Decent advice for small-business entrepreneurs.
Popular talk-show host and bestselling author Ramsey (The Money Answer Book, 2010, etc.) shoots business leadership advice straight from the hip in a substantive title refreshingly devoid of theory.
The author “paid his stupid tax” in his 20s when his successful real-estate investment business failed due to massive debt. Broke and humbled, Ramsey embraced Christian principles in every facet of his life, including his work. This framework would lead to his new venture, a financial consulting firm, which, more than 20 years later, has earned the author tens of millions of dollars in revenues and helped countless others find success as well. Ramsey’s faith may serve as his foundation, but any entrepreneur will find inspiration in his nuts-and-bolts advice. He touches on everything from time management and organization to the three things successful businesses never skip: contracts, vendors and collections. “Entreleaders,” he writes, know how to blend their entrepreneurial passion with servant-like leadership that motivates employees through persuasion instead of intimidation. The first step is the interview process. While it may seem harsh that Ramsey wouldn’t hire a woman because of her political beliefs, he encourages targeting potential employees who will fit well within an organization’s personality. Hiring individuals who “light up” with excitement over their jobs is also key. He doesn’t sugarcoat any of the difficulties, including problem employees, offering advice for reprimands and releases. As Ramsey fans expect, there is inspiration here, too. He cites Jane Delaney, who began her business in 2003 with a crumpled five dollar bill and an idea to build an online tool to help families plan and budget meals. Today, E-Mealz grosses nearly $4 million per year.
Decent advice for small-business entrepreneurs.Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4516-1785-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Howard Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2011
Popcorn's ``click'' has nothing to do with either feminist consciousness or the PC mouse. Rather, for the social-trend prognosticator extraordinaire, it defines finding your proper slot in a rapidly changing world. For Popcorn, this involves identifying some new trends and occasionally reminding us how right-on she was with her past predictions in The Popcorn Report (also coauthored with Marigold). How can you click? Popcorn counts the ways. You can click by Wildering (not to be confused with wilding), a kind of fantasy adventure; you can click by Anchoring, or pursuing spirituality; you can click by volunteering.. Popcorn's not one for fine distinctions here—megachurches will do as well for spiritual seekers as more intimate locations. The trend is everything: Just pick one and ride it until you feel yourself click into place. (First printing of 150,000)
Pub Date: April 24, 1996
ISBN: 0-88730-694-2
Page Count: 480
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1996
A slick, selective, and provocative history of postWW II management from a New Age missionary who makes no secret of his commitment to the arguable notion that corporations exist to change the world—for the better. In his engagingly digressive chronicle, Kleiner (co-editor of News That Stayed News: Ten Years of CoEvolution Quarterly, 1986) focuses on the square pegs and odd ducks who wanted to reform rather than repudiate the commercial concerns or institutions that employed them. Among those whose ideas eventually made at least some difference, he singles out Douglas McGregor and other academics, consultants, and executives influenced by the group- dynamics canon of National Training Labs (the originator of T- Groups, which encourage lower-echelon personnel to participate in workplace decisions). He goes on to recount how Saul Alinsky unleashed activist shareholders against Eastman Kodak in 1967; the resultant movement has provided a platform for hosts of agitators, ranging from church investors and Ralph Nader to Leon Sullivan. On the right, the author observes, economist Milton Friedman helped make a name for himself by insisting that the only social responsibility of business was to increase profits. In the meantime, Kleiner reports, Stanford Research Institute scholars were conducting serious experiments on the performance-enhancing properties of LSD, and NTL held symposia and other gatherings with Esalen Institute, a series of encounters that hastened on-the-job programs addressing gender and race issues. Covered as well are such counterculture entrepreneurs as the millenarian planners at Royal Dutch Shell, establishment moles who, in one memorable scenario, asserted: ``The future cannot be predicted; it can only be seen.'' A welcome if offbeat contribution to corporate literature, one that examines the communitarian possibilities of large multinational organizations rather than their presumptive failings and deficiencies.
Pub Date: May 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-385-41576-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1996
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