It’s Your Biz: The Complete Guide to Becoming Your Own Boss - Hardcover

Wilson Solovic, Susan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0814416713 ISBN 13: 9780814416716

Publisher: Amacom, 2011

Synopsis

A New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestseller!

Millions of employees parked in cubicles dream about starting their own businesses. And in today’s economy, countless unemployed professionals are becoming entrepreneurs out of necessity. They may have good skills and ideas, but do they really understand what it takes to build a profitable venture?

As owner and co-founder of the award-winning It’sYourBiz.com (formerly SBTV.com, or Small Business Television), Susan Solovic has years of experience in the small business trenches. In It’s Your Biz she shows prospective entrepreneurs how to sidestep the pitfalls that doom more than half of all new businesses while dramatically improving their odds of success.

The book strips away the usual dreamy calls to “pursue your passion,” supplying the kind of candid, real-world advice readers truly need, such as how to:

• Gauge whether you have the qualities required to succeed

• Prepare for drastic culture shock

• Build a business plan that works

• Focus on providing market solutions

• Choose partners, advisers, and employees wisely

• Promote your business on a shoestring budget

• Protect your company and yourself

• Make the most of bootstrap financing.

From planning and funding to promotion and pricing, It’s Your Biz is packed with the practical, honest, expert guidance that budding entrepreneurs need before they set out on their own.

About this title

About the Author

SUSAN WILSON SOLOVIC is owner and co-founder of It’sYourBiz.com, a highly successful video news and information site for entrepreneurs. She is a weekly small business contributor on ABC’s Money Matters and a featured blogger on the Huffington Post, AllBusiness.com, Fast Company, Constant Contact, and other sites. The author of several books, including The Girls’ Guide to Building a Million-Dollar Business, Solovic has served on the National Women’s Business Council and the Women’s Leadership Board at Harvard University.

From the Back Cover

“I can tell you from experience that building your own successful business is the most exciting, exhilarating, and rewarding job you’ll ever have. But even if you dream of being your own boss, you can’t do it alone. Let Susan Solovic be your first advocate. She’s navigated the highs and lows of this world more than once, and her new book is full of potentially life-saving guidance.” — Lewis Schiff, Chairman and Executive Director, Inc. Business Owners Council

“Brilliant! Susan Solovic knows a thing or two about changing careers and starting your own business. In It’s Your Biz she offers all the insights, information, and inspiration you’ll need to avoid the most com­mon missteps and lay the groundwork for success.”— Ken Blanchard, coauthor of The One Minute Manager® and The One Minute Entrepreneur

From the Inside Flap

If you’re reading this, you’ve got high hopes and big plans. To be your own boss—with no one breathing down your neck, no more deadly meetings, no more nonsense. Just you, your good ideas, and your internal drive determining your destiny.

Does that sound liberating? It is! Does it sound scary? It’s that as well. Making the jump from employee to entrepreneur is an alluring prospect that millions pursue every year, yet the odds of success are daunting. More than half of all new businesses fail within three years—many because of avoidable mistakes.

But now you can get the honest, real-world information you need about what it takes to succeed. Owner and cofounder of the award-winning ItsYourBiz.com (formerly SBTV.com, or Small Business Television), Susan Wilson Solovic has years of experience in the small-business trenches. In It’s Your Biz, she delivers an unflinching account of the skills and attitudes prospective entrepreneurs need to get a business up and running, and a no-surprises game plan for making your venture profitable and sustainable.

From planning and funding to promotion and pricing, you’ll get practical advice that can ensure your success as you leave the safety net of being an employee to enter the high-risk, high-reward environment of business ownership. It includes how to:

• Gauge whether you have the qualities needed to succeed

• Prepare for drastic culture shock

• Build a business plan that works

• Focus on providing market solutions

• Choose partners, advisers, and employees wisely

• Promote your business on a shoestring budget

• Protect your company and yourself

• Make the most of bootstrap financing

• And much more!

Susan Wilson Solovic is owner and cofounder of ItsYourBiz.com, a highly successful video news and information site for entrepreneurs. She is a weekly small-business contributor on ABC’s Money Matters and a featured blogger on The Huffington Post, AllBusiness, Fast Company, Constant Contact, and other sites, as well as a monthly columnist on WSJ.com. The author of several books, including The Girls’ Guide to Building a Million-Dollar Business, Solovic has served on the National Women’s Business Council and the Women’s Leadership Board at Harvard University.

Ellen R. Kadin is Executive Editor at AMACOM Books, specializing in business books, and a part-time writer.

Edition details

• Publisher: Amacom
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0814416713
• ISBN 13: 9780814416716
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 240