A summary of things you should know about New Business Next Steps according to Ann Hawkins:

Introduction

In this episode Ann Hawkins reveals all her insight on her book, New Business Next Steps, where she helps make sure any newborn startup becomes a successful business.

In her book Hawkins, and co-author Ed Goodman, give you an all-in-one guide that contains very easy-to-follow strategies, exercises, action plans, and templates to improve your business. The goal of the book is to teach you effective strategies that will improve your marketing efforts, increase your sales, keep your finances in check, implement the right technology, and create quality service.

This book is perfect for aspiring entrepreneurs who have recently created a small startup company and are looking for new, effective ways to grow their business from A to Z.

The Book’s Unique Quality (2:36)

The thing that makes it different is that most businesses tell success stories and a lot of small businesses find it hard to relate to those people. So what we have done is we’ve taken case studies of businesses that are beyond five years old and newer businesses find them very inspirational because they are all kind of going through the same things. The other thing is that at the end of each chapter we’ve got a section called Next Steps and this is a really practical way of creating an action plan that the reader can write for their own situation. So they make their own action plan and then we’ve got a website and a Facebook group where they can come and get real practical ongoing advice from other business owners.

The Best Way To Engage (3:55)

It’s a jump in, jump out book. There are 10 chapters all on different aspects of growing a business and so the reader can jump to whichever chapter fits them best.

The Reader’s Takeaway (8:45)

I think it’s that running a business is really about doing the right things at the right time and some of those things are boring. If you act on some of the stuff that we know works they are much more likely to make a success of their business.

A Deep Dive Into The Book (4:47)

The chapters are Managing the Business, then Managing Growth, Managing Your Finances, Managing Social Media, Managing Technology, Managing Marketing, Managing Sales, Managing Customers, Managing People, and finally Managing Your Exit. In each of those chapters there are some absolute gems and simple practical things that the reader can do to really grow their business. What we’ve discovered through working with many small businesses over the years is that with just a little bit of help here and there most business people can make a success of their business. But the thing that happens is that they go into a business to do something that they love and then they discover all this other stuff that nobody has ever talked to them about. All of this really practical stuff is in the book and it’s broken down into easy to digest chapters because everybody who owns their own business is short on time. The other thing that we are aware of is that people get emotionally attached to their businesses, when they start a business to do something they love they very often lose track of the fact that some of those things are not the best things to make money at. We help them to look at what’s the most profitable activity in their business and sometimes that means that you have to let stuff go that is not quite going to make it for you. And just by making a few changes can make such a difference.

NOTE: That was just a summary. To get the full deep dive, play the audio clip at 04:47

Notable Quotes From The Book (9:42)

“As the business owner, if you do not delegate everything you can, you are not doing your own job which is building the company. As well as building the company you have to develop people and set the direction and these things should really take up all the time you’ve got as a business owner. If you are doing something that someone else can do you are wasting your company’s most expensive resource which is the time and energy of the business owner.” – Unknown

The Credibility/Inspiration Of The Author (0:37)

I am a business coach and a mentor, I work with the government backed growth accelerator service in the UK. And I have been working with small businesses for about 25 years and blogging for 10 years.

90% of businesses don’t make it to their 5th birthday which I think is a tragedy. When you think of all the hopes and dreams that end up in the dust it’s just so sad. And it’s really unnecessary because with just a little bit of help most businesses can make it. So this was kind of the inspiration behind the book. A lot of books are aimed at startups and they go down the route of nail it, scale it, and sale it but I know that most of the people that I work with start a business because they want to work at something that they love for the rest of their lives. So this book is aimed at people who want to create a business that’s going to give them and their families a great lifestyle and not just a great lifestyle but profit too. It’s about hopes and dreams and helping those people make those come true.

Other Books Recommended By The Author (11:18)

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

More Information About This Book and The Author

Buy New Business: Next Steps by Ann Hawkins on Amazon today
Visit NewBusinessNextSteps.com to learn more about Ann and her book
Follow Ann Hawkins on Twitter and Facebook

More Information About This Episode

Download the full transcript here (coming soon)
Listen on iTunes, Stitcher , and SoundCloud

Related books:
The Startup Survival System by Kurt Won
The Pop Up Paradigm by Melissa Gonzalez
Startupland by Mikkel Svane

Relevant advice and tips:
5 Important Things That Every Entrepreneur Needs To Know About Starting a New Business

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Wade Danielson

Wade is a 4-time serial entrepreneur and is the Founder/Host of The Entrepreneurs Library. With a long time passion for reading books, Wade created an online resource and podcast for entrepreneurs who love to read personal and business development books. His long-term goal in life is to start an entrepreneurial home schooling program for children of business-minded families.