Business Know-How

by Janet Attard

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1580622062
• ISBN13: 9781580622066
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Adams Media Corporation
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 7.5" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Great Advice For Running A Small Business

While some books, such as "The Entrepreneurial Mindset" and my own "Thinking Like An Entrepreneur," are great at providing philosophical guidance and strategic insight into becoming an entrepreneur, other books are great at providing practical, hands-on information for dealing with specific, small business situations. "Business Know-How" provides excellent, hands-on information which will help you run your small or home business."Business Know-How" is jam-packed with hints, tips, resources, and suggestions for saving money, growing your sales, and running your business more effectively. The lessons are particularly useful to small and home-based businesses.Half of U.S. small businesses are home-based. Attard says that although hard work and good products are necessary to succeed in small business, hard work and good products alone aren't enough. Attard writes: "To be successful, you need to know how to do business. You need to know the best ways to find customers, to sell to them, to use technology, to cut costs, and to deal with problems that inevitably arise. And you need to know how to do it all on a shoestring."The First Chapter, Finding the Real Opportunities, will help you generate ideas for a new business. Attard suggests: "Businesses don't just happen. They are made... your success relies on what you bring to the business. If you love what you do, your passion for the business will drive you to be knowledgeable, creative, and persistent."One of Attard's recommendations is "Look for Avalanches" which will help carry you in a successful direction. As an example, Attard discusses Cheyenne Software, which jumped on the Local Area Network trend by developing enhancements to Novell LANs. She also discusses demographic trends and points out a few particularly lucrative areas, such as corporate training. We learn that corporate training is a $50 billion market.We also learn that African Americans represented a $300 billion market by 1994. Attard advises: "The secret to successfully targeting these and other cultural markets is to pay attention to your audience's heritage and lifestyle. Don't just replace pictures of white people with pictures of African Americans or Latinos, and don't translate English word for word into any other language. Your marketing efforts will fail if you do. Instead, tailor the sales literature or ads to accurately reflect the lifestyle of the targeted market."But, your business doesn't need to be earth shattering or target a huge market. One of Attard's first businesses was making beanbags shaped like frogs. Attard writes: "I filled them with birdseed instead of beans to make them pliable and less lumpy to the touch. ... I could produce them quickly and kept my costs low by making the frogs from inexpensive fabric remains." Attard also suggests considering "Mundane Moneymakers," such as home cleaning or plumbing for your start-up business. Attard writes: "The key to making money with the mundane is to sell something yo

Articulate, comprehensive, practical, reader-friendly.

Janet Attard's Business Know-How tells how to make a small business profitable, from obtaining publicity and locating customers without expensive ad budgets to cutting business costs and becoming involved with the Internet. All are excellent business guides with practical information for those just starting out.

Don't do business without Janet.

Janet Attard is a familiar name to most people doing business on the Internet, especially on AOL.She has been the force behind the growth of the Business Know-How discussion boards & newsletter. She plans over 70 weekly live chats, as well as compiling thousands of articles, tips, & hints on every aspect of small business you can name.This book begins after you've done all the basic start-up work for your business. There is no discussion of the best legal form for your business to take & you won't find questionnaires to test your entrepreneurial skills. Attard assumes you've passed that point & are ready to go to work.What you will get is insight on topics such as:=> finding suppliers => mailing & shipping strategies => trade show savvy => selling to the government => building a web site without going broke => making cash flow => how to make a big impression on a small budget => using the mail to build business => choosing & using office equipment<p>I must admit that I thought Attard would have nothing new or of interest to me. After all, I've been in business for some time. (egotistical, isn't it?)<p>But, she surprised me with a number of interesting & useful ideas. Briefly, here are a few:<p>=> make use of a CD-ROM phone directory. Attard suggests one called SelectPhone costing about $150. It will allow you to find customers & suppliers. (p. 84)<p>=> ask for an editorial calendar. The editorial calendar briefly lists the types of stories that will be covered each month for the calendar year. Newspapers & magazines plan far ahead for special topic issues. (p 91)<p>=> advertise where your competitors advertise. If your competitors have been advertising for many months in a specific media, their ads are probably working.(p. 104)<p>=> familiarize yourself with advertising laws. Just because you're small doesn't mean you can ignore or avoid complying with laws regulating advertising.(p 120) There follows a page and a half of laws that might trip up a small business owner.<p>=> buy US postage stamps at less than their face value. Buy your stamps from a stamp dealer rather than the post office. Stamp dealers often buy stamps in quantity hoping they will go up in value.(p. 149) I really liked this one and * never * would have thought of it.<p>I could give many more examples, but that wouldn't be fair to Attard, who's obviously put blood & sweat into this book<p>Let me leave you with some more topics of interest:<p>=> using the web ferret for quick web searching => the when & how of yellow page ads => what's a press room & why you want to use it => your trade show toolbox -- what's in it & why => what you should know about credit card fraud<p>You're all getting used to the fact that I'm as much a stickler about the design of a book as I am about content.<p>This book is well laid out, the type is large enough to read easily, & typefaces are consistent through out the book.<p>The few gra

Tackles real-life concerns of small business owners.

Business Know-How tackles all the real-life issues that we small business owners really care about in a straight-forward and sensible way. The chapter on websites, Build and Promote Your Web Site Without Going Broke, is worth the price of the book alone.The author also handles issues many small business books leave out, like Making Cash Flow. As an entrepreneur, I'm always trying to promote my services on a very limited budget yet it is critical that I come across as professional. There are some great tips here on how to do that in ways I feel comfortable with. If you're a small business owner, or thinking about starting a business, Business Know-How has the basics of what you need to know in a format that is both fun to flip through and rewarding to read from cover to cover.

This book is indispensable for home and small businesses!

I got the copy of Business Know-How the other day. What a great book! In fact, within hours after getting it I was on the phone with my accountant asking "Why aren't I doing this? What about this? And what about this?" I wish I would have read this book several years go. I know it would have saved me money--and probably a few hard lessons and aggravations too. I especially like the "Shoestring Marketing Secrets" chapter. This is a great book!