Successful Seminar Selling Author: Philip Calvert Publisher: How To Books ISBN: 1-85703-966 Price £ 10.99 |
Business Agreements Made Easy Author: Yvette Hoskings-James Publisher: Lawpack Publishing ISBN: 1-904053-84X Price £ 11.99 |
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7 Read as much information as possible about setting up a business
and about the area of your business that
you wish to go into- knowledge is key!
8 Network, network, network. Make new contacts whenever you can.
Attend business seminars and workshops
and networking events. That person who you managed to strike a conversation with, could provide you with valuable assistance. You never know.
9 Persevere. Setting up a business is not easy. It requires patience, hard
work and determination. But if you are
serious about going into business it can and will happen.
10 Make a start. Many of us have good business ideas but keep
them in our heads. When fear rears its
ugly head as one author says‘ Feel the fear and do it anyway’! Good Luck!
Next issue:
How to..... Start a Business( Part II) How to register your business, what to include in the business plan.... and more.
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“ The Small Business START-UP Workbook” Author: Cheryl D Rickman Publisher: How To Books ISBN: 1-84528-038-5 Price £ 12.99
There are some books we reviewers get and pass on to other people, and there are those that immediately earn their place on your bookshelf. The Small Business Start-up Workbook is one book I wished I could have found and had on my shelf two years before I decided to leave my day job for self-employed independence.
It is a very comprehensive book, a very readable book( many books on small businesses can make for very dry, humourless, and turgid reading), and has lots of exercises designed partly as points of thinking strategically( always a good business move) and getting a potential entrepreneur ready for the real challenge of running a small business as opposed to the projected“ fantasies” of being at home playing at being entrepreneurial.
This book contains interviews with many well-known business people and entrepreneurs, including former owner of Red Letter Days, Rachel Elnaugh, and plenty of case studies to help those already on the road to small business success to avoid some of the mistakes made all too easily. However, because it is a workbook, it did feel like( at least for me) going back to school. That feeling, notwithstanding, this book is one which anyone can dip in and out of easily and find useful advice that may make the difference between success and failure.
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Most books I’ ve come across about this particular subject have been American: loud, in-your-face and a definite emphasis on making moola- the fact that you can be famous as a result seems almost secondary!
The Brits, however,( and practically true to a stereotype of sorts) take a much more measured approach: seminars tends to divide people into those who look at seminars as a ready-made excuse to get out of the office and those who have to be dragged from their desk to learn something.
Written by Philip Calvert,“ Successful Seminar Selling” is a three-part guide to using seminars and similar events as an effective marketing tool to generate sales, a means of positioning oneself as an expert in any given field, and if you’ re very good at this, find yourself fully prepared in a career as a speaker.
This book literally breaks down how seminars should be devised, planned, organised, priced and promoted using a range of strategies and tactics, presented in an easy, approachable fashion. If that wasn’ t quite enough, there’ s helpful pointers on using clarity, confidence and conviction( and no, not the criminal sort!)- ie. passion and sincerity.
At the back of the book is a five-month plan of what to do and when to carry out certain tasks to ensure seminars are a success- this alone is probably worth the book price.
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For a quick, detailed overview about having agreements in place before you start running your business, Business Agreements Made Easy( BAME) should be required reading, especially as with most entrepreneurs, your knowledge of the law is non-existent!
Written by Yvette Hoskings-James( who was a lawyer before setting up her business consultancy), BAME covers most areas you’ re likely to come across in business such as e-commerce, dealing with disputes( and more importantly what to do about them!), contractual obligations, and contract terms- in short, all the issues people as consumers don’ t always pay attention to unless there’ s a problem. The good thing about this book is the fact that despite its subject matters- legal- it is written in plain English, so that readers( and indeed business owners!) with a nonlegal background can quickly grasp the main points. Each chapter starts with a“ what’ ll you find” set of bullet points and with several chapters, there’ s a checklist of key points entrepreneurs will need to remember. Once informed with the basics, if any additional clarification is needed, then the advice- as always- is to seek more advice and guidance from a professionally qualified person before embarking on any major action.
The least good thing about the book( and this isn’ t the author’ s fault) is with any legal advice. It’ s soon very quickly out of date simply because the law can change very swiftly in response to what’ s going on in the real world.
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