Showing posts with label business. Show all posts
Showing posts with label business. Show all posts

The Richest Man in Town: The Twelve Commandments of Wealth Review

The Richest Man in Town: The Twelve Commandments of Wealth
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The Richest Man in Town: The Twelve Commandments of Wealth ReviewHave you noticed that almost no one ever seems to ask the rich about the subject they know best?
No, on the "Fiddler on the Roof" theory --- "When you're rich, they think you really know" --- the rich get to sound off on all manner of topics outside their expertise. We're regularly served their views on inheritance taxes, wars, medical research and the arts. What's harder to ferret out: what they know about becoming and staying rich.
Randy Jones --- W. Randall Jones to you, but I once worked for him when he was the publisher (and founder) of Worth Magazine --- got interested in money when he was a kid in Georgia. As far as I can tell, he has amassed piles of it. In addition to the duplex in Manhattan, there's a house in Westchester. I doubt his kids have ever been shamed by clothes from The Gap. And his wife needed an operation on her earlobes a while back, thanks to decades of wearing earrings encrusted with massive diamonds. (No. Not really. But you get the idea.)
A few years ago, Jones decided to write a book about his favorite obsession: how you make money. In 'The Richest Man in Town: The Twelve Commandments of Wealth', he crisscrosses America to interview a slew of self-made millionaires. (Actually, the poorest of the people he interviews has at least $100 million.) Then he divides their knowledge into buckets --- "the twelve commandments of wealth".
It's a simple structure. It's a simple book. There's almost nothing here that you haven't read, heard or thought before.
So why aren't you rich rich rich?
For one thing, you may be confused. "It's good to be rich" is not the same as "Greed is good", but because so many of the visible rich are selfish bastards who would greatly benefit from a stunning increase in the tax rate, it's easy to think that wealth and bad values go hand in hand. "Yeah, I'll have no money worries if I get rich," you think. "But I'll also be a jerk."
Not so, Jones says. Wealth is the byproduct of worthy activity. It's what happens when you perform a useful service or make a decent product, then market it aggressively and treat customers decently. It's about Right Livelihood, not pursuit of money. Sharks may score big for a while, say Jones and his interviewees, but over the long haul it's the good people who win biggest.
And good people don't put "success" and "wealth" in the same sentence. They measure success by satisfaction: their pleasure in the enterprise they've created, in the work they do each day, in their families and their causes. The high life in the big city? Most shudder at the prospect --- they're still living in their hometowns.
Each chapter in "The Richest Man in Town" is peppered with anecdotes, and they serve that chapter's commandment. Don't work for other people. Trust yourself. Be obsessive. (Robert Stiller sold his first company --- he made EZ Wider "cigarette" papers --- and started Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, which required him to use every dollar he ever made and go out to sell the product himself.) Early work experience gives you a solid work ethic. (Your kid is 14 and still going to summer camp?) Education matters; Harvard doesn't. Take care of your health.
A lot of kids will be given this book for graduation, birthdays and holidays. Good. They'll get something out of it. And so will Randy Jones, who not only has made a very good product here but made very sure I got a copy.
The Richest Man in Town: The Twelve Commandments of Wealth OverviewSecretly, if not overtly, almost everyone in America desires to become rich: to make it big, to enjoy the fruits of the most successful life imaginable. But unfortunately, most of us don't have a clue how to reach these all too elusive goals. Quite simply, there's no definitive road map for getting there, no proven plan, and certainly very little access to those who have become "the richest man in town."But now W. Randall Jones, the founder of Worth magazine, is about to change all that. He's traveled to one hundred different towns and cities across the country and interviewed the wealthiest resident in each. No, these are not those folks who inherited their wealth, or happen to be a CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Rather, these are the self-made types who, through hard work and ingenuity, found their own individual paths to financial success.Remarkably, during his research, Jones found that these successful people were not so different from one another. They all shared many of the same traits and followed what the author calls the Twelve Commandments of Wealth: stay hungry (even when you're successful) . . . you really do learn more from failing than you may think . . . absolutely be your own boss, the sooner the better . . . understand that selling is the key to success . . . where you live doesn't matter . . . never retire, and other, more surprising revelations. Practical, unique, and inspiring, this book lets you peek inside the living rooms of dozens of America's most successful people-and shows how you, too, can become THE RICHEST MAN IN TOWN.

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My Personal Best : Life Lessons from an All-American Journey Review

My Personal Best : Life Lessons from an All-American Journey
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My Personal Best : Life Lessons from an All-American Journey ReviewA little background on John Wooden: he coached the UCLA Bruins to 10 national basketball titles in 12 years . . . even if you're not a hoops fan, imagine any team--high school, college or pro--ever doing that, and you'll realize that it's virtually an impossible task . . .yet Wooden managed to accomplish it, at times with such great players as Kareem Abdul Jabbar (then Lew Alcindor) and Bill Walton; at other times with guys you probably never even heard about.
So that's why I jumped at the chance to read MY PERSONAL BEST:
LIFE LESSONS FROM AN ALL-AMERICAN JOURNEY that Wooden wrote with Steve Jamison . . . it was excellent and a "must" read for any sports fan, coach or parent of an athlete . . . adding to my enjoyment were rare, never-before-seen pictures from Wooden's private collection.
You might not learn anything that you haven't heard before, but that's much of what made Wooden such a great coach--and man . . . he stuck to the basics, believing that if his players practiced them, they would succeed . . . no detail was considered insignificant; for example, he
planned practices down to the exact minute on three-by-five inch cards and in notebooks "so there was never any standing around waiting for something to happen."
He also was a big believer in the use of maxims and mottos, tacking them on the bulletin board . . . among them:
Discipline yourself and others won't have to,
Respect every opponent but fear none,
The best way to improve your team is to improve yourself,
Do not mistake activity for achievement,
It is amazing how much we can accomplish when non one cares
who gets the credit, and
Time spent getting even would be better spent getting ahead.
As Wooden notes, "Some might say these are corny expressions, but I believe the messages they contain are true and have a positive impact on those who read them."
My Personal Best : Life Lessons from an All-American Journey Overview
NATIONAL BESTSELLER

For John Wooden's millions of fans--a heartfelt and revealing self-portrait about the people and events that shaped his life

Sports Illustrated declared: "There has never been a finer coach in American sports than John Wooden. Nor a finer man." ESPN selected him as the "Greatest Coach of the 20th Century." From his birth on an Indiana tenant farm, to All-American honors at Purdue, to his historic record-setting UCLA dynasty, John Wooden is a towering figure in 20th-century sports, and his experience and wisdom an American treasure. In My Personal Best, Coach Wooden tells how he did it and the lessons he learned on his remarkable journey.

Pairing never-before-seen photos from Coach Wooden's private collection with his personal stories and affirmations, this book encompasses the dramatic arc of Wooden's larger-than-life achievements and experiences. As he did in his perpetual bestseller Wooden, Coach offers a wealth of biographical details, personal reflections, and a lifetime of lessons. His millions of fans will cherish this definitive pictorial history of a living sports legend.

"John Wooden is a living legend because he practiced what he preached--the code of ethics which created America's strength."--Phil Jackson, head coach, Los Angeles Lakers

"Most of what I know, what's made me a smart man, has come from John Wooden."--Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer

"A man of John Wooden's accomplishments and integrity would stand out in any era, but now, almost three decades after he coached his last game, he is in some ways an even more striking figure."--Bob Costas


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Security Analysis: Principles and Techniques Review

Security Analysis: Principles and Techniques
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Security Analysis: Principles and Techniques ReviewIf you have read The Intelligent Investor, and want a text that will expand and delve deeper into fundamental analysis, this book is for you. The separation between this book, and books similar in content, is the fact that Graham shows examples of his applied techniques. The book is broken down into two main sections, fixed value investments(bonds, preferred stocks, ect.) and common stock analysis/selection. He takes you step by step through income statement and balance sheet analysis. Graham is wary of coporate reports, especially when it comes to earnings, and points out coporate trickery to watch out for and avoid. The topics are detailed, and the exaples extensively researched. Overall, Security Analysis is a mixture of art and scienece that lays a timeless foundation for financial analysis.Security Analysis: Principles and Techniques Overview
"Graham's ideas inspired the investment community for nearly a century."--Smart Money

"Graham's method of investing is as relevant today as it was when he first espoused it during the Roaring Twenties."--Investor's Business Daily

Benjamin Graham's revolutionary theories have influenced and inspired investors for nearly 70 years. First published in 1934, his Security Analysis is still considered to be the value investing bible for investors of every ilk. Yet, it is the second edition of that book, published in 1940 and long since out of print, that many experts--including Graham protégé Warren Buffet--consider to be the definitive edition. This facsimile reproduction of that seminal work makes available to investors, once again, the original thinking of "this century's (and perhaps history's) most important thinker on applied portfolio investment."


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Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool's Guide to Surviving with Grace Review

Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool's Guide to Surviving with Grace
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Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool's Guide to Surviving with Grace ReviewThis book deserves more than five stars.
Although I have read many excellent books about nurturing creativity and working creatively in companies, this is the first book I have read where the author has been someone who has done that repeatedly and in a variety of ways. That perspective is uniquely valuable both to those who want to have more creative jobs and those who would like to encourage creativity.
Although the analogies seem far-fetched at first (orbiting the giant hairball means taking a creative tangent and refocusing it to have relevance for the company's purpose), they serve to open your mind to thinking differently about creativity and organizations.
Although the author's key points are not summarized anywhere in the book, you will begin to get a sense of how the ideas connect together. That's useful, because otherwise why should he try to teach us so much? Except in the chapter that deals with them, any of the key observations would have been enough for a whole book on the subject. The overall theme is that our minds are subject to being too quickly anesthetized, rather than stimulated to ground-breaking insights. You'll love the story about hypnotizing hens where he introduces that concept.
One of my favorite stories in the book described when the author was asked to create an introductory course on creativity. The first session was wildly successful. The author then analyzed why it worked and created a more organized version of this course (called Grope). That sesssion didn't work as well. Then he went back to being unstructured (operating at the edge of chaos), and the course worked again. He learned from this the delicate connection between groping and rote. You need more of the former and less of the latter.
Another of my favorite stories related to the joy he experienced when he first started parachuting. But within six months, it was getting to be boring. He could only make it more exciting by taking the parachute off, but that would be suicide. On the other hand, if he never tried something new, he would be vegatating. So we want to stay somewhere between suicide and vegetation for the most effective results.
You will enjoy reading this book because it presents a fresh perspective that will stay with you. The successful point of entry is a story about children. When the author shows children about making sculpture from sheets of steel, he asks them if they are creative. All first graders raise their hands. By sixth grade, no one will say that they are creative. The pressure to be like everyone else makes the creative people want to hide. It just gets worse from there. Everyone who reads that story will remember experiences from childhood where their creativity was actively discouraged by teachers, parents, neighbors and classmates. Such a pity!
Each story is imaginatively illustrated to help you get a sense of a different reality. It also makes the material more accessible to people of all ages.
In addition to reading and changing your own behavior, this book should be shared with young people to reinforce the idea that it is desirable to be creative. This would be a good book to discuss with your coworkers, as well.
Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool's Guide to Surviving with Grace OverviewCreativity is crucial to business success. But too often, even the most innovative organization quickly becomes a "giant hairball"--a tangled, impenetrable mass of rules, traditions, and systems, all based on what worked in the past--that exercises an inexorable pull into mediocrity. Gordon McKenzie worked at Hallmark Cards for thirty years, many of which he spent inspiring his colleagues to slip the bonds of Corporate Normalcy and rise to orbit--to a mode of dreaming, daring and doing above and beyond the rubber-stamp confines of the administrative mind-set. In his deeply funny book, exuberantly illustrated in full color, he shares the story of his own professional evolution, together with lessons on awakening and fostering creative genius. Originally self-published and already a business "cult classic", this personally empowering and entertaining look at the intersection between human creativity and the bottom line is now widely available to bookstores. It will be a must-read for any manager looking for new ways to invigorate employees, and any professional who wants to achieve his or her best, most self-expressive, most creative and fulfilling work.

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Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon Review

Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon
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Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon ReviewI have long admired Gretchen Morgenson and cheered when she was awarded a Pulitzer. Perhaps this book in conjunction with her hard-hitting NY Times reporting will garner her another one. She deserves it. The authors echo my sentiments precisely in their introduction "...felt compelled to write this book because we are angry that the American economy was almost wrecked by a crowd of self-interested, politically influential and arrogant people who have not been held accountable for their actions." And the people who did it "...continue, even now, to hold sway in the corridors of Wall Street and Washington."
I have nothing against the vastly wealthy and sometimes - OK, frequently - dream wistfully of joining their ranks, but I do care about how this wealth is accumulated. Entrepreneurs who build companies, executives who take these companies to the next level and the one after that, highly talented and gifted persons - in arts and sports - who command premium remuneration all enrich society. Many financial titans, on the other hand, do not create wealth. They are unusually adept in extracting it for personal gain while simultaneously impoverishing society and holding it hostage. They operate on the principle that "My gain is mine and only mine. My loss is actually yours." And they know how to spread enough largesse that enablers like accountants, rating agencies and regulators fall into line and they buy off politicians with consummate skill. They try - increasingly ineffectively - to justify their existence by claiming that they perform crucial service by "allocating capital" and "increasing efficiency." They further claim that they should not be regulated because they can do a better job of regulating themselves. The fish is starting to stink pretty bad.
What makes this book a valuable read is that the authors explain exactly how this process works and they are not shy about naming names. For example, you learn how James Johnson, the erstwhile CEO of Fannie Mae built it into a colossus that gradually jettisoned all prudence in lending and vastly enriched himself and a bunch of cronies. He also suborned powerful legislators like Barney Frank, the powerful Massachusetts Democrat. And, lastly, he looked on and encouraged Wall Street firms to do the same and used that as justification to increase the scale of his own operations. And, Oh! I almost forgot, he also admonished fresh graduates to pursue their careers with "honesty and integrity". When Johnson left Fannie Mae, a senior executive recalled "...we always won, we took no prisoners and we faced little organized political opposition." He continued to be politically influential and was an adviser to the current president until forced to resign because it surfaced that he had received sweetheart loans from a leading purveyor of toxic financial junk.
Did you ever feel that "You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" is the norm on Wall Street? Consider this: Stephen Friedman, former CEO of Goldman Sachs was a director of Fannie Mae when the directors improperly allowed company executives to set earnings targets that they could meet. Federal investigators concluded that "As a direct result, senior management reaped ongoing and extensive financial rewards through accounting manipulation." Johnson was then inducted to the board of Goldman Sachs - when Hank Paulson became CEO - and promptly made chair of the compensation committee. He dispensed some of the richest paychecks on Wall Street and these became the norm as other firms played catch-up. In fact, Johnson chaired the compensation committees of every board he sat on.
Angelo Mozilo, founder and CEO of Countrywide, was a good friend of Johnson's and used his methods to grow the cancer that was Countrywide. The company made it a policy to give sweetheart loans to persons in power - these VIP loans were informally known as Friends of Angelo loans. Richard Holbrooke got such a loan. So did Senators Chris Dodd, Kent Conrad and Barbara Boxer. So did Donna Shalala, former head of Health and Human Services and Alfonso Jackson, secretary of HUD. And Countrywide hired sons and daughters and relatives of the influential and made sure that they were not fired during mass layoffs. Do you think it is possible, just barely possible, that these policies are what enabled that tumor to grow so large without surgery even being considered?
There were people who tried to stem the disastrous tide such as Mark Kohodes the money manager who shared damaging information about NovaStar - a Countrywide clone - with the SEC to no avail. And Armando Falcon, the regulator who tried to rein in Fannie Mae and was bludgeoned for his pains. And William Brennan of the Atlanta Legal Aid who drafted tough anti-predatory-lending legislation and then had it go nowhere.
This book will make you well informed. It will also make you sad because not much has changed in the system and the same players are still active. Can someone please tell me why we "respect" these CEOs instead of crossing the street when we see them coming our way?
Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon OverviewThe New York Times's Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist reveals how the financial meltdown emerged from the toxic interplay of Washington, Wall Street, and corrupt mortgage lenders.In Reckless Endangerment, Gretchen Morgenson, the star business columnist of The New York Times, exposes how the watchdogs who were supposed to protect the country from financial harm were actually complicit in the actions that finally blew up the American economy. Drawing on previously untapped sources and building on original research from coauthor Joshua Rosner—who himself raised early warnings with the public and investors, and kept detailed records—Morgenson connects the dots that led to this fiasco. Morgenson and Rosner draw back the curtain on Fannie Mae, the mortgage-finance giant that grew, with the support of the Clinton administration, through the 1990s, becoming a major opponent of government oversight even as it was benefiting from public subsidies. They expose the role played not only by Fannie Mae executives but also by enablers at Countrywide Financial, Goldman Sachs, the Federal Reserve, HUD, Congress, the FDIC, and the biggest players on Wall Street, to show how greed, aggression, and fear led countless officials to ignore warning signs of an imminent disaster. Character-rich and definitive in its analysis, this is the one account of the financial crisis you must read.

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Complex Justice: The Case of Missouri v. Jenkins Review

Complex Justice: The Case of Missouri v. Jenkins
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Complex Justice: The Case of Missouri v. Jenkins Review is about a relatively recent but little remembered (unless you happen to have been a Kansas City, MO or Missouri taxpayer) case in which a federal judge took control of a large city's school system to bring black students' test scores up to the level of white students'. Though he (1) ordered Kansas City, MO taxes to be raised, (2) diverted Missouri state taxes to the Kansas City (MO) School District, and (3), caused around two BILLION dollars to be spent to "upgrade" the school system which served mostly black students, the results were zero. It was a waste of 2 BILLION dollars by a federal court which thought it had all of the answers about how to raise black test scores -- and which didn't mind going through 2 BILLION dollars of taxpayers' money like a drunk at the racetrack in the losing gamble on an impossible result..
If the court and its "experts" had read massive psychological data on record at the time, they would have known that test scores depend on IQ which is (1), largely inherited and cannot be raised significantly, and (2), that black IQ in the U.S. is around 15 points (1 standard deviation) lower than white IQ on the bell curve. A good argument can be made that the court and its so-called experts were grossly negligent in taking the actions they took.
Joshua Dunn, author of did an excellent job in putting the account of the case, Missouri v. Jenkins, clearly and succinctly into book form easily understood by anyone having the sense to read it. This book is unlikely to be a best seller because it is not the type to attract a wide audience. Never mind. If you are attracted to read this review, you have enough brains to read and understand this excellent account of why central governments and high courts should never be trusted to legislate/decide morality and spend public money in useless attempts to remake society.
Thank you Joshua Dunn for your work in writing an excellent book about a shameful episode in U.S. legal history.Complex Justice: The Case of Missouri v. Jenkins OverviewIn 1987 Judge Russell Clark mandated tax increases to help pay for improvements to the Kansas City, Missouri, School District in an effort to lure white students and quality teachers back to the inner-city district. Yet even after increasing employee salaries and constructing elaborate facilities at a cost of more than $2 billion, the district remained overwhelmingly segregated and student achievement remained far below national averages.
Just eight years later the U.S. Supreme Court began reversing these initiatives, signifying a major retreat from Brown v. Board of Education. In Kansas City, African American families opposed to the district court's efforts organized a takeover of the school board and requested that the court case be closed. Joshua Dunn argues that Judge Clark's ruling was not the result of tyrannical "judicial activism" but was rather the logical outcome of previous contradictory Supreme Court doctrines. High Court decisions, Dunn explains, necessarily limit the policy choices available to lower court judges, introducing complications the Supreme Court would not anticipate. He demonstrates that the Kansas City case is a model lesson for the types of problems that develop for lower courts in any area in which the Supreme Court attempts to create significant change. Dunn's exploration of this landmark case deepens our understanding of when courts can and cannot successfully create and manage public policy.

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Managing The Professional Service Firm Review

Managing The Professional Service Firm
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Managing The Professional Service Firm ReviewIf you have ever worked in, been a partner or managed a consultancy firm, this book will not only answer a lot of your troubling questions, it will also explain matters that you did not know the questions to - just the obnoxious frustration of something that was not working.
It is with incredible ease, yet depth and understanding that David H. Maister plough through the important issues that concerns not only managing partners in a consultant company, but anyone who wants to climb up the ladder. He explains why you got to balance your workcrew (juniors up to partners) and why it is so vitally important to mix people on the right combination of projects (brains, grey hair and procedure projects) as this builds up the firm's human capital, and provides the means and profitability to continue to grow steadily. I could go on but space does not allow me to. This book is not filled with theoritical babble but practical and useful information, no - knowledge and experience!
The book is divided into seven parts (personal highlights inside brackets): basic matters, client matters (quality work does not mean quality service!), people matters (building human capital, the motivation crises), management matters (creating a strategy), partnership matters (the art of parner compensation), multisite matters (the collaborative firm, hunters and farmers, etc.) and asset management. All in all it comprises of 32 chapters.
You won't find many books that explains service business any better than this one. I know because I went searching.Managing The Professional Service Firm OverviewFor the first time in paperback, international expert and consultant David Maister offers a brilliant and accessible guide to every management issue at play in professional firms. Professional firms differ from other business enterprises in two distinct ways: first, they provide highly customized services and thus cannot apply many of the management principles developed for product-based industries. Second, professional services are highly personalized, involving the skills of individuals. Such firms must therefore compete not only for clients but also for talented professionals. Drawing on more than ten years of research and consulting to these unique and creative companies, David Maister explores issues ranging from marketing and business development to multinational strategies, human resources policies to profit improvement, strategic planning to effective leadership. While these issues can be complex. Maister simplifies them by recognizing that "every professional service firm in the world, regardless of size, specific profession, or country of operation, has the same mission statement: outstanding service to clients, satisfying careers for its people, and financial success for its owners."

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Statistical Engineering: An Algorithm for Reducing Variation in Manufacturing Processes Review

Statistical Engineering: An Algorithm for Reducing Variation in Manufacturing Processes
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Statistical Engineering: An Algorithm for Reducing Variation in Manufacturing Processes ReviewThis is NOT a typical book on statistical tools. It is a strategy book on how to search for cost-effective changes to reduce variation using empirical means (i.e. observation and experiment). The uniqueness of this book:
(1) Summarizes the seven ways to reduce variation so we know the goal of the data gathering and analysis
(2) Present analysis results using graphs instead of P-value.
(3) It integrates Taguchi, Shainin methods and classical statistical approach.
It is a must read for those who are in the business of reducing variation using data, in particular for the Six Sigma Black Belts and Master Black Belts. Don't forget to read the solutions to exercises and supplementary materials to each chapter on the enclosed CD-ROM.Statistical Engineering: An Algorithm for Reducing Variation in Manufacturing Processes OverviewReducing the variation in process outputs is a key part of process improvement. For mass produced components and assemblies, reducing variation can simultaneously reduce overall cost, improve function and increase customer satisfaction with the product.The authors have structured this book around an algorithm for reducing process variation that they call "Statistical Engineering." The algorithm is designed to solve chronic problems on existing high to medium volume manufacturing and assembly processes. The fundamental basis for the algorithm is the belief that we will discover cost effective changes to the process that will reduce variation if we increase our knowledge of how and why a process behaves as it does. A key way to increase process knowledge is to learn empirically, that is, to learn by observation and experimentation.The authors discuss in detail a framework for planning and analyzing empirical investigations, known by its acronym QPDAC (Question, Plan, Data, Analysis, Conclusion). They classify all effective ways to reduce variation into seven approaches. A unique aspect of the algorithm forces early consideration of the feasibility of each of the approaches.Benefits:The CD-ROM included contains case studies, chapter exercises, chapter supplements, and six appendices.

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The Complete Idiot's Guide to Starting and Running a Coffee Bar Review

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Starting and Running a Coffee Bar
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The Complete Idiot's Guide to Starting and Running a Coffee Bar ReviewOne of the things that struck me most about this book is that it seems perfectly balanced. By this I mean that it covers all the general business angles of running a coffee bar, but it never loses sight of its coffee-oriented focus. While there's certainly plenty of information that people running other businesses would find useful in here, you'll never find yourself thinking that you could have gotten the same information out of a more generic business or restaurant business guide. Everything focuses on the particular application of principles to the unique issues and problems that face the owner and operator of a coffee bar. Even when discussing cross-promotion and various forms of publicity the book discusses things that are likely to work best with your products and services.
You won't just find information in here on business plans, licensing issues, equipment, suppliers, staffing, and publicity however. There are guides to roasting beans (in case you want to create your own blends, or just want to understand what you're buying), creating a wide variety of coffee drinks and related treats, and cultivating repeat customers.
In addition to the vast wealth of information, the attitude with which this book was written is fantastic. It's practical yet positive, realistic yet optimistic. It livens things up with a dry wit yet never allows the humor to get in the way of the information it's trying to convey. It will make you excited about even topics like marketing your business without ever coming across as empty cheerleading.
I quite enjoyed reading this book, and have to firmly remind myself after reading it that no, I really am not the kind of person who can go out and start such a business. Because after reading all of this handy and fascinating information, the prospect is delightfully tempting!The Complete Idiot's Guide to Starting and Running a Coffee Bar OverviewBrew up your own business. This is a step-by-step guide to realizing what for many people is a cherished dream: opening a successful coffee bar. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Starting and Running a Coffee Bar includes the dirt on what it's really like to work behind the counter and information on everything from how to build a business plan, to how to make the drinks and how to price them. -Only series book of its kind -The specialty coffee business is still growing -Small businesses create 7 out of 10 new jobs in America -Susan Gilbert has started and run five successful coffee bars

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