The Entrepreneur's Playbook: More Than 100 Proven Strategies, Tips, and Techniques to Build a Radically Successful Business

by Leonard Green, Paul Brown (With)

Overview

When failure is not an option.

Big new ideas rarely make great businesses . . . Laboring on a business plan can be a waste of time . . . You are going to need dramatically more start-up money than you think you do.

Counterintuitive concepts like these have helped the world’s best entrepreneurs succeed. Yet most of us only learn them the hard way. Len Green, an experienced investor, entrepreneur, and business professor, shares inside secrets and proven tactics for launching a business. Based on his popular Ultimate Entrepreneurship course, the book explains how to:

Locate sure-bet opportunities for improving products
• Get serious about positioning, distributing, and licensing
• Find funding
• Take calculated risks and minimize failure
• And much more.

The Entrepreneur’s Playbook allows you to become a virtual student: dozens of exercises (which you can submit online for feedback) and hundreds of examples make the learning stick. Why stumble your way to possible failure when you can tap into the best ideas for making your venture work.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814438176
Publisher:	AMACOM
Publication date:	03/09/2017
Edition description:	Special ed.
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	418,927
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Leonard C. Green is founder and chairman of the Green Group, teaches at Babson College, and was a major influence behind SoBe beverages and Blue Buffalo pet food.

Paul B. Brown is a long-time contributor to The New York Times and former writer/editor of BusinessWeek, Forbes, and Inc.

Table of Contents

A Special Offer ix

A Quick Word Before We Begin xi

Principle 1 Find a Marketplace Challenge That Needs to Be Solved or Improved 1

Principle 2 A Better Mousetrap Is Not Enough 15

Principle 3 If You Ain't Passionate About Your Idea, No One Else Will Be 32

Principle 4 Experiment! 45

Principle 5 If You Are Not Failing (Occasionally), You Are Not Aiming High Enough 52

Principle 6 Work Hard (You'll Be Amazed at How Many People Don't) 65

Principle 7 The Key Entrepreneurial Trait: Knowing How to Spot an Opportunity 80

Principle 8 Successful Entrepreneurs Are Not Risk-Takers; They Are Calculated Risk-Takers 94

Principle 9 You-Yes, You-MUST Have an Advisory Board 103

Principle 10 Research the Market; Narrow the Options; Act! 115

Principle 11 There Is No Sense Making a Mistake Unless You Can Learn from It 122

Principle 12 What Is the Most Effective Tool to Solve a Problem or Deal with a Crisis? SWOT 133

Principle 13 If It Ain't Broke-Break It. Don't Be Complacent. Always Improve. Always Get Better 139

Principle 14 Be a Mensch 148

Principle 15 Ten Steps to Take Before You Make Your Move into Entrepreneurship 158

Principle 16 Secrets, Techniques, and Strategies of the Successful Entrepreneurs I Have Worked With 161

Principle 17 Give Back 177

Principle 18 Say Thank You 183

Acknowledgments 185

Appendix 187

Index 189

Editorial Reviews

Succinct, smart, and unexpected advice on starting and running a business.” –Library Journal

“…full of practical advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, including easy ways to identify sure-bet opportunities…” – Huffington Post

“Lessons and content in The Entrepreneur’s Playbook are life changing and unique. The reader learns to think differently, gain confidence and become a calculated risk taker.” –CEO Forum magazine

“As Steve Jobs said, 'Think differently. Be one of the crazies that changes the world.' This book will you with real world tools to do so.” –CEO Forum magazine

From the Publisher

03/01/2017
Despite the title, this book is not, thankfully, a playbook--it does not contain a list of the plays to make in the "game" of entrepreneurship, or a list of platitudes meant to inspire confidence, but not thought. Instead, Green (founder & chairman, the Green Group), with journalist Brown, offers advice on the aspects of starting a business that an entrepreneur may be reluctant to consider, such as begging for funding from family members, product distribution, failure, and how much free time a new business will absorb. Brief in length, so no topic is covered in great detail, it suggests unconventional ways of solving problems and provokes thought. Stories of successful entrepreneurs are offered, but instead of presenting each account as a model to be followed, the authors ask readers to take apart and question the choices the founders made. A great read for anyone who enjoyed Dan Shapiro's Hot Seat. VERDICT Succinct, smart, and unexpected advice on starting and running a business.--Jessica Spears, Brooklyn P.L.

Library Journal