Here is yet another book entry into ?How To Become A Millionaire? category though this one has serious reading merit in it being a bit of both ? a book with useful tips and an interesting case study. Written by Martin Webb, the famed presenter of US based Channel 4?s real life entrepreneurial series, Risking it All, the book takes one through Webb?s own entrepreneurial journey in the hospitality and entertainment business. Through the course of the book, Webb is able to draw and give serious and valuable insights from his early stage start-up failure, his first successful club (the business that Webb and his partner Simon Kirby decided to get in), the expansion of his club chain and then finally the exit that made him even more money.
What sets this book apart though are the little things that perhaps every first time entrepreneur needs to know and which no book seems to tell. Tips like buying your own material when giving your place for fittings and renovation to save margins and the logic of free nights booze as profitable propositions is something that only an entrepreneur and not an academic can tell.
Webb?s writing style is very dejargonised. He does not mince words in places where he has to describe what he did wrong and is able to make the reader immediately see what went wrong and the lesson one could draw from the same.
He starts the book with a little philosophy on what it means to be an entrepreneur and what are the risks one needs to take. The well- thought out self-evaluation metric helps one identify if one has ?what it takes?. Webb than takes one through the first steps ? the process of risk analysis and impact. He touches upon not only monetary and time factors but also what it means in term of lifestyle choices and effect on one?s family. He is also able to cleverly marry hard business advice like how to conduct market research, raise capital and financial planning with his own experiences. These real life examples immediately make the reader identify theory with its practical application.
Webb then takes one through the crucial opening days of the business to sorting out one?s working capital needs, growing the business developing the right attitude when it comes to managing staff and preparing for an exit.
He has designed an entrepreneur?s toolkit to summarise his book?s core themes. This toolkit also serves as a step-by-step guide for those looking at embarking on their entrepreneurial journey. In all a book that can be surely read for lively examples and learning a little about how an entrepreneur managed to overcome first time failure and also make his first million ? the end goal.