Resources for Entrepreneurs

Introduction to the Book 

  This book is for entrepreneurs already in business who want to maximize their profits and create exceptional results for themselves, their family, and their employees. You might be the owner of a service-based company bidding on one project at a time, an artist with creative product outputs, or a manufacturer with forty employees ready to create a new profit center, but you are not a large enterprise. You are like millions of Americans who chose to start a business because you have a technical skill or an interest in something you thought you could develop into a living, and like most entrepreneurs you left out the planning and opened your doors believing your enthusiasm would be enough. You gained a certain level of prosperity through hard work and determination but now face increasing difficulties and need effective methods for managing your effort.

  You may have purchased this book because you feel these difficulties undermining your success but see no clear path to a stable future. You may find yourself in a crisis, a marginally profitable concern, or an expansion. If you’re in a crisis, you may be heavily in debt, short of cash, and losing customers to the competition; if you are in a marginally profitable period or an expansion, you may be uncertain what actions will assure success. The workshops and books entrepreneurs choose as a solution for their difficulties are usually business-planning guides that are well intentioned but present problem solving in absolutely the wrong order, an order that my slow the progress of your existing business. 

Business-planning books assume you are not in business yet.

This book assumes you Are.

   Once you start seeing customers, your methods must change, even if it’s your opening day.

  With that in mind, SUCCEED!™ begins with measures designed to have an immediate and positive effect on your cashflows and then leads you step by step through efficient problem-solving activities and on to the long-term planning that will keep your company healthy.  SUCCEED!™ is structured to improve the performance of any business; the sequence is the same for crisis management, profit improvement, recession recovery, or expansion and is a result of observing what works in the real world and improving on it with good, basic practices. If you are ready and willing to look closely at your business with the SUCCEED!™ approach, you should be able to make steady and significant progress and transform your firm into your personal vehicle for success.

  This book has been developed to solve problems in a logical sequence. You may want to read the entire book without too much attention to detail, then go back to the beginning and start to make changes — and don’t skip around! The order is important. 

  Each Chapter in SUCCEED!™ is organized as follows: 

• An OUTLINE of SUBJECTS to get you oriented

• ALL of Us, a highlighted real story included to illustrate entrepreneurs who have discovered challenges in an operating enterprise

• HOW-TO INFORMATION to get you solving problems today

• EXAMPLES from my advising experience to show you how other entrepreneurs used these methods to become more profitable

• PRINCIPLE and WHY, highlighted boxes like the one below to help you remember valuable concepts

PRINCIPLE: If you have an existing business, Business-planning may harm your company.

WHY: Business-planning solves problems in the wrong sequence for an existing firm.

• LEADERSHIP LESSONS placed throughout the text to build your skill and insight for managing your teams

• TASK ASSIGNMENTS at the end of each section you will need to complete before moving on

  Measured, steady progress is the key and remembering that you are not the only entrepreneur who wants to recover from your mistakes and maximize your profits; and it might be comforting to know that big business managers make the same mistakes entrepreneurs make, and for the same reason — lack of skill. The only difference is the size of the financial consequence. To improve your skill, you will need self-motivation and dedication to lead your organization and the people you employ. The transition to increased profit will be time consuming; but things will get better, and, at some point, you will be working smarter, not harder, and become the successful entrepreneur you want to be.

Stay focused, keep your spirits up, and get to work.

Best of luck,

Douglas J. Hammel, MBA

Business Development Specialist