Ready, Fire, Aim: Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat (Agora Series)

I'm a fan of the author and I looked at this book many times before buying it. My problem was that it has always been expensive and I prefer my books in kindle format.I tried the published summary of the book and it convinced me that the author has a powerful message which I really needed to discover in full. So I bought the audio book, enjoyed it so much that I bought the hardback as well.The book sets out to answer two big questions:1) How do you start-up a business from scratch?2) How do you take an established business to the next level?It sets four different stages for the business (which I agree with) but I don't agree with the financial values quoted. I feel they are too big and generally I prefer to think about size in terms of the number of employees. I feel it's a better guide to the complexities involved in managing the business. The book goes on to look at employee numbers but I think there is an inconsistency between revenue and employees.These levels are:1) Infancy - just starting out - getting to $1 million in revenue2) Childhood - the fast growth stage - from $1 million to $10 million3) Adolescence - $10 million to $50 million4) Maturity - $50 million to $300 millionThe book focuses on the main challenge in each stage i.e. getting your first sales, adding more products to become profitable, developing systems and getting the business to run itself and continue to grow.The book was published in 2006 and that's five years before Eric Ries published his book "The Lean Startup". Both have the united theme that the earlier you test your product idea with real customers, the better it will be.Unlike the Ries book, this book focuses o the sales and marketing issues. It argues the entrepreneur must become the expert in selling, to such an extent that sales and marketing should take up 80% of your time. This isn't what many people want to hear but the product and service just need to be "good enough". Don't waste time on perfecting it in your eyes without selling. This is also the message from The Lean Startup where the concept of the Minimum Viable Product is explained.With this in mind, the book explains how to develop your Optimum Selling Strategy (OSS). You just want to know how to sell your particular product in your particular market and you must not spread your learning and activities too widely on too many different marketing and selling techniques.The Optimum Selling Strategy is based on answering four questions:1) Where are you going to find your customers?2) What product will you sell them first?3) How much will you charge for it?4) How will you convince them to buy?This is the vital task in the first stage, infancy. Moving on to Childhood or the fast growth stage, the challenge is to identify, develop and sell more products. These two stages are were the vast majority of the text is focused. This is getting the business established and consistently profitable.The author has interesting ideas in the Adolescence stage too but the final stage is glossed over in a few pages.This is a great book and I recommend it very highly. I very much approve of the emphasis it puts on sales and marketing. As management guru Peter Drucker said, there is only one purpose of a business and that's to create customers. Quite simply, without customers there isn't a business.There are some excellent marketing books available to read but too often they encourage you to try too many techniques too quickly. Once you have one method working, I certainly believe you should add a few more but getting that first method is critical.Many of the stories from the book come from the author's experience in information marketing. He is one of the people behind the remarkably successful Agora publishing empire. However the concepts explained apply much more widely.Paul Simister helps frustrated business owners who are stuck, get unstuck.

This is quite simply one of the best business books I've ever read.Anyone who achieves the kind of results the author has, successively, obviously knows what he's doing, and has something worthwhile to share.In the book the author reveals his key principle. In fact, it's in the title on the jacket too.The basic premise is that so many business owners waste months (or even years) fine-tuning their products and services, trying to get them 'perfect' before making them available to their customers and prospects.whereas the author's "Ready, Fire, Aim" approach is to just get on with it. Launch your new product or service despite it's imperfections, then get live feedback from the only people whose feedback really matter... actual paying customers and clients.Then you can (if necessary) refine and relaunch version two of the product, based on what your paying customers actually want rather than what non-paying customers -- or your 'gut feeling' -- has suggested.In an nutshell I wish I'd read this back in 2005 when I started writing my first book... and I wouldn't have spent three years writing it.I highly recommend this book, especially if you're in the process of launching a new product or service but "it's taking a lot longer than expected because it's not ready yet".If it has the same effect on you as it did for me then this book could spur you to stop procrastinating (another word for perfectionism), get to market faster, and get feedback *and* cash rolling sooner rather than later.

What a delightful book. The wealth of knowledge, experience and wisdom of Michael Masterson leap out at you from every page. There are no wasted words here; just pure gold. He imparts all of this in the manner of an older sibling, with genuine care, trying to pass on the most important information and always straight to the point.Every type of business, at any stage, can benefit immensely from this book and I can't recommend it highly enough.You'll save thousands of dollars, and precious time, avoiding the most common pitfalls, very quickly ascertain the viability of your ideas/products/services, how to upscale and expand when you find your winner.This book is a complete attitude changer and gave me a much larger vision. Delivered with friendly humility, the reader is treated as an equal by an astounding achiever. Even if it isn't your goal to reach $100 million, or more, the blue print and principles are laid out right in front of you by a man who has done it over and over. It becomes no longer a matter of whether or not you can, but if you want to.I have devoured dozens of books in this field, but this one is priceless. Full of practical measures that you can implement immediately, you will be thrilled that you made this purchase.

I liked the emphasis on selling should be your first priority so simple but often its one of the down the list things which easily get overlooked or not as important as other things, such as better quality better equipment etc.Without sales you do not have a business as cashflow is so important in the early stages just this first chapter alone has been an eye opener and worth the price of the book, I'm still going through but I've already paid for the price of this book a few times over already just from the information from these first few chapters alone.Worth it!!!!!

Se você busca por um livro que vá te dar as orientações necessárias para você alcançar seu próximo nível financeiro, esse é o livro certo

Un livre qui s'étudie. Intéressant et motivant. Super clair et simplifié.

Dieses Buch ist meiner Meinung nach ein absolutes Muss für Unternehmer, sowohl für Anfänger als auch für Fortgeschrittene. Es bietet einen klaren und strukturierten Schritt-für-Schritt-Ansatz, um erfolgreich die ersten Millionen zu verdienen.Für Anfänger ist dieses Buch ein unschätzbares Werkzeug, da es die komplexen Konzepte des Unternehmertums in verständliche und gut erklärte Schritte aufbricht. Es bietet praktische Ratschläge und zeigt, wie man von Null auf eine Million kommt.Aber das Beste an diesem Buch ist, dass es nicht nur für Anfänger geeignet ist. Selbst Fortgeschrittene können von den tiefgreifenden Erkenntnissen und Strategien profitieren, die es bietet, um Geschäfte auf die nächste Stufe zu heben.Die klare und lehrreiche Art, wie der Autor die Prinzipien vermittelt, macht es zu einem wertvollen Ressourcenpunkt für jeden Unternehmer. Ich kann dieses Buch uneingeschränkt empfehlen, und es sollte in der Bibliothek eines jeden ernsthaften Geschäftsmannes oder jeder Geschäftsfrau zu finden sein.

L’impaginazione non permette una lettura agevole

Este es uno de los mejorea libros para emprendedorea que hay, te explica como antes de eatar listo debea hacer las cosas, ya que si esperamos a tener todo en orden ya es muy tarde.