The Reluctant Entrepreneur: Turning Dreams into Profits

THE RELUCTANT ENTREPRENEUR

This is a book about entrepreneurship—a collection of strategies that will help you start and grow your own successful business. But it was written specifically for people who are nervous about doing it. Maybe even a little afraid. People who don’t have the guts to quit their day jobs and risk their futures, no matter how excited they are about their business ideas.

In other words, it was written for “reluctant entrepreneurs” like me.

I started my business career as a reluctant entrepreneur, and I’m still one. Along the way, I have grown dozens of multimillion-dollar companies. One grew beyond the hundred-million-dollar mark and another one is even bigger than that.

These days, I work as a consultant. As part of my job, I give advice on marketing and product development. But what I enjoy most of all is the hardest thing to accomplish … and that is getting a brand-new business going.

Without question, the first two stages of business growth—from zero to $10 million, say—are the most challenging. It is relatively easy to turn a $10 million business into a $50 million business. But taking a company from zero to $1 million and from $1 million to $10 million—that takes more than smarts and hard work.

At this point in my life, you might think I would want to consult only with the bigger companies, since growing them is easier. (And there are times when I wonder if I’m a little crazy for not doing it.) But I can’t resist the challenge of starting from scratch. ...