Startup: An Insider's Guide to Launching and Running a Business

"If I was going to start a new business today I would be sure to study and pay close attention to Kevin Ready's new book, Startup. His wisdom, experience, and his self-effacing and honest writing make this a real gem for aspiring entrepreneurs and business people of all kinds."

—Bob Beaudine, author of The Power of WHO

Startup: An Insider's Guide to Launching and Running a Business is for people who are excellent at something—product or web development, writing code, marketing or selling anything—but who are now toiling for others. Yet they have long had a dream: to take that special skill set and use it, on their own terms, in a startup business.

This pattern is romanticized by the media in the form of the "tech entrepreneur"—the guy brainstorming with buddies in a garage who ends up selling his startup for millions. But what is the reality behind stories like that one? For that matter, what mental processes, frames of reference, hard knocks, and lessons learned make up the "back story" behind any startup success? This book not only reveals the actual experience of entrepreneurship, but it provides readers with a set of universal entrepreneurial skills and tools they can use to build a business.

Author Kevin Ready has made this journey, and more than once. He earned his MBA—Master of Bruise Acquisition—through numerous encounters with "situations," problems, black holes, bad employees, sea monsters, not enough money, and other karate chops to the organizational body. Startup illustrates in detail the lessons he learned the hard way—so you don't have to.

Backed up by stories of both his successes and failures, Ready helps readers learn shortcuts to help them do what eight out of 10 entrepreneurs can't: Build and sustain a successful start-up.

• Illustrates the entrepreneurial journey from start to finish

• Helps readers decide—or not—to start a business

• Provides dozens of lessons learned and other takeaways budding entrepreneurs can put to use today

What you'll learn

• What entrepreneurship is, and what it is not.

• How to get into the skin of an entrepreneur and see the world from that perspective—before you quit your job and put everything on the line.

• Key lessons that have left burn marks and abrasions on the (now very thick) skins of successful entrepreneurs.

• Why building your product is only half the battle.

• What the most important goals and imperatives are for any business, ensuring that you can start working on them from day one instead of stumbling into them years later and losing time, money, and opportunity in the process.

• What you must know about finding, recruiting, and growing a team of dedicated employees that will share your vision and eventually take ownership of your ideas and carry them forward for you.

• The advanced mind-over-business strategies for staying on top of (and inside of) the complex currents that make up your business and the market it flows within. These tools are a prime distinguishing factor for superstar entrepreneurs.

Who this book is for

This book is for anyone wishing to start a business, but especially IT workers toiling in the trenches who have dreamed of a starting a business. What's involved? What challenges can I expect? How do I survive common entrepreneurial mishaps? Once I get the business up and running, how do I keep the wheels turning profitably? How do I attract customers? How do I manage people? This book answers those questions and many more.