The Facts of Business Life: What Every Successful Business Owner Knows That You Don�t - Hardcover

by Bill McBean (Author)

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.

Front Jacket

Being a successful business owner means more than knowing one's industry and understanding the basic concepts of leadership, management, or operations. It means being able to master many areas of business, and knowing how each of these areas relates to and builds on the others. It also means understanding how those areas change as a business goes through its inevitable life cycle, and how the owner must be prepared to change with them. The Facts of Business Life is the first book designed to provide readers with the means of achieving the kind of long-term understanding that is the key to true and lasting success.

Written by a successful businessman with four decades of ownership experience, the book covers the seven facts of business life that every successful business owner knows: "If You Don't Lead, No One Will Follow," "If You Don't Control It, You Don't Own It," "Protecting Your Company's Assets Should Be Your First Priority," "Planning Is About Preparing for the Future, Not Predicting It," "If You Don't Market Your Business, You Won't Have One," "The Marketplace Is a War Zone," and "You Don't Just Have to Know the Business You're In, You Have to Know Business."

Devoting one chapter to each fact, the book explains what it is, what it means, and,

most important, how it can help entrepreneurs achieve success and avoid potentially harmful mistakes. Equally important, each chapter enables readers to not only understand the facts on their own, but also how they impact on a business as it passes through each of the five levels of every successful company's existence: "Ownership and Opportunity," "Creating Your Company's DNA," "From Survival to Success," "Maintaining Success," and "Moving On When It's Time to Go."

Packed with valuable advice, The Facts of Business Life presents every business owner--whether he or she is starting, building, maintaining, or exiting a business--with the key facts that, applied together, can ensure a strong and lasting enterprise.

Back Jacket

Being a successful business owner means more than knowing one's industry and understanding the basic concepts of leadership, management, or operations. It means being able to master many areas of business, and knowing how each of these areas relates to and builds on the others. It also means understanding how those areas change as a business goes through its inevitable life cycle, and how the owner must be prepared to change with them. The Facts of Business Life is the first book designed to provide readers with the means of achieving the kind of long-term understanding that is the key to true and lasting success.

Written by a successful businessman with four decades of ownership experience, the book covers the seven facts of business life that every successful business owner knows: "If You Don't Lead, No One Will Follow," "If You Don't Control It, You Don't Own It," "Protecting Your Company's Assets Should Be Your First Priority," "Planning Is About Preparing for the Future, Not Predicting It," "If You Don't Market Your Business, You Won't Have One," "The Marketplace Is a War Zone," and "You Don't Just Have to Know the Business You're In, You Have to Know Business."

Devoting one chapter to each fact, the book explains what it is, what it means, and, most important, how it can help entrepreneurs achieve success and avoid potentially harmful mistakes. Equally important, each chapter enables readers to not only understand the facts on their own, but also how they impact on a business as it passes through each of the five levels of every successful company's existence: "Ownership and Opportunity," "Creating Your Company's DNA," "From Survival to Success," "Maintaining Success," and "Moving On When It's Time to Go."

Packed with valuable advice, The Facts of Business Life presents every business owner-- whether he or she is starting, building, maintaining, or exiting a business--with the key facts that, applied together, can ensure a strong and lasting enterprise.

Author Biography

BILL McBEAN spent many of his nearly forty years as a successful business owner in the automobile industry where, among many other achievements, he purchased several underperforming dealerships and turned them into a successful business enterprise with yearly sales of more than $160 million. Since selling the company to the world's largest automotive retailer, AutoNation, McBean has been involved in several new businesses, including McBean Partners, an investment and business mentoring company, and Net Claims Now, which provides administrative services and support to the restoration industry.