Backing U! LITE: A Quick-Read Guide to Backing Your Passion and Achieving Career Success

by Vaughan Evans

Backing U! LITE is a slimmed down, less detailed, chart-free version of its sister book, Backing U! It is designed to get the busy reader to the same destination as for Backing U!, but swifter. Are you satisfied in your job or business? 50% of employees are not. If you are one of them, are you at risk of losing out to those who are satisfied? Would you back U in your current job? What are the chances of your job being hit by market downturn? Are there too many people with your skills? Do you have what it takes to compete? Is your attitude right? If you are backable, how can you make yourself more so? Or perhaps it is time to look elsewhere. But where? How do you find a job that really inspires you? And where you will be backable? Backing U! LITE answers all these questions. It shows you how to back the hwyl in you, the passion, fervor, spirit that can lift you to extremes of success!

186 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

VAUGHAN EVANS is an independent strategy consultant and has specialised in strategy and business planning for business clients and strategic due diligence for private equity over four decades. He is also a prolific writer and dynamic speaker - see www.vaughanevansandpartners.com for further info.

He is the author of the best-selling THE FT ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO WRITING A BUSINESS PLAN: HOW TO WIN BACKING TO START UP OR GROW YOUR BUSINESS (2nd edition, 2015), a book that views business planning distinctively from the perspective of the backer. It guides the entrepreneur or manager on how to address each of the key concerns of the backer, whether banker, investor or board member. Its North American version, THE STANDOUT BUSINESS PLAN: MAKE IT IRRESISTIBLE - AND GET THE FUNDS YOU NEED FOR YOUR STARTUP OR GROWING BUSINESS (2014), was co-authored with success guru Brian Tracy.

THE FT ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO DEVELOPING A BUSINESS STRATEGY: HOW TO USE STRATEGIC PLANNING TO START UP OR GROW YOUR BUSINESS (2013) is a companion to the guide on business planning. It has been exceptionally well reviewed by peers, who view it as a succinct, practical and highly readable guide to drawing up a business strategy - ideal for busy managers and entrepreneurs, intent on lifting their business to the next level.

KISSTRATEGY: A KEEP-IT-SIMPLE GUIDE ON HOW TO BUILD A WINNING STRATEGY FOR YOUR STARTUP OR SMALL BUSINESS (2016), Vaughan's latest book, does what it says on the tin. It keeps business strategy simple. It is concise (100 pages or so), jargon-free and purpose-built for small businesspeople to read on a one hour journey.

KEY STRATEGY TOOLS: THE 80+ TOOLS FOR EVERY MANAGER TO BUILD A WINNING STRATEGY was one of the top three selling business books in the UK in the first quarter of 2013. The selection of tools, rated as either useful or essential and slotted uniquely into a no-nonsense strategy development process, is innovative, instructive and practically applicable. A more succinct version of this book, 25 NEED-TO-KNOW STRATEGY TOOLS (2014), pulls out the most important tools and adds an insightful case study to each.

LET THE SUN SHINE! HOW STRATEGIC DUE DILIGENCE IS KEY TO ACQUISITION SUCCESS (2015) could well have been Vaughan's first book - he has been highly active in this field since LBOs first wafted across the Atlantic in the mid-1980s. This book "pours sunlight onto the complex challenges of getting strategic due diligence right".

He also writes on career development, on how thinking of yourself as a one person business can advance or transform your career. He deploys the very tools he has developed in business strategy for the analysis of an individual's career prospects. Hence his BACKING YOU! range of books (www.backingu.com), regarded by peers as innovative, insightful and win-win.

Vaughan Evans is a charismatic, humorous and inspirational speaker (see www.vaughanevansandpartners.com/speaking). His lively keynote speech KISSTRATEGY urges the audience to keep business strategy simple, focusing on its three key components of Market, Advantage and Risk. He is also the author of the instructive yet entertaining STAND, SPEAK, DELIVER! HOW TO SURVIVE - AND THRIVE- IN PUBLIC SPEAKING AND PRESENTING (2015).

An economics graduate of Cambridge University and an Alfred P. Sloan fellow with distinction of London Business School, he worked for many years at management consultants Arthur D. Little and investment bankers Bankers Trust. A former resident of exotic lands such as the British Virgin Islands, Borneo, Fiji and Thailand, he hails from West Wales and lives alongside London's Richmond Park.

Reviews

[Vaughan Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

“This is a terrific, original addition to career
guidance books. You’ll end up with a career
option that not only inspires you but gives
you every chance of success.”
—Barbara Sher, author of Wishcraft: How
to Get What You Really Want and I Could Do
Anything If I Only Knew What It Was

“Uncertain that you’re in the right job or
career? This is a fresh, lively, in-depth guide
on how to assess your work situation and shift
to work you’ll feel passionate about. It guides
the reader through original tools and realistic
case studies on the route to achieving career
happiness and success.”
—Julie Jansen, author of I Don’t Know What I
Want, But I Know It’s Not This

“If you are wondering whether you are in the
right job or business, Vaughan Evans’s book
will re-ignite your passion. Rich, detailed
examples bring his innovative ideas to life.
You’ll gain insight, clarity, and the motivation
to succeed!” —Carol L. McClelland,
author of Your Dream Career For Dummies

“This is a thorough work on achieving
career success.”—Daniel Porot, author of The
PIE Method for Career Success and summer
workshop co-leader with Richard N. Bolles,
author of What Color Is Your Parachute?