ACE Magazine: Issue 2 / 2016 ACE Magazine: Issue 2 / 2016 | Page 78

ASEAN COMMUNITY OF ENTREPRENEURS KNOWLEDGE SPA Small is Beautiful Author : Tom Gegax & Phil Bolsta Hardcover : 448 pages Publisher : Harper Collins (2007) Y our shoes are charred from stomping out brush fires. You have nightmares about UFOs – the Unreachable Financial Objectives. Meetings cause more problems than they solve. The office is a ghost town at 5.01pm. Does this sound familiar? Author Tom Gegax knows what that is like. Years after running his Tires Plus franchise by the seat of his pants, blissfully unaware of how little he knew about getting the most out of people and managing a world-class organisation, Tom was faced with a cancer diagnosis and a business at the brink of disaster. Resolved to change things around, he improved his mental clarity, health, and relationships and noticed that the more he profited on a personal level, the more his company profited. Tires Plus grew into a US$200 million business with 150 upscale locations. Gegax had learned the first lesson in Enlightened Leadership 101: Focus on the well-being of your employees and customers – as well as your own – and success will follow naturally. In The Big Book of Small Business, Tom shares his hard-earned lessons on how to become an enlightened, effective leader, and on how to do the small things right so the big decisions work. This all-in-one toolbox for small businesses is jammed with warmhearted, tough-minded practices and street-smart tips, covering every aspect of a growing business: • Starting, funding, and getting your new business off the ground; • Crafting a mission and growing a corporate culture that works; • Hiring the best people and maximising their potential; • Communicating and negotiating with your employees, customers, and suppliers; • Creating processes for continuous innovation and growth; • Protecting your business from unforeseen dangers; • Planning for growth. And much more . . . Compiled by Roy Chen Quick Tips to Get Your Business Noticed P ublic relations is vital to getting the right kind of attention for a small business – the kind that keeps business booming. Yet, few small business owners have time to read tomes on public relations theories or resources to commit to dynamic-sounding PR maneuvers that wind up creating a whole lot of confusion. Over her decades of experience in public relations, author Jennefer Witter has learned exactly what works to get a small business the right kind of attention-big time. Writing as one small business owner helping out another, she shares her wealth of nuts-and-bolts PR tips. They’re all simple to grasp, easy on the budget, ready to implement, and proven effective at making a small business outstanding in the eyes of coveted clients and valuable customers. 76 Author : Jennefer Witter Paperback : 120 pages Publisher : AMACOM Books (2014) ASEAN COMMUNITY OF ENTREPRENEURS | ISSUE 2 : 2016 With a priority on critical information and concrete results, The Little Book of Big PR covers public relations’ seven key elements. They include: • Self-branding: A powerful tool for communicating a small business owner’s uniqueness, mission, and edge on the competition. • Media relations: This doesn’t necessarily mean striving for a coup like The Wall Street Journal. • Social media: Something every entrepreneur should be usingstrategically because virtually everyone is online these days. • Networking: A tool that truly opens doors to more business-especially in our ferociously competitive world. A PR veteran, Witter is currently the CEO and founder of The Boreland Group Inc, a boutique public relations agency headquartered in New York City with a presence in Washington D.C.