If you want to start a business and do not know where to start, Riva Lesansky wrote "Start Your Own Business: The Only Start-Up Book You Will Never Need". This book is published by the Entrepreneur Press and is a compilation of Entrepreneur Magazine's extensive knowledge database on starting a business.
This book takes you through the whole business process - from deciding what you really need to run a business, to how to deal with failure if your business is not working and everything in between. The good thing about the book is that almost everything is covered in one capacity or another. If you need more information, it does a great job of reading and referring to relevant websites.
The book is divided into seven sections, each containing several chapters. The first section, 'You Start Somewhere', decides if you want to be an entrepreneur, how to think for your business and whether you want to start your business part time or full time. Most people who buy a book already have the answers to these questions, but it is still useful to study the exercises in the book.
The second volume of the book is entitled 'Building Blocks'. This includes choosing your business name, business structure, business plan and how to hire lawyers and accountants. It is my opinion that this is the most valuable section in the book. These are things that most entrepreneurs struggle with or ignore. The "Naming Your Business" chapter in particular has helped me a lot. Naming your business is not as easy as you might think - you should consider all registered trademark names, registered domain names and names that are used but not trademarked. One of the worst things you can do is pick a name that someone is already using and face a legal battle.
The third section covers the funds where and how to get the money to run your business. The fourth section, 'Stage Setting' is completely comprehensive and covers many important issues such as choosing a location for your business, building a professional image, providing credit to clients, taking out your first employee and business insurance. . Needless to say, all of these things are very important to every business owner.
Fifth Division The company buys computers, cell phones and cars. These things are not so difficult for most business owners. However, the sixth category is one of the most critical issues that every business owner faces - marketing. The Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations section is about 100 pages long. It also briefly touches on web-marketing, but those looking to make a profit online will have to look elsewhere as the book is a bit thin when it comes to e-commerce.
The last section, entitled 'Buy the Books', focuses on each entrepreneur's favorite subject - accounting and taxes. It provides basic advice on basic bookkeeping, financial reporting, budgeting and taxation. For most business owners this section and the listed web resources should be more than enough to start keeping their business legal.
I can not stress enough that I think it's important for every business owner to have this book. This is a small encyclopedia for everything related to business (well, 800 pages is not that small). Keeping this book on your shelf will save you countless hours. I read the cover to cover when I received it and I constantly refer to it. I would recommend this to everyone I know who has spoken to me about starting a business. Everyone bought it, and everyone came back to me shouting at him.
For the amount of depth embedded in the book, start your own business: The only start-up book you will ever need by Riva Lessonski is surprisingly easy to read. Anyone over the age of 16 can understand the general nature of the book. Reading this book is not a guarantee of your success as an entrepreneur, but it will help you reduce the risk of starting a business by providing you with a strong foundation.
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