A summary of things you should know about How To Ruin A Business Without Really Trying according to MJ Gottlieb: Introduction In this episode MJ Gottlieb shares his book, HowRead More
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]]>In this episode MJ Gottlieb shares his book, How To Ruin A Business Without Really Trying, where he shares what every entrepreneur should not do when running a business.
In his book Gottlieb gives you 55 of the most painful and destruction mistakes and failures many entrepreneurs make when running a business today. The goal of his book is to help you learn from other entrepreneurs’ mistakes while taking the ego out of the equation allowing you to enjoy the freedom of your own experience.
This book is perfect for aspiring entrepreneurs who are thinking about starting a business and need a stepping stone to help promote faster growth in the beginning.
Most of the books that are out there tell people what to do. I believe that this is really the first book that tells people what not to do. And the reasoning behind that is that I don’t believe entrepreneurs like to be told what to do.
You can absolutely jump from one section to the next and it doesn’t necessarily have to be read from front to back.
I would say doing your due diligence. I think that doing your due diligence is one of the most recurring themes of the book.
The book is separated in to two sections. The first section is 39 case studies starting with the top do nots and never evers. These are the most common and prominent mistakes entrepreneurs make and I do that by highlighting the mistakes that I have made. Every case study has the mistake that I made and then it goes into the right thing to do which is what I know about it now and how I would go about doing things differently. Even though I came from the fashionable background it is applicable for all business whether you are product driven or service driven.
The second part of the book has everything to do with people that are in pursuit of the deal, raising capital, the different types of investors, the whole process of looking for money, the value of resources compared to just money, different problems with technology and different ways that we can take advantage now of the technology that we have. Sections also contain things that you would never learn in a business class such as something like Murphy’s Law. It is full of information that happens in the real world of being an entrepreneur that you really can’t be taught in business class.
“The jack of all trades is a jackass.” – MJ Gottlieb
I have been typically in the offline business for about 20 years having owned and operated five fashion brands since 1991. The last one I owned was up until 2007. I recently wrote a book about all the mistakes I made in hopes that aspiring entrepreneurs can actually learn from those mistakes.
I had just lost my second business and I was writing down all the mistakes that I had made just to get it out of my system. A friend of mine said it was great that I was doing it but asked if I had any idea the value that this information can have for those people that are looking to start a business. He said to call it What Not To Do When Starting A Business and then years later I made it into a book.
How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
Buy How To Ruin A Business Without Really Trying by MJ Gottlieb on Amazon today
Visit HustleBranding.com to learn more about MJ and his company
Visit HowToRuinABusiness.com to learn more about the book
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For questions contact MJ by email here
Download the full transcript here (coming soon)
Listen on iTunes, Stitcher , and SoundCloud
Related books: Business in Blue Jeans by Susan Baroncini-Moe | All In Startup by Diana Kander | People Tools For Business by Alan Fox
Relevant advice and tips: 5 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Overcome Business Failure
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]]>Q: Will you take a moment to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about you personally? (0:33) A: I live in the Chicago area, married with three kidsRead More
The post A Preview of From Idea To Exit with Jeffrey Weber appeared first on The Entrepreneurs Library.
]]>Q: Will you take a moment to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about you personally? (0:33)
A: I live in the Chicago area, married with three kids who are 21, 18 and 13. I currently have two online startup businesses after founding and running a company for 10 years and then selling it to Fortune 100.
Q: What was the inspiration behind writing From Idea To Exit? (1:38)
A: I had a lifelong yearning to become on entrepreneur and having accomplished that is really what gave me the spark. I dreamed of being an entrepreneur since high school and survived years of goofy ideas that I never acted on and just prior to my 30th birthday I was able to start my first company, Technology Resource Center. It was after running that company for ten years and selling it that the book came to me and I wanted to share that experience with other entrepreneurial dreamers as well as people who were already running businesses.
Q: What makes your book different from others regarding the same topic? (2:42)
A: I think most entrepreneurial books fit in two categories, one being via graphical tales, and the other instructional tales. I wanted to create content for the entrepreneurial dreamer that took them through each stage – the idea, startup, running and exit. I weave my personal stories and examples but what separates my book is the core question that I set out to answer which is why do some people seem to effortlessly act on their idea and create something while others turn ideas constantly and fail to take action.
Q: How would you suggest the reader engage with this book? (4:18)
A: I suggest the reader read it from cover to cover because my story flows from beginning to end.
Q: Will you give the reader a great explanation of what they are going to get out of this book? (5:12)
A: The book takes the reader through a journey – the four stages of the entrepreneurial lifecycle which are the idea, the startup, running and exit stage.
In the idea I define what an entrepreneur is and how he or she is different from a business owner. I think it’s critical that people understand what an entrepreneur is because it is a very over used business title. I show the history and evolution of entrepreneurism and how it pertains to the readers’ journey. I also try to relate to the entrepreneurial dreamer what it’s mentally and physically like to be an entrepreneur. I go into ideas in innovation and answer a burning question of how to activate your ideas. The first part of the equation in the entrepreneurial formula is the word IDEA – Innovation, desire, effort, ability. This is what an entrepreneur needs to go through the startup phase.
The book then progresses from IDEA to STARTUP which is when you actually become an entrepreneur. I touch on the pitfalls that entrepreneur startups run into. Also what is required and what happens physically and mentally at this stage. And mastering your funding, resources and what the primary role of an entrepreneur is. I end this section talking about partners and employees.
In the next section, running phase, I focus on demand fulfillment. Making your company known and running a business you are constantly adapting and changing as you learn more about your customers and business. You know you have entered this running phase when you start to get orders and you are doing fulfillment. I focus on leadership, culture, evolving as a leader, the art of selling, maintaining a culture of innovation and scaling growth.
The last section I talk about the entrepreneurs exit plan. I like to say that every entrepreneur is going to exit their business either standing up or lying down. Ignoring this reality is irresponsible to yourself, employees, customers, investors and family members. I talk about knowing the signs when it is time for you to move on. If you are selling I give tips on how to put your company on the market and how to negotiate the sale.
I supplement all this through my experiences just as informational and examples to help add some vision into the experience.
Q: If the reading could only take one concept, principle or action item out of the entire book what would you want that to be? (10:53)
A: My sales formula is really the most relevant. Learning what to look for when a sales person is struggling is the key. And I believe you can use this formula to target improvement and I believe it is a universal formula.
Q: Besides your own book is there another book that you would recommend to the readers out there that are looking for that next big paradigm shift? (14:39)
A: Awakening the Entrepreneur Within by Michael Gerber and The Lean Startup by Eric Ries.
Q: Do you have a favorite quote from your book? (16:04)
A: “Don’t try to build a better mousetrap if you don’t know how to make mousetraps.” – Unknown
Q: What is the best way to get more information on you and From Idea To Exit? (17:25)
A: The best way to find me is at Linkedin where I post blogs and I encourage invites.
Are you interested in Jeffrey Weber’s book From Idea To Exit?
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