Friday Giveaway: A Digital Copy of “Shoestring Venture: The Startup Bible”!

by Yolandi Janse van Rensburg on 26/03/10 at 9:00 am
14 comments

Are you an entrepreneur or ever thought about starting your own business? Worried about finances, planning and how you are going to pull this off without throwing your life and all your savings down the drain? Yesterday, we chatted to Steve Monas and Richard Hooker, co-authors of a fantastic new resource for start-up entrepreneurs: “Shoestring Venture: The Startup Bible”, and we really loved their book! We thought our interview and their book were so compelling and full of handy tips for any aspiring entrepreneur or business man that we thought you should benefit from it too.

Steve and Richard have been kind enough to offer us a few digital copies of the book to give to you, our smart, creative and witty Ideate readers!

What’s the book about?

For the millions who start a new business every year on the barest of resources, “Shoestring Venture: The Startup Bible” is like hiring a high-level consultant to deal with the bewildering maze of issues from finance to marketing to technology that all entrepreneurs face. Every business is nothing but a series of decisions which can make or break the business. You could say that, if there’s a science of business, it’s the science of making good decisions. And every bootstrap entrepreneur faces the daunting task of making ALL the business decisions, any one of which could either doom the enterprise or catapult it to stratospheric success. That meas that every entrepreneur has to quickly get up to speed on every issue their business faces.

Shoestring Venture: The Startup Bible is the most exhaustive set of practical resources collected to empower entrepreneurs to make the right decisions on a limited budget, from business concept to product development to Web marketing. We call a “consultant in a book,” there to give considered and experienced answers to the infinite questions that come up. Shoestring Venture-The Start-up Bible All entrepreneurs – even the smallest operating on the tightest of budgets – have the opportunity to build powerful start-up organizations without ever really having to walk out the front door. In short, anyone can run a virtual organization using only a desktop or laptop computer. Shoestring Venture: The Startup Bible gives bootstrap entrepreneurs all the resources they need to build truly effective startups using the magic of outsourcing and offshoring. - Book Overview from Google

In our interview, Richard chatted about the differences between a business plan and business planning. He also talked about being organised and advised not to “think of organization as the opposite of disorganized“. He explains the term the way you should see it rather than the general explanation.

How to get a book?

Here’s what you need to do. We thought about it and everyone has given or recieved great advice at least once in their lives. So, what we want from you is your best tip for a business start-up you have either heard or used or something you just thought of!

Now get those thinking caps on and give us your best tip for a business start-up in the comment box below. Our panel of good looking judges will then choose the top 10 and give them a copy of “Shoestring Venture: The Startup Bible”!

Yolandi Janse van Rensburg writes about social media, marketing, life and, of course, cars. We say “of course” because Yolandi is nuts about anything on 4 wheels and runs Autofemme, a blog about cars. Our Ideate sub-editor is also the Heavy Chef girl at World Wide Creative. You can follow her on Twitter @Yolandi_JvR View more articles by Yolandi Janse van Rensburg.

Tags: Business books, friday giveaway, Richard Hooker

14 Responses to “Friday Giveaway: A Digital Copy of “Shoestring Venture: The Startup Bible”!”

Willie Krause

Mar 26th, 2010

1. Starting up your business will always be more expensive than you think. Take your expected cost and add 25% (at least).
2. Have a clear vision and goals to meet. Loosing focus and direction will loose you money.
3. Just because you know how to do the work, does not mean you know how to run the business. Learn!
Saki

Mar 26th, 2010

Be prepared to work 16 hours per day.
Darren

Mar 26th, 2010

Tough to nail it down to one.

I would have to say – know which metrics matter most to your business and stay on top of them so that you can tell when you’re on the right path and when your plans need adjusting.
naeem

Mar 27th, 2010

might sound cliche or pretentious but hey

start your ’startup’ with the right intentions. Dont do it to put Mr X out of business, or aim to be acquired by Google. Be passionate. Offer a good product/service that brings value to peoples lives. Whether its a good price, unique product or useful service.

Google didnt get big by saying “lets kill MS” they got big by being the best in their industry.
S. Schrieff

Mar 27th, 2010

When you are thinking about starting up a business always remember: cashflow is the lifeblood of a business! No cashflow (sales) No business!
Mike Saunders

Mar 27th, 2010

Step one: Make money!
Step two: Do a great job!

*Repeat*
Tyron Bache

Mar 29th, 2010

GTD – Get things done: no matter what it takes with focus and self-discpline!
Saberi Marais

Mar 29th, 2010

When starting a company find a great, competant guy to run it, if you cannot. Choose the best jockey and back him. The management team is crucial, regardless of the product/ service which fors the focus of the company. Any great team can find the resources and strategies to make any dream work. That’s an important starting point.
Tim Lunn

Mar 29th, 2010

Do a startup to make money, not to be your own boss, realise your dream or anything else – you will fail. You can only make more money than just investing by 1) doing somethig better, 2) cheaper /lower cost of capital or 3) understanding a type of customer better – the last one (3) works and once you’ve figured out what that customer wants then max out as many credit cards as you can and START – don’t delay, do it! Tell everyone, work night and day, and never look back. Good luck.
Gareth Cotten

Mar 29th, 2010

When running the numbers for your forecasts (which you SHOULD be doing!) use the “double and half” rule:

When forecasting potential sales, take your figures, and halve them.
When forecasting potential expenses, take your figures, and double them.

If it’s now not so bright and shiny, re-look at your assumptions, and be honest with yourself about your margin of safety. If you do this exercise, and it still looks good, then go for it!
Alvira

Apr 1st, 2010

Startups are hard to start!! The biggest challenge is starting the first event or selling your first product. my best tip : do it however small an audience – sell that first product (dont worry about launching, being perfect, dont over analyse your costings, assumptions)
Don’t be afraid to get out there and show other’s your offering. Procrastinating will delay the first step out there, causing you to potentially fail. Delay – Delay and very often results in a NO START.
Dave

Apr 1st, 2010

You don’t have to have the best idea, but you do have to execute well. If there is one piece of advice for startups, it is “do your homework, then trust yourself, get out there and start doing”.
Sara

Apr 22nd, 2010

Try to start your business before quitting your other job. Once it’s up and running and producing a steady income then you can leave your salaried job.
Wanda

May 22nd, 2010

It’s 20% inspriation, 80% dedication but the perspiration is easy when you are inspired. So keep on believing, never doubting in your sucess.