Industrialisation has brought great benefits to humankind but now, after 200 years of fossil fuel use, land clearance and pollution, the planet's boundaries are being stretched to their limits. Going beyond these confines would have severe consequences for humankind. To prevent this from happening, government, corporate and community initiatives must focus on reducing the environmental impact of approximately 400 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), given that they produce approximately 70% of the world's pollution, 60% of carbon emissions and have a significant impact on land. To date, research shows that SMEs have been environmental laggards and more needs to be understood to improve sustainability in the SME sector. Broadening the researcher's methodological focus, beyond traditional singular approaches, improves knowledge generation and better informs policy and practice. This book paves the way by showing the reader that a mixed method research design is able to provide a deep, diverse and holistic understanding of sustainability and SMEs. Importantly, the book also provides an in-depth mapping of mixed method sustainability and SME research at a regional level. As this book is about environmental sustainability framed in a business context, it will be of interest to researchers, academics, students and those in industry who are enquiring about the environmental sustainability of SMEs.

Any business wanting to reach new customers should be embracing public relations to spread their key messages. If you don't, your competitors will. This Authority Guide shows you how to grab the headlines (for all the right reasons), reach huge audiences and grow your business by accessing the media to tell your story.

If you are thinking about leaving the rat race to run your own pub, but don't know how to go about it, this book is for you. How to Run a Successful Pub provides you with all the information and advice you need to make your dream a reality. It will help you to: FIND YOUR IDEAL PUB PLAN AND SET UP YOUR BUSINESS TARGET YOUR CUSTOMERS MAKE MORE MONEY CONTROL YOUR SALES MAXIMISE YOUR PROFITS This book is packed with practical, up-to-date advice on marketing, managing staff, bookkeeping, licensing law, food, fruit machines, raising finance and the necessary regulations. Contents: Acknowledgments; Preface; 1. All about you; 2. What kind of pub?; 3. Finding the right pub; 4. Funding the business; 5. Licensing law; 6. Planning for success; 7. Applying for a tenancy or new lease; 8. Buying a freehold property; 9. Professional services; 10. Business structure 11. Opening a bank account; 12. Arranging insurance; 13. Book-keeping and accounts; 14. Marketing; 15. Staff; 16. Drinks; 17. Pub food 18. Amusement machines; 19. Complying with other regulations; Appendices; Index.

Geared toward the unique challenges faced by self-employed businesswomen--and updated for the social media-driven, post-financial crisis world--The Girl's Guide to Starting Your Own Business offers solutions and advice for handling a range of issues, including how to write a business plan, how to secure funding, and how to hire (and fire) employees. Caitlin Friedman and Kimberly Yorio share practical information drawn from their own extensive experience in the public relations, marketing, and consulting fields. Their concise and engaging advice is explained through entertaining tips, lists, and quizzes that speak directly to women who are dreaming of starting, or have already started, their own businesses.

Get yourself paid and broaden your skillset with this everyday guide to side hustles The gig economy is growing by leaps and bounds, partly because it's easier to find a flexible work-life balance. Those of us who don't want to leave our full-time jobs, however, can still grab a piece of excitement and extra income for ourselves by starting a side hustle. Or you can bundle your own personalized set of side hustles to replace your full-time job and take full control of your professional life. Whether you're thinking about driving for Uber, developing apps, or starting an online boutique, Side Hustles For Dummies walks you through every step of the way of starting your own side gig. You'll learn about how to structure your new business and keep records, create backup plans, and steer clear of scams. You'll also: Find out whether you need investment capital and learn what your new time commitments will be Learn to create a business plan and patch any holes in it before you get started Discover how to incorporate a vibrant side hustle into your already busy life Learn how to adjust your side hustle to meet changes in your personal life and the overall business climate Side hustles are for everyone, from high school and college students to full-time professionals to retirees. If you've been looking for an excuse to pursue your latest passion, hobby, or interest--or you're just in the market for some extra income--Side Hustles For Dummies is the easy-to-read, no-nonsense guide to creating a rewarding and engaging new life.

So you've got the drive to start a business. You might even have the Big Idea all mapped out. But then you realise that you've got no money to take it to the next stage. Back to the day job? No way. That's where "Freesourcing" comes in. Believe it or not, you don't need money to start a business. There's an entire industry out there waiting to help you take your idea and make it happen... for free. All you need to know is where to find the help and how to get your hands on it.

"Freesourcing" is the definitive guide to free business start up resources, showing you exactly where to go and who to talk to when you're starting a business on a shoestring. Freesourcers don't just think outside the box - they find out where they can get the box for free too. You'll find information on free: PremisesMoneyComputersTravelOnline resourcesStationeryAdvice and supportLegal helpBankingNetworking opportunitiesMarketing and PRStock

No cash? No problem. So what are you waiting for?

Jon Gillespie Brown brings his extensive mentoring experience to bear in this new handbook for would-be entrepreneurs. So You Want to Be an Entrepreneur? contains a series of mentoring sessions, each carefully thought out to make you consider and plan your life based on your passions, ambitions and ultimate visions. By actively taking part in each of the exercises, you give yourself the best chance of succeeding as an entrepreneur, or the sufficient clarity to decide what other career options are best suited to you.

Explore your real goals, hidden talents, passions, assets and core skills. The simple self-discovery tools in the book will make it easy for you to analyse this information and take the next steps towards your entrepreneurial dreams with total confidence.

PRAISE FOR SO YOU WANT TO BE AN ENTREPRENEUR
'Read this book if you plan to be an entrepreneur, find out what it's really like before you make the leap ' Doug Richard, entrepreneur, business investor and former member of the Dragons' Den TV programme

'Before I invest in a business at an early stage I want to know the founders knew what they were getting into. I would suggest they check out if they measure up to the demands of the ups and downs required to be a successful entrepreneur by reading this book first.' Richard Farleigh, Author Taming the Lion: 100 Secret Strategies for Investing and former member of the Dragons' Den

'The key to entrepreneurial success is understanding what type of entrepreneur you are, and then doing business in a way that is true to yourself, and above all, one that brings you personal happiness and fulfilment. This book will help you decide whether a life of an entrepreneur is for you.' Rachel Elnaugh, entrepreneur, business speaker and former member of the Dragons' Den

'Very few people truly consider the hard work, disappointment, frustration and crushing lows that every Entrepreneur experiences along the journey. Jon's book is a must read for anybody ready to take the leap ' Richard Parkes Cordock, author of Millionaire Upgrade and creator of Millionaire MBA Business Mentoring Programme

'The only form of safe employment is self-employment. I recommend anyone considering the entrepreneurial path to read this book.' Geoff Burch, International Speaker and author of Go It Alone: The Streetwise Secrets of Self-Employment

tobeanentrepreneur.com

Political and financial upheaval is not a new phenomenon - from the tulip bulb bubble in the Netherlands in the seventeenth century to Black Monday in 1987, businesses throughout history have worked to adapt and cope. However, today's climate is even more fraught with crises, raising the levels of concern for business, society, and governments. It especially poses a challenge for small businesses, who have to learn to cope with this increasingly turbulent environment, dealing with the difficulties and taking advantage of the new opportunities that turbulence can provide. Understanding how resilience capabilities can be developed to promote sustainable business is imperative. This book provides a new paradigm for conceptualizing resilience capabilities and advances current understanding both theoretically and practically in real-world business settings. Examining the processes of resilience during different phases of crisis reveals why businesses either fail, or outperform their counterparts during times of turbulence. Based on in-depth empirical research, researchers and advanced students in small business, strategic management and risk management will find this an invaluable guide to organizational resilience.

Lay down the foundations of a successful business venture through a thoroughly researched and competitive business plan.

Based on tried and tested business methodology used at the leading business school, Cranfield School of Management, this 10th edition of The Business Plan Workbook guides you through all the necessary steps to constructing a winning business plan. This is a practical run-through of 24 key areas of development of strategic planning. It will allow you to think of these areas in isolation through the use of assignments that ensure you have stress-tested your business proposition. This guide covers how to

• Come up with a winning business idea
• Complete market and competitive research
• Set up a winning marketing strategy
• Forecast watertight financials and projections
• Define realistic operations and staffing
• Deliver an unforgettable pitch to potential backers and investors

Have you ever dreamed of running your own business? Or are you running your own business and wondering how to grow it to the next level? Most startups fail for these key reasons: 1) You started your business without a clear sense of purpose. 2) Poor Management 3) Lack of understanding the customer. David Hilton will pull you out of the details and enable you to see the business from a higher perspective---a perspective that shows you where you are in the journey of your building your company. You will find that the challenges you have are just that: challenges, not insurmountable problems. You will: 1) Understand your personal driving force to be successful, so that you are creating what is right for you. 2) Know and understand your ideal customer, such that you become the "go to person" for target market. 3) Learn how to build and manage your high-performance team. In this fast-paced allegorical non-fiction, our hero is about to learn all the lessons of business the hard way so that you do not have to. His story is a combination of a fast-paced novel with compelling, impactful and eminently executable business lessons. Join Jack's journey and take your business from struggle to success, where you'll find more time, more money and, more importantly, more freedom.

"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

First published in 1997, the authors of the present volume provide brand new insights and empirical findings in the field of entrepreneurship and small business research. The writers have highlighted three different key themes: entrepreneurship; start-ups and growth and internationalisation. The priority of most countries is growth, competitiveness and employment. In this context, the relevance of promoting the creation of new enterprises and understanding the very nature and development of newly created and existing SMEs is becoming more important today. The role of entrepreneurship and SMEs for economic and social development, welfare and well-being is going to be emphasised more than ever before. The same holds for research in these fascinating fields. This book gives an idea of the state of the art for the time being with its increasing conceptual, methodological and empirical complexity and diversity.

First published in 1997, this volume examines why small-scale enterprises have performed so well in Indonesia, given that the country's labour force is expected to expand and urbanise rapidly between 1995 and 2025. It also considers what future contribution small-scale enterprises could make. Peter van Diermen explores the industrial organisation of family businesses, local development in a global context and family businesses in Jakarta in considering the unexpected success of small-scale enterprises and the future contributions they could make.

Small Firms as Innovators: From Innovation to Sustainable Growth provides a rich empirical analysis of innovation in the context of small business. The book first introduces the general innovation patterns present in small firms. It then progresses to demonstrate how these firms create and strengthen their innovation capacity, how they transform this capacity into real-world innovations and how these innovations are exploited for creating superior competitiveness that can be transforemed into sustainable growth. To conclude, this book offers both theoretical and empirical insights for measuring and managing innovation performance in small firms.

This book explores the new product development process of firms developing frugal innovation for the base-of-the-pyramid (BOP) markets in developing countries. Frugal innovations are products characterised by an affordable price-point, durability, usability and core functionalities that are highly adapted to BOP consumers' needs. Frugal products have the potential to drive the development progress and living standards of low-income consumers. With an innovation framework developed from worldwide frugal case studies, this book provides detailed insights through two in-depth start-up firms in Indonesia that have successfully launched frugal products for the low-income market. These two start-ups have addressed two major development challenges for not just Indonesia, but also the global BOP market - traditional methods of cooking and access to clean drinking water. A detailed roadmap is developed from insights into the processes and management decisions of these two start-ups and combined with previous studies on frugal products. Providing a detailed roadmap across the different phases and stages of the new product development process when developing frugal products, this book will be insightful to not only innovators but also investors and government agencies supporting their activities.

Does Information Technology matter? This book argues that even as Information Technology hardware, software, data and associated processes are becoming more of a commodity, it has never been more important to manage Information Technology as a strategic asset. However, managing Information Technology as a strategic asset is notoriously difficult, as is studying the impact of Information Technology on firm performance. This book sets out to identify, explain and critically evaluate current research in this area. A unique feature of this book is the use of economic theory to explain management theory and its consequences in professional practice. Beginning with a thorough introduction to Schumpeterian economic theory, the authors re-cast the pre-eminent theory in strategic management research (the Resource Based View) in the light of a Schumpeterian analysis and identify Dynamic Capabilities as an extension of, but also a radical departure from, RBV. The role of Information Technology as an endogenous technology is discussed and it is argued that how we define Information Technology determines not only how we study it but also how we use it and benefit from it. The book is aimed primarily at the academic research market, but should also be of some interest to managers. It is useful more specifically for all those studying business, Information Technology, strategy, management and innovation.

Examines regulatory and other strategies for improving chemical risk management in small enterprises in the European Union. This book considers what supports are necessary to secure the implementation of these strategies and is particularly concerned with the role of chemical product supply as envisaged by REACH.

During the 1990s, a new type of controversy began occurring across the United States: controversies over the siting of superstores, also known as big box stores. In these disputes, which often involve Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, local citizens mount organized opposition to the proposed siting of a superstore in their town or neighborhood. Opponents criticize Wal-Mart superstores for putting local independent merchants out of business, siphoning money from the local economy, providing substandard jobs, disrupting residential neighborhoods, contributing to the 'McDonaldization' of society, inducing sprawl, destroying downtowns and Main Streets, and undermining local uniqueness and small town charm. More generally, these David-and-Goliath controversies represent particularly stark examples of the conflict of interests between local communities and large corporations that have become common in contemporary society. Small Towns and Big Business uses fieldwork and archival sources to comprehensively examine these controversies and the underlying issues. While Wal-Mart is usually able to site its stores at its preferred locations, in some cases local opponents have been able to thwart its plans. Using detailed case studies of anti-superstore controversies in six small cities in five states, Halebsky employs a comparative-historical approach to construct an explanation of how some of these local social movements managed to prevail against Wal-Mart. This explanation is then extended to provide the basis for a model of the general conditions under which local communities may be able to constrain unwanted corporate action. Thus, this is both a study of social movement outcomes and an investigation of community-corporate conflict. Small Towns and Big Business provides insight into the potential of the local state to control large corporations, the inherently problematic nature of corporate retailing, the possibilities for resisting McDonaldization, and the fate of local anti-corporation activism.

* A straightforward yet comprehensive guide about risk specifically for smaller businesses. * Fraud is an increasing area of concern, and one that particularly impacts SMEs. This easy-to-access book provides, in one place, key details of all of the primary fraud types affecting SMEs so that they do not have to carry out their own extensive and very time-consuming research. * Case studies are presented throughout to give real life instances of fraud events.

Drawing on empirical case-study research carried out in the Bangalore software industry, this book explores the role of network relationships in the internationalization of small knowledge-intensive firms.

Using a conceptual framework, it looks at a range of key themes and their relationship to the internationalization of small firms. These include:

• networks
• knowledge
• technology.

Highlighting the propensity of small knowledge-intensive firms to develop and leverage network relationships and thereby, the resourcefulness with which entrepreneurial firms can (and do) internationalize, this book is essential reading for academics and students with an interest in the intersection between international business and entrepreneurship.

It is estimated that family businesses comprise between sixty and ninety percent of all firms in Europe and the US. This book makes an important contribution to the understanding of small family firms by bringing together a number of key themes in management/organization studies. Reviewing a range of theoretical approaches, examining key literature and drawing from an international range of primary research, it also points to the future of research in this arena, and indicates how support and policy initiatives may be directed in the future.

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.  

Entrepreneurial Marketing for SMEs contextualizes the practice of marketing amongst SMEs, and critically discusses major issues of Entrepreneurial Marketing with a relevant and up-to-date academic body of knowledge.