The Bluffer's Guide® to Small Business; Bluff Your Way® in Small Business

by John Winterson Richards

• ISBN13: 9781902825632
• ISBN10: 1902825632
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 1999-09-28
• Publisher: Oval Books

Summary

A snappy little book containing facts, jargon, and inside information--all that readers need to know to hold their own among the experts.

Author Biography

John Winterson Richards has degrees in both law (which he has ignored ever since) and business administration (which taught him one valuable lesson: the only people who make money through MBAs are University Business Schools).

He is not, of course, a small businessman himself - no definitely not - but an established and successful leader of international commerce. If you have never heard of him it is because, like all truly powerful men, he likes to work behind the scenes.

His only connection with small business is through Winterson Richards, the consultancy he founded to help entrepreneurs less fortunate than himself. The charitable nature of this operation explains the ridiculously low fees it charges.

He is available for service as a Non-executive Director, at very reasonable rates, with a special discount for companies operating in selected developing countries (such as Tahiti).

His ambition is to become one of the idle rich. According to his friends, he is exactly half way there.

Table of Contents

The Mission	p. 5
The Professional Game	p. 5
The Amateur Game	p. 7
Objectives	p. 10
The Old School	p. 10
The Eternal Executive	p. 11
The Family Firm	p. 12
The Honest Craftsman	p. 13
The Eccentric	p. 14
The Business Plan	p. 15
The Mission Statement	p. 16
The Strategy	p. 17
The Financial Data	p. 23
Starting Up	p. 31
To Be or Not to Be (Incorporated)	p. 31
Who's Who	p. 32
Building an Empire	p. 35
What's in a Name?	p. 37
Creating an Image	p. 40
Marketing	p. 43
Market Research	p. 44
Promotion	p. 45
Distribution	p. 49
Operations	p. 50
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

Small is big
The best way to own one's own big business is to start with a small one and make it bigger, and the best way to do that is to convince everyone that the small business is already a big business.

Bank managers
Trying to bluff a Bank Manager is a bit like trying to out-eat a Sumo-wrestler: it's theoretically possible but just not very likely.

Planning
The Business Plan must include a Budget. When it becomes clear that this is completely unrealistic, it can be updated by Forecasts, which in turn can be replaced by 'Revised Forecasts' when they, too, prove to be inaccurate. It is absolutely vital that you are always able to point to an up-to-date plan which shows that the finances are on target (even if that plan was only produced the night before to formalise an existing situation).

The unexpected
The only things that are guaranteed to happen are those that could never be imagined (the First Law of Business Forecasting: expect the unexpected).

Good accountant
A good accountant should be defined as one who saves you in taxes almost as much as he charges in fees.

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Excerpted from The Bluffer's Guide to Small Business: Bluff Your Way in Small Business by John Winterson Richards
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.