Nathan Martin

Don’t be thrown off by the bland cover and unimaginative title… Steve Chandler and Sam Beckford’s book is a fun fictional story about an entrepreneur and his daughter figuring out how to revive their restaurant from the brink of bankruptcy.  The Small Business Millionaire helped them achieve an unprecedented level of success in the business.  Throughout the process dad and daughter also found meaning and joy in their lives.

This quick read will give readers plenty of food for thought and some good reminders.  Here are some of the highlights I picked out:

• “Advertising is salesmanship in print.”  All salespeople should yield measurable results.
• DECIDE to make the business succeed.
• Sell the experience, not just a meal, book, or service.
• Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
• People want to see you succeed.
• Win over your local market and watch word of mouth spread.

Go read The Small Business Millionaire.  I have more Chandler books to talk about in future posts.

I’ve spent some time this week checking out elance.com. I am reminded of a book I read listened to a couple years ago.  In many ways the world truly is flat…or at least flattening. Opportunities abound for knowledge workers to find work anywhere in the world.  The cool thing for a small business person is that he/she is not limited to the skills that are in his area(I’m thinking of my stomping grounds…rural Pennsylvania).  A bookkeeper in India can keep up with the accounting, someone in Kenya does market research, then marketing and SEO can be maximized from Illinois.  Another advantage for the small business person is that the web not only makes these services widely available, the many choices inevitably contain an agreeable price for both parties.

To read more about how to take advantage of our flattening world, be sure to check out The 4-Hour Workweek!