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Description of The Beermat Entrepreneur

"I recommend this book to any aspiring entrepreneur" Charles Dunstone, Founder, Carphone Warehouse. Beermat Entrepreneur became an instant bestseller on publication in 2002. It has helped tens of thousands of people thinking about starting a business to understand how to turn a good idea into a great business. In the three years since Beermat Entrepreneur was originally published, Mike Southon and Chris West have met literally thousands of people at every stage of starting up, from thinking about it through to growing businesses. The experiences and feedback of these people has overwhelming supported the Beermat methodology. In this edition, the authors have distilled the feedback from entrepreneurs to fine tune Beermat so that it offers exactly what entrepreneurs are looking for. The new edition offers more advice on working with a bank to your greatest benefit, more info on how to grow your business, and much needed advice on what to expect and how to handle the 20-plus employee stage.

Title Information

ISBN:

9780273704546

Pages:

192 pages

Format:

Paperback

Product Code:

22909

Publisher:

Prentice Hall

Published:

06/10/2005

Edition:

2nd Revised edition

Press and Industry Reviews

"I recommend this to any aspiring entrepreneur."
- Charles Dunstone, Founder, Carphone Warehouse

'What I really liked about this book was that it was easy to read. There are too many half-finished books by my bed that would have helped get me there years ago if I had just finished them. Yet I read Beermat in just one sitting; I enjoyed the book and related to it. I came out liking the authors and wishing they hadn't retired so they could come and run one of my companies.'
- Simon Woodroffe, Founder of Yo Sushi! in Management Today

‘Mike and Chris understand with unusual clarity what drives a start-up.’
- Tim Smit, Founder, The Eden Project

‘Refreshing and very readable.’
- Richard Donkin, Financial Times

‘This book, for me, says it all… It should become standard reading for all employees, managers and founders of start-up businesses.’
- Professor Sir Christopher Evans OBE, Founder, Merlin Biosciences

‘Provocative, down-to-earth and witty, too – if you’re looking for an antidote to the smoke and mirrors of the dotcom era, this is it!’
- Nayyer Hussain, Co-founder, McGeoch Techonolgy

'The Beermat Entrepreneur is honest and practical, and it works.’ Steve Packard, original publisher of Trivial Pursuit and founder of whereonearth.com‘An embarrassingly accurate picture of entrepreneurs – I went round the office reading out sections, and people laughed out loud.’
- Peter Hall, Founder, The Wadenhoe Consultancy

‘I recommend this book to any aspiring entrepreneur.’
- Charles Dunstone, Founder, Carphone Warehouse

‘It’s all here!’
- Phil Tee, Founder, RiverSoft PLC

'At times provocative but unpretentious, the author challenges the conventional wisdom of other business books on this subject. Passionate about his beliefs, the book is witty and amusing. For example, having discussed the pros and cons of various sources of finance, Southon asks: "Are there any other sources of cash?" and responds: "There's always organised crime, I suppose, but the debt collection methods are a bit radical."

This is a book not just for entrepreneurs. Based on the author's real life experiences at the sharp end and packed full of wisdom and wit, there is much in this book for managers of whatever ilk and their employees to learn and enjoy.'
- Ian MacEacheran FCMI

"...you can only benefit from reading this book. You'll gain valuable advice and knowledge from people who have seen it, done it and bought the T-shirt."
- Evening Standard

"The Beermat Entrepeneur has become a bestseller because it sets out the key stages of a business' growth clearly and describes exactly what needs to be done for it to flourish. Such plain speaking in business books is unfortunately rare."
- EN, Manchester

"Among the many excellent qualities of the Beermat Entrepeneur is its thoroughly practical, no-nonsense, anecdote-free approach...jam packed with solid advice you seldom see in other books."
- Training Journal

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Customer Reviews from Amazon

About Mike Southon and Chris West

Mike Southon is a serially successful entrepreneur. He co-founded The Instruction Set, an open systems consultancy in 1984, and sold the company five years later to what is now Cap Gemini Ernst & Young. Mike has since been involved in seven start-up ventures, responsible for sales and marketing as well as helping to secure funding from venture capitalists. Mike is very active as an independent consultant, and has been a keynote speaker at conferences all over the world for Microsoft, IBM, Novell, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and many others. He has been a visiting lecturer at City Univeristy Business School since 1992. Chris West is a professional writer, with a background in marketing and PR. He has written novels, including the award-nominatedDeath of a Blue Lantern, and non-fiction, including (as co-author) Think like an Entrepreneur. He also teaches business and writing skills. Chris has many years experience of start-ups and small business, and has lectured on the subject in the UK, mainland Europe and the USA.

Contents of The Beermat Entrepreneur

The Beer Mat Entrepreneur begins with a profiling exercise, to see if you really are an entrepreneur or if you are better suited to working with one, as a seedling company 'cornerstone' or as one of the 'Dream Team' in a slightly bigger company. The entrepreneur profile also provides hints on how to work with these difficult but rewarding individuals.

CHAPTER 2 is about the seedling organization. It begins right at the start, with how to spot a bright idea, and takes us along a critical path that will ensure that the idea develops properly into a successful start-up business. Assemble a team with very specific skills and ensure they have equal stakes in the business. Find a mentor for the idea. Build towards a first sale (after which a business plan begins to make sense). Avoid banks, MBAs, consultants and VCs.
All key aspects of running a start-up are covered, as is the transition to...

CHAPTER 3 deals with the bigger, sapling organization. The key to success is assembling and motivating the right team. Also essential are building a sales portfolio, appropriate financing, and channelling creativity (sapling companies can fail by having too many bright ideas). The correct ways to do all these things are covered, as are other basics of building a business at this stage. At the end of the stage, the decision has to be made - do we go for 'the big one' or remain a small, focused 'boutique'? How to make this decision effectively.

CHAPTER 4, about the 'mighty oak' with a booming workforce, is much briefer, as this topic is well covered in existing management books. The key issue here is 'knowing when you've won'. Hint- it's not when your cheque is in the bank. The book also covers business ethics and practical advice on playing 'hard but fair'.