How to Make Big Money in Your Own Small Business: Unexpected Rules Every Small Business Owner Needs to Know

by Jeffrey J. Fox

Book Overview

Ever dream of starting your own business? According to USA Today , more than 47 million people want to own their own businesses and over 20 million actually do. In How to Make Big Money in Your Own... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786868252
• ISBN13: 9780786868254
• Release Date: May 2004
• Publisher: Hachette Books
• Length: 150 Pages
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 7.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

If Your in Your Own Business, Read This Book

Jeffrey Fox writes the best how-to manuals out there. The problem is many people see his books more as entertaining advice instead of steadfast instruction. Read this book as a how-to. Develop ACTION steps with each chapter. Take notes in the margins, highlight key points. Then, follow the action steps you created from Jeffrey Fox's ideas. You will be better in your small business the very next day if you follow the sage advice in this book.

Another winner from Jeffrey J. Fox!

Jeffrey J. Fox wrote one of my favorite marketing books of all time, HOW TO BECOME A RAINMAKER . . . so when I saw his latest effort, HOW TO MAKE BIG MONEY IN YOUR OWN SMALL BUSINESS, I just had to get hold of it--and devour all 150 too brief pages in one sitting. Fox has advice here for those starting a business, as well as those who want to stay that way; i.e., in business . . . he shows you in clear language how to "outfox the competition," and he makes it surpassingly simple. But the REAL key is what he writes in his very last paragraph: "You don't need a lot of things to start a business . . . but you must have one thing. You must have a customer. Go get that customer." There were several other useful tidbits of information; among them: Your business exists for only three reasons: to solve a customer's problem, or to make a customer feel good, or both. There are no other reasons for your company to exist. It is every single employee's job, in any company, to directly or indirectly get and keep customers. So, if you are the only employee in your company, as is often the case, your job is to sell your company's products or services . . . to solve the customer's problem or to make the customer feel good. You are responsible for generating 100 percent of your company's revenues. You are your company's rainmaker! Boys and girls who worked as paperboys have an edge. So, too do boys and girls who have worked as caddies, cow milkers, lawn mowers, snow shovelers, babysitters, food servers, crop pickers, dishwashers, grocery baggers. Good child labor produces good adult employees. Customers love getting a little extra. Customers love doing business with companies that are full of fun surprises. Be like the hairdressing salon in Farmington, Connecticut, that lets each customer leave with a single red rose. The pharmacist who calls a mother to inquire about her child's fever stands out, and gets all of that mom's prescriptions. That's marketing. That's loving your customers, loving your company, and building your business.

Highly Recommended!

People start small businesses for many reasons. Sometimes they're in love with the product - they've always wanted to open a store where amateur potters could buy great mud. Sometimes they've been itching to run free from life in a big corporation and finally quit to start their own shop. Sometimes they get a pink slip and a bit of severance pay, and can't find another job, so they decide to start their own business. Whatever the reason, small business owners encounter some common problems. People who are in love with a product may forget how important customers are. People who've worked for a big corporation may not realize how many support services they have learned to take for granted. People who've run their small business for years may get in a rut and miss opportunities to grow. Author Jeffrey J. Fox's short, easy-to-read handbook of pithy counsel is for all of them. While his brightly-written advice sounds fresher than it is, we find it well worth remembering.

* * Buy for your business friends * *

Although some have criticized this book as being too simple, I find it makes a great summary of the important things a small entrepreneur must do.It doesn't take too long to read but it contains lots of practical advice. I underlined mine heavily. This book is also appropriate as a gift to friends that are starting their own company.The most important points that I derived from this book were Fox's lists of things to do, and their priorities. I highly recommend this book, and all the rest by Jeffrey J. Fox. He's become one of my favorite business writers.John DunbarSugar Land, TX

How to Make Big Money in Your Own Small Business by Fox

The author explains that the first and most important task is toidentify quickly the target market of customers. Next, it is critical to compute the break-even-point and the minimum number of customers required to cover the costs of entering into thebusiness. Ultimately, the author inspires us to do what comes easy to us and what is harder for others to do. He breaks down the time commitment into 60% marketing, 30% service and 10% management. In addition, he points out the necessity to work hardon a consistent basis.