Two of Inc. magazine's hugely popular columnists show how small-business people can deal with all kinds of tricky situations.
People starting out in business tend to seek step-by-step formulas or specific rules, but in reality there are no magic bullets. Rather, says veteran entrepreneur Norm Brodsky, there's a mentality that helps street-smart people solve problems and pursue opportunities as they arise. He calls it 'the knack,' and it has made all the difference to the eight successful start-ups of his career.
Brodsky explores this mind-set every month in Inc. magazine, in the hugely popular column he co-writes with journalist and author Bo Burlingham (best known for his acclaimed book Small Giants). In both their column and now their book, they tell stories about real companies facing real challenges, and show readers how to apply 'the knack' to their own businesses.
Brodsky and Burlingham offer essential advice such as:
-- Follow the numbers: that's the best way to spot problems before they become life threatening -- Keep focusing on your real goal--it's amazingly easy to get sidetracked by secondary concerns -- Don't get so close to the problem that you lose all perspective Brodsky and Burlingham prove that street smarts and business acumen can be within any entrepreneur's reach.
Although there is a great deal of valuable material in this book for those who are planning to launch a new company or have only recently done so, what Norm Brodsky and Bo Burlingham provide can also be of substantial value to all other executives who also wish to establish and then sustain the kind of a company that Welch describes. Their choice of a first-person narrator is a wise one because it ensures an immediate and personal rapport with the reader. Presumably the voice is Brodsky's. but those who have read Burlingham's Small Giants will immediately realize that Brodsky speaks for both of them. It should also be noted that Brodsky launched seven successful start-ups and now provides a monthly column, "Street Smarts," in Inc. magazine.
They are impiricists whose insights are based a wealth of real-world experience; they are also pragmatists who understand what works...and what doesn't...in the contemporary business world. The "toolbox" metaphor is especially appropriate because the reader will find in this single source just about all they need to achieve and then sustain success. For example, in the first two chapters, Brodsky and Burlingham explain how to
Make the right decisions Manage cash flow properly Balance the sales mentality with the business mentality Anticipate and then prepare for changes with analytics
Be resilient when countering failure and learn from it Identify root cause rather than respond only to symptoms Balance focus and discipline with resiliency Recognize answers and solutions with peripheral vision
Then in Chapters Nine and Fourteen, Brodsky and Burlingham explain how to
Build relationships that retain your most profitable customers Help those customers to become "smarter buyers" by understanding your business Treat long-time customers like new prospects so they won't feel taken for granted Allocate sufficient time for face-time with customers
Select salespeople who will be appropriate representatives of the company Determine criteria for determining who should not be hired to sell Compensate salespeople to avoid internal competition and division Involve all other employees as an extended sales force
My references to "how to" are deliberate because all of Brodsky and Burlingham's suggestions and recommendations throughout their lively narrative are results-driven. They also explain various "how not to's" so that the reader can avoid unfavorable results. (As noted in the Introduction, "A smart person learns from his or her mistakes. A wise person learns from other people's mistakes.") In this context, I am reminded of what Peter Drucker said in a Harvard Business Review article in 1963: "There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all."
"The higher your gross margin, the fewer sales you need to cover expenses, and the longer your capital will last" (10).
"Maintain the highest monthly gross-profit margin you are capable of achieving. Do not go after any low-margin sales" (13).
"Spend your time developing relationships with your highest-margin customers. Let the low-margin customers come to you, and then negotiate the price up" (14).
"It's better to have a bad month, even a series of bad months, then to let your gross margins slide" (14).
"To be successful you have to get over your panic. Not only must you develop confidence in your ability to handle problems, but your whole way of thinking about them has to change. You have to accept a neverending flood of complications as a normal part of the business process, and you have to learn to enjoy that process. How? By getting caught up in the fun and excitement of finding solutions" (39).
"Go in with no preconceptions, and always assume that the other side is smarter than you" (103).
"You're better off with a base of many small customers than with a few large ones" (134).
"I've often found that it's easier to compete against a big company than against a well-run small company" (164).
"I suspect it's because, like many first-time entrepreneurs, she wasn't yet ready to take responsibility for her decisions. Once you really, truly understand and accept that responsibility, you become very selective about whom you go to for advice--and you don't go to people whose main concern is to keep you from taking risks" (221-2).
"The harder someone pushes you to make a quick decision, the more insistent you should be about taking your time" (245).
الخبرة والعمل في المجال التجاري متواجدة في هذا الكتاب، فهو يحوي التجربة الخاصة التي مر بها الكاتب على مر حوالي ٣٠ عام من تأسيس الشركات بين نجاح وخسارة وايضاً ينقل لنا تجارب اشخاص آخرين موزعة على عدة فصول، بداية من التأسيس للعمل الصغير إلى الوصول للعمل التجاري الكبير ، بين المشاكل والحلول والنصائح وانتقاء الموظفين والإدارة والتحصل المالي والتعامل مع الزبائن …. إلخ كتاب قيم ومرجع مهم لكل ريادي في العمل التجاري ومهم لأصحاب الأعمال التجارية القائمة فهو قد يجنبهم الوقوع في المشاكل والخسارة ببعض النصائح والحلول التي يقول الكاتب انه كان يتمنى انه لو كان هناك من قدم له هذه النصيحة او تلك عندما كان في بداية عمله عن نفسي اذا ما كنت سأبدأ باي عمل تجاري سأحتاج ان ارجع له لأنطلق معه خطوة خطوة في تنفيذ المشروع ،
اسلوبه ممتع لكن سرده للتفاصيل في كثير من الاحيان قد تبدو ممله لمن لم يخض تجربة تجارية او لا يعيشها حالياً لكن هذه التفاصيل مهمة لأصحاب العمل،
*إقتباس
اعتقد انه ينبغي أن تتبع احلامك، إني لا أرى النجاح هو أن يحقق المرء هدفاً ما، وإنما امتلاك الشجاعة لمحاولة فعل شيء ما. "نورم برودسكي"
An easy read with good advice and concrete examples. Some examples of the advice:
“The initial goal of any business is to survive long enough to see whether or not it's viable... You never know for sure if a business is viable until you do it in the real world... By viability, I mean the point at which the business is generating internally the cash it needs to pay its bills.”
What are your goals? “I'm listening for what's really motivating people. Usually, it's something emotional.”
The two most important rules for any new business: 1. Protect your capital. 2. Maintain the highest gross-profit margin you are capable of achieving.
Beware the sales mentality. It is dangerous to go after low-margin sales. It takes more capital to support low margin sales than high margin sales.
“Here's the best piece of advice I can give to anyone starting a business: from day one, keep track of your monthly sales and gross margins by hand. Don't use a computer. Write down numbers, broken out by product category or service type and by customer, and do the math yourself, using nothing more sophisticated than a calculator... To be successful in any business, you need to develop a feel for the numbers.”
“I don't think any company can be considered secure until its biggest customer represents no more than 10% of its sales... If you do more than 30% of sales with any single customer, you're in trouble.”
“Employees should not be your social friends, and your social friends should not be your employees... Neither you nor they should ever forget that it's a business relationship. If you do you're going to create problems for you, for them, and for the company.”
“Sales commissions cause divisions in a company and get in the way of building a team. Don't pay on commission unless you have to, and switch to salary plus bonus as soon as you can.”
This is book is highly recommended for those who eager to find simple and practical ways to deal with everyday challenges in business. Also it opens a gate wide for new ideas of business (not widely spread in the Arab World). One of the authors has his own stories of failure, which he shares and shows the mistakes he made, and how he overcame those failures. Don't miss it...
Awesome book. Must read for any entrepreneur. The book provides hope, starting a business is not that hard, but at the same time, it smashes your optimism with the cold harsh truth about starting your own business.
Some interesting stories, though not much new material, in terms of concepts. I liked the book, but felt the author spent a lot of time congratulating himself.
البراعة أو المقدرة الفطرية على التفوق، وهو ان يمتلك صاحب العمل الحنكة العملية في إدارة شركته وإنجاحها، المكتبات مليئة بالكتب التي تتحدث عن فن الإدارة وإستراتجيات تنظيم الشركات اليافعة ولكن هذا الكتاب يختلف بشكل كبير لأنه يشرح خبرات عملية لعدد كبير من مدراءالشركات، مواقف وأحداث واقعية تواجه كل مدير وتتحداه. المؤلف هو أحد أكبر رجال الأعمال في مدينة نيو يورك وقد أخذ حصته من النجاح والفشل! حيث يشرح كيف صنع شركة قيمتها ملايين الدولارات وبنفس الوقت يسرد سبب افلاسها ورحلته في ارشاد عدد كبير من الريادين في إنشاء شركاتهم
وفي الفصل الأخير هنالك مفاجأه تتعلق بكيف تعلم المؤلف درس كبير في الإدارة أثناء لقاء له مع ملك عربي مميز!
Một quyển sách tạm được. Bài học rút ra: 1. Cần lên bản kế hoạch doanh thu, lợi nhuận chi tiết trong ít nhất 1 năm. Gross profit và Maginal gross profit rất quan trọng. Nên viết ra giấy để có cảm nhận tốt hơn về các con số trong thời gian đầu. Viết ra giấy, tự tính toán, xem xét lại dự tính con số trong cả năm. 2. Tận dụng thời gian theo đuổi các khách hàng có hệ số biên cao, thông thường là khách lẻ. Cần phân biệt rõ giữa DOANH SỐ và LỢI NHUẬN. 3. Xây dựng và đa dạng hóa nhiều tập khách hàng nhỏ tốt hơn là chỉ tập trung vào một số ít khách hàng lớn. 4. Bán hàng là teamwork. Đội ngũ bán hàng là bộ mặt của công ty. Cần có tư duy tất cả các bộ phận đều bán hàng.
Wonderfully practical advice from a serial entrepreneur for those who want to start their own business. Know your numbers, and always keep tabs on gross margins as well as sales.
I loved this book! He explains things so clearly, it made this scary start-up experience a little less daunting. I'll certainly be returning to this book.
In “The Knack”, Norm Brodsky shares his passion for business and explains, through advice drawn from his highs and lows in business, what it is that makes a company successful. He starts by putting in plain words the one key metric that will make or break a business: gross margin, which he recommends to track by hand to really understand where it comes from. His advice then runs the whole gamut of business skills, including softer skills such as negotiating, building relationships with customers, relating to employees, reacting to employee theft, treating your competitors well, etc. He also explains why having many small customers is better than having a few big ones,
I found “The Knack” captivating and would recommend it not only to entrepreneurs but to anyone interested in understanding how successful business leaders must think. Most of the advice is applicable beyond entrepreneurship in the corporate world or in one’s personal life. The book is well written and well organized, and I found the summaries at the end of each chapter very helpful. I jotted down so many quotes that I think reading the whole book again will be simpler than going through my notes!
Starting a business has always been a terrifying idea. Both of my parents have worked many years for others. I've been watching them wake up and head to their company, come home, prepare food, handle some house chores and go to bed, all at a certain timing, to prepare for another similar day. We know how we lived and it seems clear that we can predict how we'll live. They provide their three girls proper education with the hope that the girls can eventually live independently and freely without too many worries. For many years, my parents' hope is what 'future' is to me. And being your own boss rarely comes in as one of the options. Never underestimate yourself. This is how The Knack encourages me. There are people who prefer working for others, but there are also people who want a particular life that just suits them. This book is written for the later. Being your own master will not be easy, but keep your mind and heart open. Don't just shy away from possible bad outcomes. Nothing is wasted if you're on the way pursuing your dream.
It's always good to learn from other's success and mistakes, and this book has a ton of amazing lessons I've started applying to my own endeavors.
So far it's giving me a better mindset on how to manage myself, my enthusiasm, my finances, my way of approaching people, and much more. Thanks to the way this book delivers information by providing real life stories to keep you grounded in reality while being passionate. A necessary balance.
Obviously I need to do the work in order to achieve my life goals. I'm not looking to be a powerful multimillionaire and I'm glad this book doesn't glorify them, but to be able to do what I love and live comfortably. I think that's a better form of capitalism that's sadly being suffocated by big corporations more and more, especially after COVID.
Overall, I'm glad I read this book. It really changed my perception of the world around me and gives me hope for a better future. Successful or not, I'll never find out if I don't try.
This was a very enjoyable audiobook - well narrated and extremely insightful. Brodsky combines his own personal experiences with those of several of his friends and associates that well illustrate the do's and dont's of entrepreneurship and business ownership. He focuses on the sales mentality and highlights how big sales do not always predict successful businesses; gross profit margins are key. His tips were informative, concise and helpful. Many practices have evolved and changed since this book was written - internet sales, for example, were a newer source of revenue at the beginning of the 21st century. This book definitely gave me several points to consider and ponder with our business and I appreciate each one.
Some decent tips but more specific examples to the author's own industry. Norm's honest confession about getting over aggressively competitive and a bit hot tempered resulted in lawsuits. Some sticky situations to avoid. Some products may be innovative but could be too early to the market and adaptation could be difficult. Getting into proven industries ensures success but with low profit margins. The author preference of the later seems reasonable.
Cut through the fact that it's all based on first hand experiences from the author only and you are left with some interesting insights that could be useful. But do not expect a how-to; for that it leans too much on the anecdotal in my opinion. Still, it is an interesting read with entertaining first hand accounts of how people make (or break) their ventures.
This book change my life. Recommend for every entrepreneur. Every chapter could adapt to real life. I read this book many year ago and I re read it again and again to let myself keep in track.
Lots of good stuff here. Filled with life examples in business - lots of great tips that are usable right away in your business. Each chapter ends with recap in bullets - which is useful to further instill the concepts. A great book for start ups and small, medium sized business.