It Really Is Just Good Business

It Really Is Just Good Business is essential reading for all solopreneurs, freelancers, as well as micro and small business owners who want to build and sustain a profitable business. Why? Quite simply, the rules of business have changed. Greed has been the defining god of the business world for far too long: Allegiance to the creed of money alone will ultimately result in failure. Organisations that believe that people and the planet are equally as important as profit will now, paradoxically, be the most profitable and sustainable for the longer term. It Really Is Just Good Business is a blueprint for anyone who wants their business to thrive, but who also wants to make a meaningful contribution to society. The author has 50 years’ experience working with small businesses at a grassroots level. Jill Poet is quick to point out that she is not an academic or a sustainability consultant, and that it is her wealth of experience, rather than academic theory, that informs this book. It is also her passion for those solopreneurs, freelancers, and micro and small business owners, combined with her hands-on business background, that ensures It Really Is Just Good Business is delivered in a pragmatic, common-sense, conversational style. It provides a thought-provoking yet realistic and easy-to-understand approach to a better way of operating with practical examples, business wisdom, and case studies. Jill doesn’t pull any punches. This book is peppered with examples of what can happen if you are inauthentic, including a few sections that might court controversy. Read this book to ensure you build a fantastic business that feeds your soul - as well as your bank account.

A lot of CSR is out there in the business world, but not a lot of it is effective, strategic, high-impact CSR. By the time you finish reading this book, you'll understand that creating a CSR strategy and a CSR program is only half the job. The other half is creating your CSR story and branding, and publicizing it regularly and widely. Of the effective, strategic CSR that is out there in the business world, very little of it is effectively communicated. With this book you have all the tools you'll need to do all that and more. Now it's your turn. I hope that someday I'll have the opportunity to write about your own successful CSR efforts. Finally, I believe that corporate responsibility, along with being just good business, can also help to provide and repair something that is desperately lacking in our world today: hope. Let us refuse to destroy HOPE. Corporate responsibility builds hope.

"Just Good Business" shows leaders and managers how to develop a unifying strategy for guiding their corporate social responsibility (CSR)--and why it's critical to embed CSR initiatives into larger corporate strategy.

Business startup advice from the former president of the Ewing Marion Kaufmann Foundation and cofounder of Global Entrepreneurship Week and StartUp America, this “thoughtful study of ‘how businesses really start, grow, and prosper’...dispels quite a few business myths along the way” (Publishers Weekly). Carl Schramm, the man described by The Economist as “The Evangelist of Entrepreneurship,” has written a myth-busting guide packed with tools and techniques to help you get your big idea off the ground. Schramm believes that entrepreneurship has been misrepresented by the media, business books, university programs, and MBA courses. For example, despite the emphasis on the business plan in most business schools, some of the most successful companies in history—Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and hundreds of others—achieved success before they ever had a business plan. Burn the Business Plan punctures the myth of the cool, tech-savvy twenty-something entrepreneur with nothing to lose and venture capital to burn. In fact most people who start businesses are juggling careers and mortgages just like you. The average entrepreneur is actually thirty-nine years old, and the success rate of entrepreneurs over forty is five times higher than that of those under age thirty. Entrepreneurs who come out of the corporate world often have discovered a need for a product or service and have valuable contacts to help them get started. Filled with stories of successful entrepreneurs who drew on real-life experience rather than academic coursework, Burn the Business Plan is the guide to starting and running a business that will actually work for the rest of us.

IF YOU BELIEVE THAT: Being your own boss can be a great career choice Success is what you decide it is Doing what you have a passion and talent for can be very profitable Monetary risk, hard work, and new ideas should be financially rewarded Understanding the business basics every successful owner focuses on—and in what order—would be beneficial Success works for you only after you’ve worked for it Marketplace battles are won before they are played Knowing what owning a business is really like would make ownership success a lot easier Change can create great opportunities Knowing when to exit a business is as important a life and business decision as becoming an entrepreneur in the first place THEN THE FACTS OF BUSINESS LIFE IS FOR YOU! Written by a successful business owner with four decades of experience, The Facts of Business Life is full of real-world concepts that owners must use and embrace if they want to become and stay successful. This multiple award-winning book has been endorsed by some of America’s top business leaders, like Steve Forbes and Ken Fisher, and has been recognized as “one of the best five business books of the year” and “a must read for entrepreneurs or those wanting to be one.” McBean begins with clear explanations and real-life examples of the seven Facts of Business Life that every successful business owner knows and executes consistently, including exactly what they are as well as how and when to use them. He then goes on to show how those facts impact on the five levels every successful business passes through, from “Ownership and Opportunity” to “Moving On When It’s Time to Go,” explaining that while the facts themselves remain the same, as a business becomes successful and moves through its life cycle, the way they are applied must change to fit changing circumstances. But there are even more reasons why this breakthrough business book is a must read, including: Its principles are based on the author’s own experience in starting and running successful businesses in a variety of industries. It shows that the most successful businesspeople create profitable opportunities rather than wait for them to present themselves. It enables readers to analyze the likelihood of their own success based on the characteristics most successful owners have. It reveals the #1 priority for all owners and their employees, and why every owner needs to continually focus on it (Hint: it’s not being profitable). It emphasizes that becoming successful is no guarantee that success will last, and that success itself can be a trap that eventually leads to failure. It shows that a business’s culture isn’t just a mission statement but also the processes created to operate the business and the employees who implement them. It discusses the steps that must be taken even before a business is started to increase the odds of its becoming a lasting success. It covers every step in a business’ life cycle, including the last one, showing that the best time to exit a business is when you don’t have to, and that unless you pick that time, someone else will. MANY BUSINESS BOOKS INCREASE THEIR READERS’ KNOWLEDGE—THE FACTS OF BUSINESS LIFE NOT ONLY INCREASES THAT KNOWLEDGE, IT SHOWS YOU HOW TO TURN IT INTO PROFITS.