The Knack: How Street-Smart Entrepreneurs Learn to Handle Whatever Comes Up | 
| Authors: Norm Brodsky, Bo Burlingham
Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $14.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 9095
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2
ISBN: 1591842212
Dewey Decimal Number: 658.11
EAN: 9781591842217
Publication Date: October 2, 2008
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Product Description
Two of Inc. magazines hugely popular columnists show how small-business people can deal with all kinds of tricky situations.
People starting out in business tend to seek step-by-step formulas or specific rules, but in reality there are no magic bullets. Rather, says veteran entrepreneur Norm Brodsky, theres a mentality that helps street-smart people solve problems and pursue opportunities as they arise. He calls it the knack, and it has made all the difference to the eight successful start-ups of his career.
Brodsky explores this mind-set every month in Inc. magazine, in the hugely popular column he co-writes with journalist and author Bo Burlingham (best known for his acclaimed book Small Giants). In both their column and now their book, they tell stories about real companies facing real challenges, and show readers how to apply the knack to their own businesses.
Brodsky and Burlingham offer essential advice such as:
Follow the numbersthats the best way to spot problems before they become life threatening
Keep focusing on your real goal--its amazingly easy to get sidetracked by secondary concerns
Dont get so close to the problem that you lose all perspective Brodsky and Burlingham prove that street smarts and business acumen can be within any entrepreneurs reach.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
For anyone who is considering becoming an entrepreneur and wants to become a better business owner November 29, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Almost everyone dreams of having their own business. Unfortunately, most of those who dream about having their own business dream about "not having a boss", which is exactly wrong. Every customer is your boss, and the best owners even work to serve their employees rather than trying to bully them into the right behaviors. If you want to understand how you have to think and what you have to learn to do as an entrepreneur you really should read this book. Norm Brodsky and Bo Burlingham have written a terrific guide to help you understand what it means to have "the knack" of being a successful entrepreneur. Whether you already have these skills or are willing to work hard to learn them, you simply must have them in order to meet the challenges every startup business faces.
They show you what it means to have a viable business idea, not a dream you are merely passionate about, but also doing the hard work of fitting that dream into the hard reality of business, competition, and financials. Not only do you not want to give away your money to customers and vendors without reward for yourself, you simply cannot do so indefinitely. You must make a profit to justify the operations and paying yourself for your hard work and the risks you take.
The book has seventeen short chapters that average fifteen to twenty pages each. The authors make everything real by telling stories from their own consulting, from businesses they know, and from people they have rubbed elbows with. After the showing you how to evaluate a business plan for viability, they take you through the importance of perseverance, being able to look at yourself and your business clearly and without excuse, discipline, and how to see solutions. You then get to see that businesses fail because they build businesses for which there is no demand (competitors can be a good thing because they demonstrate market viability), why starting a business is better than buying one, why a simple business is good, and why your time is precious. And you get to see what it takes to get money to back your business and the pitfalls that many startups face in the money markets.
Most entrepreneurs are not trained in financials or accounting, but the authors show that they key numbers you have to know are your gross sales, gross margins, how to spot your own key indicators so you can watch your business in real time, the vital nature of your cash flow numbers, and what EBITDA is (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) and why you should look at that as well as knowing your net income number. Entrepreneurs also need to be great negotiators and the authors show you how to do it with listening, and open mind, assuming that your negotiating partner is smarter and knows more than you, looking behind the apparent, and realizing that the best deals can leave both sides feeling a little unfulfilled. Along with this, they show you why you must be able to sell and how you can learn to offer what it is your customers want. This will become your niche for a time, but you also have to learn to follow how the market wants you to change. Of course, your reputation is key to your success and they show you why.
Most new business people are anxious to land any deal, but soon learn that some customers are not worth having, some deals end up costing you money, and other deals can absorb so much of your time and resources that you can't make profitable and quick sales. You should also learn that price cutting is the last resort of the desperate and is often the prelude to your exit from the marketplace. Brodsky and Burlingham also teach you the importance of repeat customers and how to create them along with the nightmare of driving good customers away (some before they ever make their first purchase).
I especially enjoyed their discussion on the decision to grow. Too many entrepreneurs pursue growth as if it were a given and without much consideration to the fact that growth is a means not an end in itself. You have to know why you want to grow, how you should do it, and where you want to be at every step along the way. You should choose to grow rather than following the path of rapid growth and sudden death that too many businesspeople follow. Growth will also require you to hire employees. The transition from the guy or gal who does everything to becoming the boss who works through other people is difficult for many entrepreneurs. They like doing the work of the business and find the abstractness of managing others to do that work strange and unappealing. OK. But if you don't learn how to do that your business will experience pains that will cause it to shrink down to your capacity to do those tasks (and it may even fail). The one thing you can't delegate is the spirit, culture, and the team spirit of the company. You have to get the employees (and customers) working with you and not against you.
The authors offer solid advice on building your salesteam. Heed what they have to say and don't try to take a shortcut by poaching salespeople from your competitors because you will weaken your own position with them and probably overpay for their "help". They also show you how to identify when you need outside help (such as legal and accounting help) and how to get the right fit for your business. You will also need to prepare now so you will be ready when your business enters a new stage. Finally, they teach you how to develop your employees, especially your salesteam, and your personal enthusiasm is crucial for business success.
This is a terrific book and I give it my strongest recommendation. Even if you are just thinking or dreaming of starting a business, you will find this both an entertaining and informative read. Enjoy and learn!
Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI
One man, two businesses, wide-ranging usefulness November 20, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Two businesses are what I'm remembering = delivery and records management. Norm may see them differently.
My debate on this book was four or five stars; five star books change my life and I'm not completely sure this will BUT: I read a library copy and his chapter on cash flow and the need to protect cash has changed my thinking. So, I'll suggest you protect your own cash-on-hand and read a library copy and give him the (free-to-me) fifth star. He's already saved me $45 on a purchase I actually don't need today. YMMV.
Norm's view of business opportunity is almost as far from mine as I can imagine. I have a boatload of schooling and want to own my own job. He aims at $100M revenues and employs a significantly under-educated work force. In as much as he writes specifically and in detail about exactly what he knows, I can map his experience to my situation. People who write in more general, superficially "universal" terms rarely provide as much take-away value.
After the cash-flow chapter, the next-most useful paragraph, to me, was his wife's explanation of how they can work in the business together, and how it took them 20 years to be married enough to be able to do it.
While Norm does not say much about how TO write a business plan, he has a lot to say about how NOT to. The lesson about reality-testing expectations of the future is useful.
I'll go back over my copy and take more notes before I return it. May also read some of the other books other reviewers have recommended. However, I came to this one first, after a host of essentially useless "you can make money" entreprenuerial how-tos. Infinitely readable and well worth the time you give it.
 Includes wonderful insights based on a ton of real-world experience. And the suggestions and recommendations included were great November 17, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I liked this book. It's more of a rant on the subject of starting a business instead of a how-to or checklist or guide. It kind of reminded me of "The Art of the Start" (ISBN: 9781591840565). But I thought Kawasaki's book was better. The instant book being reviewed has 17 chapters as follows:
0. The knack ... and how to get it
1. How to succeed in business
2. The right stuff
3. Why startups fail
4. Where the money is
5. Magic numbers
6. The art of the deal
7. It begins with a sale
8. Good sales, bad sales, and the ones that get away
9. Customers for keeps
10. How to lose customers
11. The decision to grow
12. Becoming the boss
13. The one thing you can't delegate
14. Selling is a team sport
15. Help! I need somebody
16. When the student is ready, the teacher appears
17. Keeping up with the stones
I found the book to be well written and well outlined. I'd probably give it 5-stars if I hadn't felt I'd read it before in other books. The same old material on how to start a new company can only be re-written in just so many different ways. And then there is the fact that there is no chapter devoted to business plans. That's not good if an author wants 5 stars from me.
If the subject of this book interests you, then I recommend you consider reading two others along with it: "Startup Nation" (ISBN: 9780385512480), and "Growing Your Business" (ISBN: 9780671671648). I found the instant book being reviewed had wonderful insights that seemed to be based on a ton of real-world experience. And the suggestions and recommendations included were great. So I cannot poo-poo the book. But it just didn't measure up to the three other books I cite in this review. 4 stars!
Practical Business Reference Guide November 10, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a great book that reads like a very practical, informative, and sometimes entertaining business reference guide. The book contains the accumulation of knowledge, experiences, and advice given in the authors' column in Inc. magazine. It is a great book for: (1) new or aspiring entrepreneurs, (2) executives in establshed small/medium sized companies, (3) 2nd tier executives in small/medium companies, (4) 2nd generation family business leaders, (5) bankers who lend to small and medium sized businesses, and (6) government officials who deal with small and medium businesses as part of their job. All will benefit from understanding the mindset, the thinking, and the energy that goes into succesfully managing a small or medium sized business.
Well written and an eye opener to those who are trying to find their way October 30, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Great examples of people who came from many different backgrounds that made their dreams come true. Should be required reading. Check out their FREE seminars coming up. I am going to the one in Los Angeles in November. These guys know their stuff.
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