Product Description

Two of Inc. magazine’s hugely popular columnists show how small-business people can deal with all kinds of tricky situations.

People starting out in business tend to seek step-by-step formulas or specific rules, but in reality there are no magic bullets. Rather, says veteran entrepreneur Norm Brodsky, there’s a mentality that helps street-smart people solve problems and pursue opportunities as they arise. He calls it “the knack,” and it has made all the difference to the eight successful start-ups of his career.

Brodsky explores this mind-set every month in Inc. magazine, in the hugely popular column he co-writes with journalist and author Bo Burlingham (best known for his acclaimed book Small Giants). In both their column and now their book, they tell stories about real companies facing real challenges, and show readers how to apply “the knack” to their own businesses.

Brodsky and Burlingham offer essential advice such as:

• Follow the numbers—that’s the best way to spot problems before they become life threatening
• Keep focusing on your real goal--it’s amazingly easy to get sidetracked by secondary concerns
• Don’t get so close to the problem that you lose all perspective Brodsky and Burlingham prove that street smarts and business acumen can be within any entrepreneur’s reach.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12275 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-02
• Format: Bargain Price
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Brodsky and Burlingham, both Inc. magazine columnists, offer a host of advice to budding businesspeople in this thoughtful guide. Having seen businesses fail and succeed, the authors have served as mentors to a wide variety of self-starters and use their experiences as object lessons. The book focuses mainly on big-picture practicalities—the protection of startup capital and the necessity of focusing on high–profit-margin sales—but also expounds on overcoming the sales mindset in favor of the entrepreneurial mentality and facing mistakes with grace and an eye to learning. With a clear, conversational style, the authors give advice on raising capital, maintaining relationships with banks and lenders, customer relations, dealing with unexpected roadblocks and hiring good management. But in the end, they contend that entrepreneurship is not only a passion but a way to achieve a happier, richer, fuller life for ourselves and for our children and grandchildren—and with the right mental habits and skills, anyone can achieve entrepreneurial success. Encouraging, succinct and informative, this is an excellent guide for anyone looking to dive into a new business or expand an existing one. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Brodsky and Burlingham offer an excellent handbook for entrepreneurs, stressing the thinking necessary to deal with many different situations and to identify and capture opportunities as they arise. Brodsky is an entrepreneur and mentor for numerous other entrepreneurs, and the authors use the experiences of one small business as an example of the challenges and growing pains common to all new ventures and what the owners learned along the way to their success. Excellent attention to detail is provided, including the basics of accounting, establishing a goal, determining the viability of a business, and the importance of gross profit. Each chapter, which concludes with important summary points, covers a critical step in a start-up journey including the “right stuff,“ handling inevitable mistakes; why start-ups fail; finding investors; how to lose customers; and what it takes to be the boss. This road map for success should be required reading for those planning a new venture, and will appeal to a wide range of library patrons. Excellent book. --Mary Whaley

About the Author
Norm Brodsky, the founder of Citi Storage, is an entrepreneur and a three-time Inc. 500 honoree. He began writing his monthly Inc. column (with Burlingham) in December 1995.

Bo Burlingham is Inc.’s editor at large. He is the coauthor of The Great Game of Business and A Stake in the Outcome, and the author of Small Giants.

Customer Reviews

A toolbox that every executive must have

As I began to read this book, I was reminded of comments by then CEO Jack Welch at one of GE's annual meetings when he explained why he admired entrepreneurial companies: "For one, they communicate better. Without the din and prattle of bureaucracy, people listen as well as talk; and since there are fewer of them they generally know and understand each other. Second, small companies move faster. They know the penalties for hesitation in the marketplace. Third, in small companies, with fewer layers and less camouflage, the leaders show up very clearly on the screen. Their performance and its impact are clear to everyone. And, finally, smaller companies waste less. They spend less time in endless reviews and approvals and politics and paper drills. They have fewer people; therefore they can only do the important things. Their people are free to direct their energy and attention toward the marketplace rather than fighting bureaucracy."

Although there is a great deal of valuable material in this book for those who are planning to launch a new company or have only recently done so, what Norm Brodsky and Bo Burlingham provide can also be of substantial value to all other executives who also wish to establish and then sustain the kind of a company that Welch describes. Their choice of a first-person narrator is a wise one because it ensures an immediate and personal rapport with the reader. Presumably the voice is Brodsky's. but those who have read Burlingham's Small Giants will immediately realize that Brodsky speaks for both of them. It should also be noted that Brodsky launched seven successful start-ups and now provides a monthly column, "Street Smarts," in Inc. magazine.

They are impiricists whose insights are based a wealth of real-world experience; they are also pragmatists who understand what works...and what doesn't...in the contemporary business world. The "toolbox" metaphor is especially appropriate because the reader will find in this single source just about all they need to achieve and then sustain success. For example, in the first two chapters, Brodsky and Burlingham explain how to

Make the right decisions
Manage cash flow properly
Balance the sales mentality with the business mentality
Anticipate and then prepare for changes with analytics

Be resilient when countering failure and learn from it
Identify root cause rather than respond only to symptoms
Balance focus and discipline with resiliency
Recognize answers and solutions with peripheral vision

Then in Chapters Nine and Fourteen, Brodsky and Burlingham explain how to

Build relationships that retain your most profitable customers
Help those customers to become "smarter buyers" by understanding your business
Treat long-time customers like new prospects so they won't feel taken for granted
Allocate sufficient time for face-time with customers

Select salespeople who will be appropriate representatives of the company
Determine criteria for determining who should not be hired to sell
Compensate salespeople to avoid internal competition and division
Involve all other employees as an extended sales force

My references to "how to" are deliberate because all of Brodsky and Burlingham's suggestions and recommendations throughout their lively narrative are results-driven. They also explain various "how not to's" so that the reader can avoid unfavorable results. (As noted in the Introduction, "A smart person learns from his or her mistakes. A wise person learns from other people's mistakes.") In this context, I am reminded of what Peter Drucker said in a Harvard Business Review article in 1963: "There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all."

To repeat, this book will be of great value of those preparing to launch a new company or have only recently done so. It will also help an owner/CEO of a small company that is currently struggling to survive, especially given recent developments. But it will also be of substantial value to other executives who are under many of the same pressure to produce more and better (fill in the blank) in less time and at a lower cost, to retain both valued workers and valued customers, and meanwhile to be well-prepared to respond effectively to inevitable changes in the given competitive marketplace. Over a period of several decades, Norm Brodsky and Bo Burlingham have acquired the "street smarts" needed to cope with these pressures, and share them in this book. It is a brilliant achievement for which I congratulate them. Now it is up to their readers to absorb and digest the material, then apply what has been learned with both passion and determination. The choice is theirs.

Exceptional Resource for Entrepreneurs at Every Stage
Norm Brodsky has been a hero of mine for many years through his column in Inc. Magazine. His advice is a mixture of common sense and pragmatism -- ideas that make sense and can be used right away -- something that Brodsky and Burlingham provide in spades in their new book. The Knack isn't your typical guide to entrepreneurship. You're not going to learn about whether you should incorporate or form a LLC, or the latest marketing tactics. Rather, it's filled with stories about real entrepreneurs that illustrate several "Big Picture" concepts. In essence, this book will get (or keep) you thinking about fundamental ideas that can make your business more successful, including the value of focus, and the critical role for certain metrics. As a serial entrepreneur and teacher of entrepreneurship, I highly recommend The Knack and suggest that it's an investment that will provide a very high rate of return over the years.

Steven K. Gold
Author of Entrepreneur's Notebook: Practical Advice for Starting a New Business Venture

Informative and Helpful to Get Your Started
This is an excellent book for anyone thinking about starting their own business. It tells you how to think and what you need to understand in order to run a small business, from understanding cash flow to understanding and nurturing a healthy relationship with your bank to treating customers. The chapters are relatively short, and Brodsky talks alot about the companies he started, and what he learned from them. He breaks down gross margin, why the customers with the highest gross margins are the most important (and not sales), what makes a good business plan (and what makes a bad one), and what numbers are important to look at (EBITDA).

One of the best parts of the book is when he discussed whether or not to grow a company. Once people reach a certain level of success, they feel that the next natural step is to expand. Brodsky discusses what you really have to think about before you decide to expand: things such as how much money do you need to expand, why you want to grow, and how you should do it.

Another part I thought was noteworthy was the discussion on letting go of the day-to-day activities and hiring a manager. Not that I'm at that point, or will be in the future, but its an interesting take on how to view the transition.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone starting a business: it is informative and entertaining. Trust me, it doesn't drag.