You'll discover:Why the assumptions behind financial data matter- What income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements really reveal- How to use ratios to assess your venture's financial health- How to calculate return on your investments in your enterprise- Ways to use financial information to do your own job better- How to instill financial intelligence throughout your teamAuthoritative and accessible, Financial Intelligence for Entrepreneurs empowers you to "talk numbers" confidently with colleagues, partners, and employees-- and fully understand how to use financial data to make better decisions for your business.

    From his top tips on succeeding in business to some hard-hitting opinions on the global finance crisis, this book brings together his best advice on all things business.It's business school, the Branson way.

    You’ve probably heard both good and bad things about it. Still, you want to learn more about the stock market. It could also be that you want to start investing but don’t know where to begin or how much to invest. If you’re already investing, you want to learn better ways to grow your investments, because you want to be more confident about your financial future. Up until now, you probably didn’t have enough time to learn about investing and it might seem too confusing, because there is so much information out there about investing. You also don’t want to lose your money or don’t have enough money to begin investing. What if you had the confidence to start investing on your own, so you could show off your investment performance to family and friends? Leave the stress of an insecure financial future behind you and create sustainable wealth, which you can pass down to your family. In this book I give you a quick overview about what you need to know about the stock market, how to begin, what to do if you don’t have enough cash, how to generate passive income, and how to analyze companies. I also give you a list of companies I personally invest in and I try to answer all the questions you might have that are stopping you from getting started or progressing in your investing journey. I'll show you why you need to watch out with investment vehicles such as the 401K and index funds. This book is a quick read and great to keep as a reference. Best of all, you can get started immediately after reading it. **Don’t wait and buy the book now. It’s on sale, but the price will increase in the near future.**

    This colorful and engaging eBook will break down how to develop your business idea, pitch to investors, hire your first employees, court mentors, attract excellent board members, monetize your product, track your revenue, market on a budget, get customers and keep them!

    As Senior VP of Apple, Jay served as Steve's right-hand man and trouble-shooter, overseeing all corporate operations and business planning, as well as software development and HR. In "Leading Apple with Steve Jobs," Jay details how Steve managed and motivated his people--and what every manager can learn from Jobs about motivating people to do the best work of their lives.Steve Jobs used the phrase "Pirates Not the Navy" as a rallying cry--a metaphor to "Think Different." In the days of developing the Macintosh, it became a four-word mission statement. It expresses the heart of Apple and Steve. The management principles that grew out of that statement form the backbone of this book. Explains how to find talented people who will understand your objectives and be able to make a contribution to that effort Lists traits that can determine whether a person will be so committed to the vision that they will provide their own motivationExplains how to ensure that your employees hold an allegiance to the captain and to his/her shipmates, and also possess the ability to come up with original, unique ways to approach a problem, and be self-guided with a strong sense of direction"Leading Apple with Steve Jobs" will shift your thought paradigm and inspire you to assemble and lead innovative teams.

    He found this in Jim Clark, a man whose achievements include the founding of three separate billion-dollar companies. Lewis also found much more, and the result—the best-selling book The New New Thing—is an ingeniously conceived history of the Internet revolution.

    The career escalator is jammed at every level. Unemployment rates are sky-high. Creative disruption is shaking every industry. Global competition for jobs is fierce. The employer-employee pact is over, and traditional job security is a thing of the past. Here, LinkedIn cofounder and chairman Reid Hoffman and author Ben Casnocha show how to accelerate your career in today’s competitive world. The key is to manage your career as if it were a start-up business: a living, breathing, growing start-up of you. Why? Start-ups - and the entrepreneurs who run them - are nimble. They invest in themselves. They build their professional networks. They take intelligent risks. They make uncertainty and volatility work to their advantage. These are the very same skills professionals need to get ahead today. This book isn’t about cover letters or resumes. Instead, you will learn the best practices of Silicon Valley start-ups, and how to apply these entrepreneurial strategies to your career. Whether you work for a giant multinational corporation, a small local business, or are launching your own venture, you need to know how to: Adapt your career plans as you change, the people around you change, and industries change Develop a competitive advantage to win the best jobs and opportunities Strengthen your professional network by building powerful alliances and maintaining a diverse mix of relationships Find the unique breakout opportunities that massively accelerate career growth Take proactive risks to become more resilient to industry tsunamis Tap your network for information and intelligence that help you make smarter decisions A revolutionary new guide to thriving in today's fractured world of work, the strategies in this book will help you survive and thrive and achieve your boldest professional ambitions. The Start-Up of You empowers you to become the CEO of your career and take control of your future.©2012 Reid Hoffman (P)2012 Random House

    The Ask Formula revealed in this book has been used to help build multi-million dollar businesses in 23 different industries, generating over $100 million dollars in sales in the process.You ‘ll discover why the Ask Formula is arguably THE most powerful way to discover EXACTLY what people want to buy and how to give it to them - and in a way that makes people fall in love with you and your company.In this tell-all book, expert online marketer Ryan Levesque (featured in CNBC, Yahoo Finance, The Miami Herald, The San Francisco Chronicle, Mass Market Retailer, Bloomberg Businessweek and more) turns everything you know about customer surveys on its head.You ‘ll discover how Ryan Levesque developed his proven system for creating survey-based, customized sales funnels. And you ‘ll also learn how YOU can implement the same system in your own business - no matter your market. The Ask Formula blueprint is laid out in clear and detailed steps for anyone to use and adapt.Whether you ‘re an aspiring Internet entrepreneur, advanced online marketer, or established business owner, this book will both inspire you and show you how to skyrocket your online income - while creating a mass of raving fans in the process - simply by asking the right questions in a surprisingly different way. For people looking to scale up their business, Askwill utterly transform how you think about consumer behavior and selling online.

    It transforms situations and relationships. It converts hostility into civility and civility into affinity. It changes the skeptics and cynics into the believers and the undecided into the loyal. Enchantment can happen during a retail transaction, a high-level corporate negotiation, or a Facebook update. And when done right, it's more powerful than traditional persuasion, influence, or marketing techniques.Kawasaki argues that in business and personal interactions, your goal is not merely to get what you want but to bring about a voluntary, enduring, and delightful change in other people. By enlisting their own goals and desires, by being likable and trustworthy, and by framing a cause that others can embrace, you can change hearts, minds, and actions. For instance, enchantment is what enabled . . .A Peace Corps volunteer to finesse a potentially violent confrontation with armed guerrillas.A small cable channel (E!) to win the TV broadcast rights to radio superstar Howard Stern.??A seemingly crazy new running shoe (Vibram Five Fingers) to methodically build a passionate customer base.??A Canadian crystal maker (Nova Scotian Crystal) to turn observers into buyers.This book explains all the tactics you need to prepare and launch an enchantment campaign; to get the most from both push and pull technologies; and to enchant your customers, your employees, and even your boss. It shows how enchantment can turn difficult decisions your way, at times when intangibles mean more than hard facts. It will help you overcome other people's entrenched habits and defy the not-always-wise "wisdom of the crowd."Kawasaki's lessons are drawn from his tenure at one of the most enchanting organizations of all time, Apple, as well as his decades of experience as an entrepreneur and venture capitalist. There are few people in the world more qualified to teach you how to enchant people.As Kawasaki writes, "Want to change the world? Change caterpillars into butterflies? This takes more than run-of-the-mill relationships. You need to convince people to dream the same dream that you do." That's a big goal, but one that's possible for all of us.

    That's where you'll find the biggest names in venture capital, including famed VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, where lawyer-turned-entrepreneur-turned-VC Scott Kupor serves as managing partner.Whether you're trying to get a new company off the ground or scale an existing business to the next level, you need to understand how VCs think. In Secrets of Sand Hill Road, Kupor explains exactly how VCs decide where and how much to invest, and how entrepreneurs can get the best possible deal and make the most of their relationships with VCs. Kupor explains, for instance:- Why most VCs typically invest in only one startup in a given business category.- Why the skill you need most when raising venture capital is the ability to tell a compelling story.- How to handle a "down round," when startups have to raise funds at a lower valuation than in the previous round.- What to do when VCs get too entangled in the day-to-day operations of the business.- Why you need to build relationships with potential acquirers long before you decide to sell.Filled with Kupor's firsthand experiences, insider advice, and practical takeaways, Secrets of Sand Hill Road is the guide every entrepreneur needs to turn their startup into the next unicorn.

    Through a series of easy-to-follow steps and powerful strategies, Blanchard and Bowles show how anyone can create lasting wealth. By focusing on concepts like commitment, intensity, purpose, and even fun, the authors have crafted a totally new--and irresistible--paradigm for unlimited success.Written in the parable style of their previous books, Raving Fans and Gung Ho!., which were Business Week, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal business bestsellers, Big Bucks! introduces Len, who doesn't just want more money--he wants to be a millionaire. Under the direction and guidance of a group of mentors, Len must overcome three challenges on his way to attaining more wealth than he ever dreamed possible. Len learns that these three tests can be undertaken by any individual or organization in the pusuit of big bucks. And he also sees that while making big money, he can accomplish even more valuable achievements by being generous with his time, talents, and prosperity.Packed with practical advice, Big Bucks! is a must-read for any individual or business professional seeking wealth. It's destined to become one of the major money books in the twenty-first century.

    No really, it is. Let me explain.It turns out that drooling dogs and ringing bells are far more important than a logo (thank you Pavlov).Sure, successful businesses have logos--easily recognizable logos. Playboy, McDonald's, Coke. But there's far more to their success than bunny ears, golden arches or a certain shade of red. Stripped of all the marketing lingo, branding is pretty simple: Your brand is all the associations that come to mind when your potential customers see or hear your name.Whether your focus is on personal branding or on branding your company culture--you've got to have more than a fancy logo and edgy color scheme to create brand stickability (you know, a brand your customers can't get out of their heads).Well, there’s a process to capturing attention and getting your foot in the door of your customers’ minds. Here's a taste of some of the personal branding advice you'll find in this book:You must become the first solution your customer thinks of when they have a problem you can solve. How?The first step is to figure out what your audience cares about. What keeps them up at night? What problems can you help them solve? From there, you need to apply these three steps:1) Frequency2) Repetition3) AnchoringIn this e-book, we’ll show you how to figure out what your customers really want. Then we will show you how to apply these three steps to help you become the trusted resource that comes to mind first when your customer’s itch needs to be scratched.Is real and authentic branding going to happen overnight? Probably not. But ask yourself this: Do you want short-term results that lose effectiveness? Or are you willing to invest a bit more time and effort to create long-term results that get better and better?If you're looking for a branding book that promises a quick fix, this isn't the book for you. But if you want to create a brand that sticks like superglue--read this book!Go ahead and let the wimps and whiners have the get-rich quick schemes that fizzle and fall flat like a wet firework. You want to ignite a branding bonfire.

    The company's early years were an unending series of legal, financial, and operational crises that continually threatened its ability to stay in business. Yet FedEx's leaders and employees were incredibly resourceful and resilient. Pilots used personal credit cards to gas up planes, paychecks weren't cashed, and in one of the most famous episodes, founder Fred Smith literally gambled the company's last remaining funds to keep the planes flying. Becuase Roger Frock was with the companies from the start, he is able to chronicle these real-life hardships and hard-fought triumphs as only an insider can. With humor and insight, he describes how FedEx overcame impossible odds to become one of the world's greatest success stories, a revolutionary company that truly changed the way the world does business.

    It has led nothing short of a revolution in the entertainment industries, generating billions of dollars in annual revenue while capturing the imaginations of hundreds of millions of people in over 190 countries. But to reach these great heights, Netflix, which launched in 1998 as an online DVD rental service, has had to reinvent itself over and over again. This type of unprecedented flexibility would have been impossible without the counterintuitive and radical management principles that cofounder Reed Hastings established from the very beginning. Hastings rejected the conventional wisdom under which other companies operate and defied tradition to instead build a culture focused on freedom and responsibility, one that has allowed Netflix to adapt and innovate as the needs of its members and the world have simultaneously transformed.Hastings set new standards, valuing people over process, emphasizing innovation over efficiency, and giving employees context, not controls. At Netflix, there are no vacation or expense policies. At Netflix, adequate performance gets a generous severance, and hard work is irrel-evant. At Netflix, you don't try to please your boss, you give candid feedback instead. At Netflix, employees don't need approval, and the company pays top of market. When Hastings and his team first devised these unorthodox principles, the implications were unknown and untested. But in just a short period, their methods led to unparalleled speed and boldness, as Netflix quickly became one of the most loved brands in the world.Here for the first time, Hastings and Erin Meyer, bestselling author of The Culture Map and one of the world's most influential business thinkers, dive deep into the controversial ideologies at the heart of the Netflix psyche, which have generated results that are the envy of the business world. Drawing on hundreds of interviews with current and past Netflix employees from around the globe and never-before-told stories of trial and error from Hastings's own career, No Rules Rules is the fascinating and untold account of the philosophy behind one of the world's most innovative, imaginative, and successful companies.

    In performance, how you organize can be the key to growth. In the past five years, the business world has seen the birth of a new breed of company - the Exponential Organization - that has revolutionized how a company can accelerate its growth by using technology.