Download or read book The Customer Funded Business written by John Mullins and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2014-07-21 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Who needs investors? More than two generations ago, the venture capital community – VCs, business angels, incubators and others – convinced the entrepreneurial world that writing business plans and raising venture capital constituted the twin centerpieces of entrepreneurial endeavor. They did so for good reasons: the sometimes astonishing returns they've delivered to their investors and the astonishingly large companies that their ecosystem has created. But the vast majority of fast-growing companies never take any venture capital. So where does the money come from to start and grow their companies? From a much more agreeable and hospitable source, their customers. That's exactly what Michael Dell, Bill Gates and Banana Republic's Mel and Patricia Ziegler did to get their companies up and running and turn them into iconic brands. In The Customer Funded Business, best-selling author John Mullins uncovers five novel approaches that scrappy and innovative 21st century entrepreneurs working in companies large and small have ingeniously adapted from their predecessors like Dell, Gates, and the Zieglers: Matchmaker models (Airbnb) Pay-in-advance models (Threadless) Subscription models (TutorVista) Scarcity models (Vente Privee) Service-to-product models (GoViral) Through the captivating stories of these and other inspiring companies from around the world, Mullins brings to life the five models and identifies the questions that angel or other investors will – and should! – ask of entrepreneurs or corporate innovators seeking to apply them. Drawing on in-depth interviews with entrepreneurs and investors who have actually put these models to use, Mullins goes on to address the key implementation issues that characterize each of the models: when to apply them, how best to apply them, and the pitfalls to watch out for. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur lacking the start-up capital you need, an early-stage entrepreneur trying to get your cash-starved venture into take-off mode, an intrapreneur seeking funding within an established company, or an angel investor or mentor who supports high-potential ventures, this book offers the most sure-footed path to starting, financing, or growing your venture. John Mullins is the author of The New Business Road Test and, with Randy Komisar, the widely acclaimed Getting to Plan B.

Download or read book Getting to Plan B written by John Mullins and published by Harvard Business Press. This book was released on 2009-09-08 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: You have a new venture in mind. And you've crafted a business plan so detailed it's a work of art. Don't get too attached to it. As John Mullins and Randy Komisar explain in Getting to Plan B, new businesses are fraught with uncertainty. To succeed, you must change the plan in real time as the inevitable challenges arise. In fact, studies show that entrepreneurs who stick slavishly to their Plan A stand a greater chance of failing-and that many successful businesses barely resemble their founders' original idea. The authors provide a rigorous process for stress testing your Plan A and determining how to alter it so your business makes money, solves customers' needs, and endures. You'll discover strategies for: -Identifying the leap-of-faith assumptions hidden in your plan -Testing those assumptions and unearthing why the plan might not work -Reconfiguring the five components of your business model-revenue model, gross margin model, operating model, working capital model, and investment model-to create a sounder Plan B. Filled with success stories and cautionary tales, this book offers real cases illustrating the authors' unique process. Whether your idea is for a start-up or a new business unit within your organization, Getting to Plan B contains the road map you need to reach success.

Download or read book Summary of John Mullins s The Customer Funded Business written by Everest Media and published by Everest Media LLC. This book was released on 2022-02-24T23:37:00Z with total page 65 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 Entrepreneurship is an important field to be in, not only because of the money and the fame, but also because it creates a lot of the jobs in the future. #2 The author is a professor of entrepreneurship at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He has written the books The New Business Road Test and Getting to Plan B, which teach readers how to start and grow their companies with the capital of their customers. #3 The book addresses the five customer-funded business models and the key questions that should be asked when considering and pursuing each of them. It also addresses the key implementation questions that will surely arise. #4 In 1995, the Coca-Cola company entered India, where it had never operated before. It needed maps to locate its new bottlers, so the company hired the Vermas, who had just started an IT training business, to provide it with digital maps.

Download or read book The New Business Road Test written by John Mullins and published by Pearson UK. This book was released on 2017-12-20 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ROAD TEST YOUR IDEA BEFORE YOU LAUNCH YOUR LEAN START-UP Thinking about starting a new business? Stop! Is there a genuine market for your idea? Do you really want to compete in that industry? Are you the right person to pursue it? No matter how talented you are or how much capital you have, if you’re pursuing a fundamentally flawed opportunity then you’re heading for failure. So before you launch your lean start-up, take your idea for a test drive and make sure it has a fighting chance of working. Now in its 4th Edition, The New Business Road Test is the essential handbook for anyone wanting to launch a start-up. The new and fully updated case studies – Ella's Kitchen, Whole Foods, eBay and more – and ‘seven domains’ framework will help you avoid impending disaster and enhance your chances of achieving your entrepreneurial dreams. This book will help you answer the live-or-die questions: Are the market and industry attractive? Does the opportunity offer both customer benefits as well as competitive and economic sustainability? Can you deliver the results you seek? The full text downloaded to your computer With eBooks you can: search for key concepts, words and phrases make highlights and notes as you study share your notes with friends eBooks are downloaded to your computer and accessible either offline through the Bookshelf (available as a free download), available online and also via the iPad and Android apps. Upon purchase, you'll gain instant access to this eBook. Time limit The eBooks products do not have an expiry date. You will continue to access your digital ebook products whilst you have your Bookshelf installed.

Download or read book The New Business Road Test written by John Walker Mullins and published by Financial Times/Prentice Hall. This book was released on 2010 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Starting your own business is a daunting task. No matter how talented you are, no matter how much capital you have, no matter how good your business plan is, if you're pursuing a fundamentally flawed opportunity you're heading for failure. So before spending time and money on a new enterprise it's vital to know if your idea is actually going to work in practice. The New Business Road Test shows you how to avoid the obvious mistakes that everyone else makes. The new edition of this best-selling book features: * A new version of the 7 domains model. * Updated case studies that reflect the changes that have happened in the last four years. * Chapter 13 has been rewritten to make the Industry Analysis Checklist more understandable. * A new author run companion website for readers to access extra information.

Download or read book The New Business Road Test written by John Mullins and published by Pearson UK. This book was released on 2013-10-11 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ROAD TEST YOUR IDEA BEFORE YOU WRITE YOUR LEAN START-UP Thinking about starting a new business? Stop! Is there a genuine market for your idea? Do you really want to compete in that industry? Are you the right person to pursue it? No matter how talented you are or how much capital you have, if you’re pursuing a fundamentally flawed opportunity then you’re heading for failure. So before you launch your lean start-up, take your idea for a test drive and make sure it has a fighting chance of working. With an accompanying app, available on iTunes and Android, that will enable readers to easily capture their road test data - notes, interviews, photos or videos - while they are on the go. www.newbusinessroadtest.com

Download or read book The Mom Test written by Rob Fitzpatrick and published by Robfitz Ltd. This book was released on 2013-10-09 with total page 133 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Mom Test is a quick, practical guide that will save you time, money, and heartbreak. They say you shouldn't ask your mom whether your business is a good idea, because she loves you and will lie to you. This is technically true, but it misses the point. You shouldn't ask anyone if your business is a good idea. It's a bad question and everyone will lie to you at least a little . As a matter of fact, it's not their responsibility to tell you the truth. It's your responsibility to find it and it's worth doing right . Talking to customers is one of the foundational skills of both Customer Development and Lean Startup. We all know we're supposed to do it, but nobody seems willing to admit that it's easy to screw up and hard to do right. This book is going to show you how customer conversations go wrong and how you can do better.

Download or read book 80 Minute MBA written by Richard Reeves and published by Nicholas Brealey. This book was released on 2018-05-01 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fully revised new edition of the international bestseller is your shortcut to business brilliance! The 80 Minute MBA is for those who want to get ahead without going back to school. A traditional MBA is for either the time-rich, very wealthy or lucky few with a generous corporate sponsor. So what happens if you want to get a hit of high-quality business inspiration without spending two years back at school? The 80 Minute MBA is the gateway to fresh thinking, in less time than it takes a standard meeting to get past coffee and donuts. The MBA-in-a-box book is old hat. Managers need the encouragement to think differently, not in the same straight lines. The 80 Minute MBA is an injection of inspiration, creative thinking and dynamic approaches which will help you see the world of business differently. Stimulating new material brings this edition right up to date with critical business thinking. Including a new chapter on the platform economy and fresh technology and social media examples, this book will energize and inspire you in equal measure.

Download or read book 3 Minute Summary of The Customer Funded Business by John Mullins written by thimblesofplenty and published by thimblesofplenty. This book was released on with total page 6 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: thimblesofplenty is a group of friends who also happen to be business people and avid readers. We wanted to keep up with the latest business books but found that time was a factor. So we divided out the work and each of us took a book and summarised it for the others. We though it might be a great idea to share these summaries with you. For a small price and a 3 minute time investment, our summary gives you some of the wisdom from the book, some food for thought and hopefully the impetus to make some time to read the whole book!

Download or read book Summary The Customer Funded Business written by BusinessNews Publishing, and published by Must Read Summaries. This book was released on 2015-07-01 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The must-read summary of John Mullins' book: "The Customer-Funded Business: Start, Finance, or Grow Your Company with Your Customers’ Cash". This complete summary of the ideas from John Mullins' book "The Customer-Funded Business” tells you to forget about the complicated methods of securing start-up funding. According to Mullins, the best way of getting the funding is from your future customers. If you can find enough customers who will pay for the solution that you’re offering to their problem, this is the perfect way of starting a customer-funded business. There are five different customer-funded business models: 1. Matchmaker 2. Pay-in-advance 3. Subscription 4. Security/Flash sales 5. Service-to-product This summary will take you through all five of these different business models, giving you all the information you need to decide which approach will work best for you. Added-value of this summary: • Save time • Stop applying for start-up funding and get the money from your future customers • Find out which customer-funded business model is right for your business To learn more, read “The Customer-Funded Business” and find out how you can secure start-up funding from your customers!

Download or read book The Business Model Book written by Adam J. Bock and published by Pearson UK. This book was released on 2018-01-09 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Invisible Capital written by Chris Rabb and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2011-08-18 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Writer, consultant and speaker Chris Rabb coined the term invisible capital to represent the unseen forces that dramatically impact entrepreneurial viability when a good attitude, a great idea, and hard work simply aren't enough. In his book, Invisible Capital: How Unseen Forces Shape Entrepreneurial Opportunity, Rabb puts forth concrete and...

Download or read book Where to Play written by Marc Gruber and published by Pearson UK. This book was released on 2017-09-27 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Beat the Crisis 33 Quick Solutions for Your Company written by Hermann Simon and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-03-11 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Newspaper columns blare the news daily. There is no doubt that we are struggling through a worldwide economic and financial crisis of a magnitude not witnessed since the Great Depression. In this environment, fraught with danger, no company can afford to take a wait-and-see attitude. One hesitation or misstep can result in the rapid demise of a once stalwart enterprise. Even small miscalculations can topple mighty empires; consider the U.S. auto industry, for example. The severity of the crisis demands that your company understand its causes, diagnose carefully, implement decisively and monitor constantly. However, the crisis also creates chances for companies that learn to assess risk, recognize opportunity and take action quickly. This book is an antidote to the chorus of doom-and-gloom, a manual for business leaders and employees who are ready to fight. In Beat the Crisis, international strategy guru, Hermann Simon, offers 33 practical actions that any company can take immediately. Organized into broad categories—"Changing Customer Needs," "Sales and the Sales Force," "Managing Offers and Prices" and "Services"—Simon shows companies how to focus on the areas where emphatic action can have quick and maximum impact on corporate performance. Drawing from dozens of successful cases around the world, Simon helps readers learn to read the market signals, develop quick solutions, and stay a step ahead of their competitors, while avoiding the pitfalls looming in the crisis. A concluding chapter looks beyond the crisis and considers the longer-term socio-political and business consequences, in which Simon foresees a new era of restraint.

Download or read book Startup Opportunities written by Sean Wise and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2017-05-30 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Start strong with essential early-stage guidance from the VC perspective Startup Opportunities is the go-to guide for anyone with a great business idea. Whether it's your first business or your fifth, realistic assessment from the outset can save you a lot of time and money; why pour your heart and soul into a venture that is doomed to fail? Instead, position yourself to win from the very beginning. In this book, accomplished venture capitalists share their insight on startups and entrepreneurs: who will fail, who will succeed and why, and what you should do to give your business the very best shot at becoming a global success story. You'll learn how to evaluate your business with a critical eye, and how early customer development can be key in turning a good idea into a great opportunity. If you're serious about building a business that lasts, this book provides invaluable guidance that you really cannot miss. More than five million people will launch a business this year, and many of them will be great ideas—yet few will be around in five years, and even fewer in ten years. A great idea is not enough to build a successful business. You need to fortify your idea with the proper foundation, and a scaffolding of good planning and early action. This book shows you how. Assess your business's viability using the 10x Rule Learn when you can quit your day job—or not Take the key steps to making your business succeed Discover the opportunities worth selling everything for This expert author team has witnessed more than 30,000 pitches over two decades, and have participated in over 500 startup launches. Startup Opportunities gives you the benefit of their experience to help you start strong and stay strong.

Download or read book Hidden Champions of the Twenty First Century written by Hermann Simon and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2009-06-10 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chapter 5: Customers, Products, Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Close Customer Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 Customer Requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 Dependence on the Customer and Risk Aspects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Achieving Closeness to Customer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 Product and Service Spectrum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 Chapter 6: Innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 What Does Innovation Mean?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 High Level of Innovativeness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Driving Forces of Innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 The Origin of Innovations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 Leadership and Organizational Aspects of Innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 Chapter 7: Competition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 Competitive Structure and Conduct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 The Hidden Champions in the Light of Porter’s “Five Forces” . . . . . 195 Competitive Advantages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 Sustainability of Competitive Advantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 Demonstration of Competitive Superiority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 Competitive Edge and Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 Sparring Partners for Competitive Fitness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214 Excessive Competitive Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218 Chapter 8: Financing, Organization, and Business Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 Financing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 Contents ix Organization of the Value Chain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 Business Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249 Entrepreneurial Clusters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251 Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253 Chapter 9: Employees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257 Job Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257 Corporate Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260 Quali?cations and Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274 Creativity of Employees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278 Recruiting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279 Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282 Chapter 10: The Leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285 Structures of Ownership and Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286 How Crucial Is Leadership? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289 Leadership Continuity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289 Young to the Top . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293 Powerful Women . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294 Internationalization of Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298 Personalities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300 Leadership Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305 Management Succession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306 Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310 Chapter 11: Hidden Champions: Audit and Strategy Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315 What Is Strategy? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316 Hidden Champion Strategy: For Whom? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316 Hidden Champions – Audits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317 Strategy Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325 Strategies for Value Propositions and Pricing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335 Organization and Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Download or read book Entrepreneurship Innovation and Technology written by Oswaldo Lorenzo and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-03-07 with total page 119 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The combination of entrepreneurship, innovation and technology has become the source of disruptive business models that transform industries and markets. The integrative understanding of these three drivers of today’s economy is fundamental to business. Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Technology aims to connect core models and tools that are already created by well-known authors and scholars in order to deliver a unique guide for building successful business models through the adoption of new technologies and the use of effective innovation methods. The book goes through the entrepreneurial lifecycle, describing and applying core innovation models and tools such as the business model canvas, lean startup, design thinking, customer development and open innovation, taking into consideration disruptive technologies such as mobile internet, cloud computing, internet of things and blockchain. Finally the book describes and analyses how successful cases have been applying those models and technologies. With the mix of an academic and practitioner team, this book aims to go against the grain by its positioning of entrepreneurship in the modern technology economy. This book will prove to be a vital text for any student, specialist or practitioner looking to succeed in the field.