Unsexy Business

Forget the hype and the sexy headlines, this is where you’ll make your fortune. In this revealing new book Jamie Waller, entrepreneur and self-made multimillionaire, shows how you don’t need to come up with some amazing new invention or app, or raise millions, to be a business success. What you need is hard work and determination. And you need to be looking for a business idea that is pretty unsexy if you really want to make it big. We’re talking about businesses that collect debts, sell sofas or ship goods – real, solid businesses that you probably use all the time. They won’t grab the headlines, but they can make you very, very rich. And that’s what makes unsexy so attractive. These are ordinary businesses made extraordinary by the people behind them and their commitment to taking their businesses to the top. Jamie has spoken to 11 amazing entrepreneurs who have created just this type of business and in face-to-face interviews he uncovers the secrets to their successes and gets firsthand accounts of their compelling, and sometimes dramatic, business stories. Jamie also tells his own inspirational story, of how he took his debt collection business from nothing to £33 million, facing stabbings and having a gun pointed at him along the way. Discover how you too can make it really big by ignoring the glitz and glamour and building your own unsexy business. Unsexy Business features: Mike Clare, Dreams | Matt Storey, M&M Supplies | Lara Morgan, Pacific Direct | Reginald Larry-Cole, Buy2Let Cars | Rami Ranger, Sun Mark | Thomas Delgado, WeBuyCarsToday.com | Harry Clarke, RingGo | Kate Lester, Diamond Logistics | Nick Broom, PVL | Charlie Mullins, Pimlico Plumbers | Martyn Dawes, Coffee Nation "A real insight into what it takes to make your fortune in business" Duncan Bannatyne “Unsexy Business is brilliant. I read every word, took pages of notes and felt inspired to ingest what I learned and apply it into my life. Jamie Waller has assembled an amazing group of entrepreneurs who share their roller coaster stories of how they made it and how you can do the same.” Michael Heppell, Best Selling Author, Speaker and Coach "What Jamie and the business leaders in this book have achieved is incredible and a real inspiration to the next generation of entrepreneurs” Ian Collins, LBC Radio Presenter “This collection of stories is a testament to the entrepreneurial spirit, that with hard work and determination, people can achieve the extraordinary. Read this book to learn how great businesses and ubiquitous brands were established against all odds”. Lord Karan Bilimoria, entrepreneur and Founder of Cobra Beer "A fantastic book which will inspire many people to start a business and also give huge insights into what will make it a success . A must read book for every potential entrepreneur.” Baroness Ruby McGregor-Smith, former CEO of Mitie Group PLC "Jamie has told his own remarkable story and that of a dozen others in order to distil lessons from everyday businesses that we take for granted. While we get drawn like moths to a flame of the so called Unicorn businesses or other businesses that make the headlines, this book pulls out lessons that are personal as well as practical from entrepreneurs who have made fortunes quietly by meeting our needs." Shailendra Vyakarnam; Director of Entrepreneurship at Cranfield University. "A really thought provoking and interesting angle on business success, a book we should all read! it’s impossible not to learn something from this book – great insight." Sarah Willingham, BBC Dragon and Entrepreneur

Forget the hype and the sexy headlines, this is where you’ll make your fortune. In this revealing new book Jamie Waller, entrepreneur and self-made multimillionaire, shows how you don’t need to come up with some amazing new invention or app, or raise millions, to be a business success. What you need is hard work and determination. And you need to be looking for a business idea that is pretty unsexy if you really want to make it big. We’re talking about businesses that collect debts, sell sofas or ship goods – real, solid businesses that you probably use all the time. They won’t grab the headlines, but they can make you very, very rich. And that’s what makes unsexy so attractive. These are ordinary businesses made extraordinary by the people behind them and their commitment to taking their businesses to the top. Jamie has spoken to 11 amazing entrepreneurs who have created just this type of business and in face-to-face interviews he uncovers the secrets to their successes and gets firsthand accounts of their compelling, and sometimes dramatic, business stories. Jamie also tells his own inspirational story, of how he took his debt collection business from nothing to £33 million, facing stabbings and having a gun pointed at him along the way. Discover how you too can make it really big by ignoring the glitz and glamour and building your own unsexy business. Unsexy Business features: Mike Clare, Dreams | Matt Storey, M&M Supplies | Lara Morgan, Pacific Direct | Reginald Larry-Cole, Buy2Let Cars | Rami Ranger, Sun Mark | Thomas Delgado, WeBuyCarsToday.com | Harry Clarke, RingGo | Kate Lester, Diamond Logistics | Nick Broom, PVL | Charlie Mullins, Pimlico Plumbers | Martyn Dawes, Coffee Nation

How do business founders not only start a business but ensure sustainable growth for the future? This book provides the tools and understanding that enable successful business growth at the scale-up stage. Scale-up and Build Your Business distils the author’s two decades of working with high-growth, high-performing independently owned and managed businesses, including Cobra Beer, Hotel Chocolat, Belvoir Cordials, Thatcher’s Cider, Pacific Direct and Go Ape. Over many years David Molian and his colleagues have identified both the drivers that accelerate growth and the blockers that prevent it. Through case histories, industry analyses and numerous examples this book details five key challenges faced by ambitious entrepreneurs, and documents how they overcome them. For each key challenge, this book describes the accelerators and bear traps which will help or hinder the journey to successful growth and the creation of long-term, sustainable, independent value that translates into successful exit. The lessons within this book will be invaluable for policymakers, advisors and ambitious business founders who want to turn a start-up into a successful and sustainable company. In a period marked by uncertainty and economic stagnation, this guide is more vital than ever.

The key concepts every manager and aspiring leader must know—from strategy and disruptive innovation to financial intelligence and change management—from bestselling Harvard Business Review authors. Build your professional library, and advance your career with these five timeless, ground-breaking business classics. Includes Financial Intelligence, Revised Edition; The Innovator’s Dilemma; Leading Change; Playing to Win; and Blue Ocean Strategy, Expanded Edition.

Want to cash in on real estate investing? A millionaire tells you how. Tips, Tricks, Foreclosures, & Flips of a Millionaire Real Estate Investor features ideas and techniques from millionaire real estate investor, Aaron Adams. Inside, he details the strategies he’s repeatedly used to make money—and shows you how to do the same. Incorporating advice from Adams's mentors and experienced investors who taught him the pros and cons of investing, he details how he learned to pick an individualized strategy based on where he was living. . . so that you can do the same. • Harness the techniques that have made Aaron Adams millions • Discover insiders’ tips on real estate investment • Implement proven strategies with cash rewards • Get started right away with confidence For those with real estate investing experience, this book offers new ways to use old ideas in the contemporary market—backed by Adams's experience purchasing hundreds of properties over the years.

It seems like these days, whenever you look at a newsstand, at least one major business magazine has a cover story about a wildly successful entrepreneur in his or her 20s or 30s. That's not surprising when one considers that one out of every five small-business owners in America is under 35, and that more young people are starting businesses than ever before. Right now, in college dorm rooms and their parents' garages, the next generation of Sam Waltons, Bill Gateses, and Michael Dells are hard at work. "If you are ever going to take risks in exploring your career options, this is the absolute best time to do it," says 26-year-old entrepreneurial expert Jennifer Kushell. "Why wait until you have a semi-stable corporate job and major financial obligations to discover that you hate your career and need to make a big change?" Kushell is the ideal mentor for young people thinking about taking the plunge. Her very successful Young Entrepreneurs Network educates teens and twentysomethings in 40 countries about forming their own companies. A born entrepreneur -- her father and aunt are leading experts on franchising and trademark licensing, respectively -- Kushell presided over her own company's growth while attending college full-time. Her book draws on her invaluable hands-on experience: "It's not so much a how-to-start-a-business book as it is a how-to-cope-with-life-while-starting-and-succeeding-in-your-own-business book," the author says. "All I can say is that this is the real deal, the real story." With wit, candor and exuberance for her subject, Kushell gives practical and personal insight from a young entrepreneur's point of view to help new business owners get through their first few years. The book "also teaches you tricks of the trade that you can rely on to compete successfully in a business world with people twice your age and companies God-knows-how-many-times-as big," she adds. The Young Entrepreneur's Edge addresses key topics such as trying to obtain capital and writing a business plan, which, the author says, are among the biggest obstacles for young entrepreneurs. But the book also tackles critical areas that other business books rarely address: how to get older people to take you seriously; how not to starve when you're broke; how to win your family's approval; how to get out and meet important people; how not to get carded when entertaining clients; and other unique situations faced by young business people. Praise for The Young Entrepreneur's Edge "Fresh college graduates frustrated by the job search should pick up a copy of [this book]." --"Los Angeles Times" "Can help both job-seekers and job-holders rethink their idea of gainful employment." --"Mademoiselle" "Entertaining, fast-reading, and immensely sensible. Kushell is a human dynamo." --"Sacramento Bee" "Every young entrepreneur needs good ideas, and this book is full of them." --Fred Deluca, founder and president of Subway(R) Restaurants "It is a must-read for my students." --Kathleen R. Allen, Ph.D., The Entrepreneur Program, University of Southern California

Companies, communities, and individuals fall for many reasons, but one of the most common—and easily avoidable—is the failure to reinvent. When people and organizations rest on prior successes rather than driving purposeful transformation, they discover too late that they have lost their market position altogether to competitors and external forces. The most successful companies, brands, and individuals make reinvention a regular part of their business strategies. Transformation demands an ongoing process of discovery and imagination, and The Road to Reinvention lays out a systematic approach for continually challenging and reinventing yourself and your business. Venture capitalist and serial entrepreneur Josh Linkner identifies six elements in any business that are ripe for reinvention and shares examples, methods, and step-by-step techniques for creating deliberate, productive disruption. Throughout The Road to Reinvention, Linkner also explores the history—the great rise, unprecedented fall, and now rebirth—of his beloved hometown, Detroit. First rising to greatness as the result of breathtaking innovation, Detroit had generations of booming growth before succumbing to apathy, atrophy, and finally bankruptcy. Now, the city is rising from the ashes and driving sustainable success through an intense focus on reinvention. Linkner brings an insider's view of this incredible story of grit, determination, and creativity, sharing his perspective on Detroit's successes and setbacks as a profound example of large-scale organizational and personal transformation. Change is inevitable. You need to decide: Will you drive that change, or be driven away by it? Will you disrupt or be disrupted? By choosing to deliberately reimagine your own status quo, you can secure a strong future for both your company and your career.

Explains how companies must pinpoint business strategies to a few critically important choices, identifying common blunders while outlining simple exercises and questions that can guide day-to-day and long-term decisions.