Fact: More commerce and wealth is created by direct mail than by any other media (true before the internet and true now) Reported in 2013 as the marketing channel that "delivers the best ROI for customer acquisition and retention" by Target Marketing's Seventh Annual Media Usage Forecast survey of B2C, direct mail is surprisingly outdated and under-represented on the marketing bookshelves for small business owners -- authors Simpson and Kennedy change that. Millionaire-maker Dan S. Kennedy and direct mail marketing specialist Craig Simpson urge small business owners to drive the momentum built via social media and other marketing avenues into the mailboxes of their target consumers. Unlike other direct mail marketing books on the shelf that specialize in one aspect of preparing a campaign such as copywriting or design, this comprehensive solution covers all -- the organizational, technical, and creative including designing, budgeting, tracking, and assessing effectiveness. Also covered is how direct mail can be used in today's online marketing funnels. Benefiting from the authors' combined 30 years in direct marketing, business owners are given the guidelines for what works and what doesn't, illustrated by real-life business campaigns that show step-by-step how to build a results-producing promotional campaign.

"Plan B" should be MANDATORY reading before you ever consider creating a business. It was written to provide the "business readiness" needed for those who have no successful entrepreneurial experience. You will learn the good, bad, and ugly about each of the four ways to create a business (start a business, buy a business, buy a franchise, and network marketing.) You will learn what due diligence you must do before you start spending your time and your money.
"Plan B" answers the three IF questions: If you have what it takes to create a business. If you really want to start a business now that you know what it will take. If you want to create one independently or with a team.
Then it answers the WHAT NEXT questions as you determine the best "Plan B "option for you and for your preferred work lifestyle.
It ensures you are ready for the journey. You understand some of the rabbit holes that lie ahead, and the resources your will need so you won't be in the 80% of new businesses that fail in the first three years. Instead you will be part of the 20% with long term success.
Through numerous examples, assessments, and stories of business successes and failures you will know if you are ready. You will be able to engage both your head and your heart for the thrilling adventure of creating your "Plan B." Kathleen shows you how.

When life hands you lemons what do you do? Well complaining certainly doesn't help anything, and nobody really listens anyway. Truth is, most successful people have failed their way to the top. For every successful person that you see, what you don't see is the trail of bankruptcies, failed partnerships, and pricey mistakes that made them who they are today. So does that mean every entrepreneur has to go through the same horrors, heartaches and pain? Is there any way to avoid this?
Well one way is to learn from the experiences of others. . .
MJ Gottlieb's "How To Ruin A Business Without Really Trying" takes a new and exciting approach to help entrepreneurs by telling them what "not" to do. The book uses fifty-five painstaking, yet hysterical tales throughout MJ Gottlieb's 21-year journey as an entrepreneur to highlight some of the most prevalent and destructive mistakes entrepreneurs make when running a business today.
Truth-be-told, entrepreneurs simply do NOT like to be told what to do. Learning from the mistakes of others however, takes the ego out of the equation so entrepreneurs can learn objectively, while still allowing them to enjoy the freedom of their own experience.

Why is it that nine out of every ten businesses fail? And what precious bit of knowledge does that one business out of every ten have that enables it to succeed? While there is no single answer to this question, as there are as many answers to this question as there are businesses, there is one veritable truth that every aspiring entrepreneur needs to know. . .while anyone can start a business, very few ever figure out a way to make money in the process. MJ Gottlieb's How To Ruin A Business Without Really Trying is a highly animated, layman's terms business book containing fifty-five painstaking, yet hysterical tales from MJ Gottlieb's journey as an entrepreneur. It is written as a simple- yet practical- guide for aspiring entrepreneurs, putting each story in the form of a 'case study', explaining both the crime committed ('The Wrong') and the lesson learned ('The Right'). The book is split into two sections. . .Part One, My Most Infamous Screw-Ups, contains thirty-nine short stories starting with the top five Do Not's and Never Ever Evers when starting a business. Part Two, More Case Studies and Some other Things I Learned Along the Way includes sixteen more short stories focusing specifically on the subject of pursuing capital. How To Ruin A Business Without Really Trying is one of very few that concentrates on what "not" to do as its method of teaching. MJ takes this approach as he has found that most entrepreneurs simply do not like to be told what to do, and that learning what not to do simply makes a lot more sense!

'Refreshingly clear. Answers all those questions that entrepreneurs keep asking.' Robert Craven, author, Bright Marketing and Kick-Start Your Business So you've launched your new business. But what do you need to do now to make sure it succeeds? This all-in-one guide will help you make sure your fledgling enterprise becomes a successful business. Packed with all the practical, valuable and insightful guidance you need on sales, marketing, finance, service, technology and much more, each chapter includes: * Easy-to-apply strategies for business success * Insightful case studies from businesses that survived the first five years * Helpful exercises and action plans * Valuable templates for you to use This is your one-stop shop for everything you need to manage, grow and succeed with your new business. 'Full of very valuable information. This is not theory - but live action in print. Highly recommended.' Professor Alan Barrell, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge

Recent development experience points to the way business can be the key to a dynamic small business sector, especially where those links are built on high trust co-operative relations. This book reviews different types of small business network, illustrated by an international selection of case studies, including: * Chinese family business networks * ethinic minority business networks * Japanese and South Korean business group networks * Taiwan's subcontracting networks * European industrial districts Network promotion initiatives in Singapore, New Zealand, Scandinavia and the UK are each discussed to provide a comprehensive comparative assessment of small business networks.

A comprehensive guide to building and maintaining a sustainable, profitable, and enjoyable business as a freelance editor. According to LinkedIn, more than twenty thousand people in the United States list themselves as freelance editors. But many who have the requisite skills to be excellent editors lack the entrepreneurial skills needed to run a thriving, fulfilling business. The few resources available to freelance editors, new and established, are typically limited in scope and lack the strategic thinking needed to make a business flourish. The Freelance Editor's Handbook provides a complete guide to setting up and running a prosperous freelancing business, from finding clients to increasing productivity, from deciding how to price services to achieving work/life balance, and from paying taxes to saving for retirement. Unlike most other books on freelance editing, this book is founded on a business-success mindset: The goal isn't simply to eke out a living through freelancing. Rather, the goal is to establish a thriving, rewarding business that allows editors to achieve their career goals, earn a comfortable living, and still have time for family, friends, and personal pursuits. Author Suzy Bills identifies multiple strategies and methods that freelancers can apply, drawing on current research in entrepreneurship, psychology, and well-being. This book is the ultimate resource for editors at all levels: students just starting out, in-house staff looking to transition, and experienced freelancers who want to make their businesses more profitable and enjoyable.

Starting a new business takes a lot of energy and organization. The failure rate is alarmingly high and the task can look herculean at the outset. This new textbook provides a simple guide to help plan a successful new business, taking entrepreneurs and students through the steps required to avoid pitfalls and get a business going. Unlike most entrepreneurship textbooks, the author avoids dwelling on theories in favour of providing effective and practical guidance on how to start and manage a profitable business, with a focus on new ventures operating in high-growth, innovative sectors. Written by an expert with experience in academia and business consulting, this concise textbook will be valuable reading for students of entrepreneurship, new ventures and small business. The practical focus of the book means that it will be useful both for students in the classroom and for entrepreneurs wanting to start a new business.

For years the small-firm sector of the economy remained an enigma. However, recently researchers have assembled a far better understanding of the economic role of small firms. One of the surprising findings is that small and medium-sized firms, and entrepreneurship, have become increasingly more important to the economies of both developed and developing countries than previously acknowledged. The purpose of these volumes is to bring together for the first time this diffuse and rich literature on the whole subject of small firms and economic growth. This volume will provide a basic resource for all those engaged with the subject as students, teachers and researchers.

Business creation, or entrepreneurship, is a major source of national economic growth and adaptation as well as an important career choice for millions. In this insightful book, Paul D. Reynolds presents an overview of the major factors associated with contemporary business creation, reflecting representative samples of US early stage nascent ventures, and emphasizing the unique features of the one-third that achieve profitability. This in-depth assessment includes empirical descriptions of a broad range of relevant features of the entrepreneurial process. By using representative samples of nascent entrepreneurs and ventures in the US, it allows extrapolation to US populations of entrepreneurs, pre-profit ventures, and activity in all economic sectors. Outcomes including profitability and disengagement are identified in multiple follow-up interviews. A useful resource for scholars concerned with business creation, this book also makes an engaging supplementary course book for upper division and graduate courses in business plan creation and research methods. Policy analysts emphasizing programs and policies to enhance business creation will also find it enlightening.

Public policy interventions aimed at encouraging, supporting and developing small businesses are an important factor in understanding entrepreneurship and small business management. This textbook is the first to provide teachers and students with a resource that gives an overview of how institutional and policy structures interact with small firm start-ups, continuation and succession/failures. Beginning with a brief introduction to policy processes, the book also covers the scope for different intervention at different scales: macroeconomic (international, national) and regional/local. The author then applies four lenses to provide different contexts to understand the theory and practice of public policy for small business management: The UK is used to cover long-term historical evolution of small businesses and how this has stimulated different policy approaches. The USA provides greater emphasis on varied approaches within a federal system and the specifics of the SBA. The EU is used as a case to engage with international and varied policy approaches.Emerging economies are used to provide insights into radically different ways of combining understanding of small firm start-ups, continuation and succession/failures with policy approaches within the context of globalization. Written by a pre-eminent scholar of public policy and entrepreneurship, this textbook provides a concise but thorough introduction to the subject for Master's students internationally.

The Small Business Administration says that 69% of all business do not last past 7 years and 56% not any longer than four years. There is serious monetary and relationship carnage in all this. What is really going on here? Going Out Of Business By Design will offer up reasons for this as well as compelling solutions. Mr. Pease writes from 29 years of personal experience and continues to operate his office equipment business. Going Out of Business By Design wants to help the Owner Entrepreneur be able to spot dangerous trends before they threaten the business.
Going Out of Business By Design is particularly good at showing correct thought processes and how to creatively deal with all manner of business trouble. The book guides you through important topic such as establishing positive cash flow, correct pricing and selection of products, legal troubles and leadership methods. It also lets you in on what Pease considers to be the great secret to making a small business last and retain employees.
Going Out Of Business By Design can serve as an Entrepreneur's Owner's Manual that you will refer to regularly.

Blogs.
They may have once been the realm of personal online diaries, but blogs have quickly become just as legitimate and influential as mainstream newspapers and magazines. Did you know that you can make a very healthy income from blogging? Do you want to make five figures every month? I can show you how.
My name is John Chow and my personal blog consistently makes over $40,000 a month. In this book, I describe exactly how I went from earning $0 to over $40,000 a month from just a couple of hours each day. I'll walk you through the process, step by step, uncovering all the secrets that other pro bloggers are too afraid to tell you.
What are you waiting for? Get out of the rat race and into the blogosphere!

Smart Business, Stupid Business” provides a practical approach for the small business owner. This is a book written specifically for the small business owner with specific action steps. It's filled with meaningful information that cuts to the chase. It's the comprehensive content that turns any business owner into a Smarter Business Owner.  

Business consultant Robert Mano has given many business owners hope. Formally a president of a multi-million dollar company but more importantly a small business owner, he has revitalized businesses with an easily understood concept. Successful businesses use it; most do not realize they are doing it. Once you read, "Thinking Beyond the Obvious," you will immediately grasp the simplicity of the concept and quickly recognize the driving factors of a successful business like never before.
You will have an epiphany. Simply said, you will have that, "Wow Why didn't I think about that?" moment. You will see each business, including your own, through a completely different and savvy pair of eyes. It will be like taking off the blinders. Simple yes. Exciting, absolutely.
Thinking Beyond the Obvious will:
* Differentiate your business from every other business in the marketplace.
* Position your business for success.
* Transform your attitude from one of blank to one of "Wow, I can do this."
* Provide simple, proven ideas that you can immediately use to more effectively and efficiently compete in the marketplace.
If you are looking for real world illustrations and practical insights on how to supercharge your business, and you are looking for that million-dollar idea to position your business for success, your search is over.

"Creating a Thriving Business" is the definitive guide to achieving your hopes and dreams for your business.
Good business owners and leaders have expectations for today, hopes for tomorrow and dreams for their business down the road. They've asked themselves - ""If this is the business I have and that is the business I want, how do I get from here to there?"
Utilizing a unique methodology built upon his experience with over 1,200 businesses over the past 17 years, George Horrigan shows how to accomplish these dreams. Employing this straightforward and extremely effective process will help entrepreneurs and business leaders achieve the goals for their businesses in record time."
Creating a Thriving Business" explains how to create a successful and immensely profitable business by providing a systematic, structured approach to beat the competition. It guides you step by step, using specific strategies and proven, practical tools to solve real world problems and get the desired results including:
1. Defining specific goals for your business
2. Creating a concrete and comprehensive strategy for your business
3. Developing and following through with an explicit execution plan
4. Obtaining or providing sufficient capital for your business

In our increasingly digitized and fast-paced world, human relationships are often strained--sales relationships even more so. Today's buyers are better informed, more sophisticated, and more transactional. As a result, sales professionals must navigate new challenges as they seek to develop meaningful relationships with these sometimes elusive buyers.
In "Human To Human Selling," sales strategist Adrian Davis details how sales professionals and the people who manage them can increase sales performance while developing strategic relationships with their customers. Bringing sales professionals out of the Industrial Age adversarial model of sales into the "Age of Business Reformation," "Human To Human Selling" presents a step-by-step process for building symbiotic relationships with buyers--connections that are both mutually rewarding and emotionally fulfilling and lead to the "right-fit" customer. "Human To Human Selling"
-Provides a fresh perspective on sales and customer relationship management
-Bridges the gap between sales techniques and corporate strategy, enabling salespeople to sell higher
-Provides practical techniques for strategic selling
The results will speak for themselves: sales professionals that are a strategic asset to their buyers as well as their employers.

Bob Bly is not the best-known entrepreneur in the world, and he is not the richest. But the 65,000 subscribers to his online newsletter "The Direct Response Letter" turn to Bob weekly for advice and inspiration on how to achieve success professionally, financially, and personally.
Now in "87 Secrets of Outrageous Business Success: How to Reach Your Goals and Have Fun Doing It," you get many years of Bob's advice compressed into a quick-reading guide to living a happy, fulfilling, and abundant life. Now you can achieve your goals, escape the rat race, and be master of your own destiny.
In "87 Secrets of Outrageous Business Success," you will discover:
** 7 steps to outrageous business success
** How to make yourself indispensable
** 7 ways to command higher fees
** How to become a more confident public speaker
** The 22 undeniable truths of life
** How to start your own home business after 50
** The 4 keys to success and happiness
** How to get really good at anything
** 10 ways to achieve Internet marketing success
** And more...
You may want to be happier. You may want to be richer. You may want to be more successful. By following the simple but proven rules in "87 Secrets of Outrageous Business Success," you can soon achieve all three goals--and live a more harmonious and rewarding life.

How valuable would it be to you to have a book that may prevent you from going out of business? You don't have to wonder because you have it in "Small Business Survival 101." Small business ownership excels at bringing out both the best and worst of business people. It is the fight of a lifetime and one you may win or eventually lose. "Small Business Survival 101" will increase the odds of putting up that "W."
Real entrepreneurship is frequently misunderstood. It is not so much about an idea or taking risks. It is about building a lasting business out of your passion. There really is no shortage of good ideas but there is a shortage of those who can make a lasting business from their passion or abilities. "Small Business Survival 101" charts the two main avenues to entrepreneurial success: the "I Have An Idea" approach and the "Serve An Apprenticeship" method. Learn the critical differences between them.
By reading "Small Business Survival 101" be confident you will glean the critical components needed to build a lasting business and be able to spot advice that really isn't. You will learn how to build in repeat business and give it the necessary appeal to customers. For gallows humor enjoy "That Owner Frame Of Mind" and "Entrepreneurship By Santa Claus." Find out which chapter is the longest and why

The Funding Is Out There! Access the Cash You Need to Impact Your Business provides more than thirty in-depth yet succinct case study examples of what actual business owners have done to raise capital to grow their businesses-covering not just what is available but the "how to" to obtain it, what works best, and why for a particular business type. Including everything from pursuing business-friendly community banks and forming strategic alliances to tapping supplier financing and using crowd funding (both donation and equity-based), it shows business owners how to raise the capital they need to grow their businesses. Most small and medium businesses are unaware of the variety of financing sources that exist for their business types or they are unprepared to meet the requirements from a relationship and financial packaging perspective. The Funding Is Out There! shows business owners how to do just that. Owners of mom-and-pop businesses, small businesses, and growing businesses with millions in revenues will tap: * Information that increases their odds of obtaining the financing they need to grow their businesses * Step-by-step options based on their business type * Options for each stage of growth * Advice that enables them to optimize their banking relationships The Funding Is Out There! shows business owners how to get the capital they need to flourish in today's competitive operating environments. Learn how to lay the financial framework to create a viable, sustainable business to sell or pass on!

The Funding Is Out There! Access the Cash You Need to Impact Your Business provides more than thirty in-depth yet succinct case study examples of what actual business owners have done to raise capital to grow their businesses-covering not just what is available but the "how to" to obtain it, what works best, and why for a particular business type. Including everything from pursuing business-friendly community banks and forming strategic alliances to tapping supplier financing and using crowd funding (both donation and equity-based), it shows business owners how to raise the capital they need to grow their businesses. Most small and medium businesses are unaware of the variety of financing sources that exist for their business types or they are unprepared to meet the requirements from a relationship and financial packaging perspective. The Funding Is Out There! shows business owners how to do just that. Owners of mom-and-pop businesses, small businesses, and growing businesses with millions in revenues will tap: * Information that increases their odds of obtaining the financing they need to grow their businesses * Step-by-step options based on their business type * Options for each stage of growth * Advice that enables them to optimize their banking relationships The Funding Is Out There! shows business owners how to get the capital they need to flourish in today's competitive operating environments. Learn how to lay the financial framework to create a viable, sustainable business to sell or pass on!

The information age is over. For you to become successful in today's economy, you have to build powerful, mutually beneficial relationships with the right people, who have the right skills and can properly complement your strengths. If you already had all the skills, connections, resources, financial backing and technology you needed to reach the top, you'd already be there. Today's world moves fast. One person cannot possibly be an expert---or even stay informed---about all there is to know. The concepts, strategies and tactics detailed can be applied to home-based businesses, start-ups, and storefronts (both traditional brick and mortar and online). "The Collaboration Economy" clearly explains how to identify your strengths, acknowledge your weaknesses, and find the perfect match to make your dreams a reality in record time.

The information age is over. For you to become successful in today's economy, you have to build powerful, mutually beneficial relationships with the right people, who have the right skills and can properly complement your strengths. If you already had all the skills, connections, resources, financial backing and technology you needed to reach the top, you'd already be there. Today's world moves fast. One person cannot possibly be an expert---or even stay informed---about all there is to know. The concepts, strategies and tactics detailed can be applied to home-based businesses, start-ups, and storefronts (both traditional brick and mortar and online). The Collaboration Economy clearly explains how to identify your strengths, acknowledge your weaknesses, and find the perfect match to make your dreams a reality in record time.