How to start your business with no investors or debt (Download)

Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 05/11/2008 - 18:46.

Convert your passion into financial reward. Crisp writing full of examples of those who succeeded in starting their business with minimal funds. Lots of innovative ideas and practical strategies:
- Stowe defines business as "solving problems profitably." Focusing on solving a problem is key to launching a successful business.
- People who strive for purely for money are prone to fail - Stowe's book leads you through the process of self-discovery and reassessment so that you pursue your passion while helping others solve a problem.
- While most books center in writing a business plan, Stowe advises developing a "personal entrepreneurs plan" that incorporates the process of converting YOUR intellectual capital into financial capital.
- Successful people enjoy what they do - "How many successful people hate what they do?" That is why the first several chapters are designed to help the reader create an "intellectual inventory" including likes and dislikes and life-style choices. There is no point in pursuing a business opportunity that isn't fulfilling and exciting.

The second portion of the book develops an entrepreneurial approach to marketing. "Word of mouth" is an outcome and not a strategy for marketing. A true marketing system is a set of activities that can be followed by those who "hate sales" that results in creating new customers. Having such a documented system adds value to the business by offering a buyer of the business a solution to the most vexing and unappealing aspect of owning a business: selling! The last third of the book present Stowe's innovative approaches to building value into a firm, innovative approaches to personnel, and minimizing legal exposure, and exit strategies to realize true wealth.

Each chapter contains "assignments" which are designed to lead the reader to building their own "personal entrepreneurs plan" while introducing innovative perspectives on business and success. The core of the book has been used for over 20 years in teaching entrepreneurship.

The author, Charles R. B. Stowe has been a corporate officer of entrepreneurial firms, a venture capitalist for 15 years, and is currently, Dean, College of Business and Public Affairs, Lander University in Greenwood, South Carolina. He also serves as consultant to entrepreneurial firms including EdPubTech! He spent 26 years at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas where he founded the first four-year, two year Entrepreneurship Institute in the State of Texas and founded the SHSU Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Stowe earned his BA from Vanderbilt University, MBA from University of Dallas, JD from University of Houston and became the first American to earn a Ph.D from Warsaw University School of Management in Poland. He retired with 30 years service as a Captain, Public Affairs Officer, US Navy.