven Strategies & Sage Advice for the At-Home Entrepreneur. Authors Maxye and Lou Henry, who operate a small business from their own home, get straight to the nitty-gritty of kitchen-counter entrepreneurship. They address 101 of the seemingly infinite number of details that people with big ideas and tiny businesses must deal with on the way to doing what they love.