This guide provides a quick reference to all of the key topics around early-stage startup valuation and provides step-by-step examples for several valuation methods. In more detail, this Founder’s Pocket Guide helps startup founders learn: What a startup valuation is and when you need to start worrying about it. Key terms and definitions associated with valuation, such as pre-money, post-money, and dilution. How investors view the valuation task, and what their expectations are for early-stage companies. How the valuation fits with your target raise amount and resulting founder equity ownership. How to do the simple math for calculating valuation percentages. How to estimate your company valuation using several accepted methods. What accounting valuation methods are and why they are not well suited for early-stage startups.

    Let Deduct It! show you how to maximize the business deductions you're entitled to -- quickly, easily and legally. This comprehensive, yet easy to read book is organized into practical categories featuring common deductions, including: start-up expenses operating expenses health deductions vehicles travel entertainment meals inventory equipment and many more The 6th edition is completely updated with all the latest tax information, eligibility requirements and tax rates for 2008 returns. Whether your business is just starting or well-established, Deduct It! is indispensable to your venture.

    More importantly, it must be a FUNCTIONAL tool that advances you forward towards your goals -- rather than holding you back due to endless tinkering and perfecting of your plan without taking action. Enter the 24 Hour Business Plan Template, your functional tool to get you there as efficiently as possible. This is a complete guide that includes a downloadable pre-formatted business plan template and cash flow spreadsheet to help you get started. In the book, I lay out the method I personally used to plan my own business - and in doing so, leave my full-time job and start my business on a full-time basis within seven months. My plan itself was constructed in under 24 hours on January 1, 2015 as my new years resolution; the remainder of the time spent was executing this plan over time. In the book you'll learn how to do the same, or close to it at the very least - and you'll begin to understand why this efficiency in the beginning is so important. To reiterate, it's important to get to the action-taking phase as soon as possible. This cannot be overstated enough. Successful entrepreneurs and authors like Eric Ries, Gabriel Weinberg, and Justin Mares tout this very principle in their books The Lean Startup and Traction -- the simple fact is, it's much easier to make progress by taking action and adapting over time vs. trying to get everything perfect the first time around. Too much time can be spent getting stuck in your head due to information paralysis or perfectionism, only to wake up one day realizing you've actually done nothing concrete at all to advance your goals. Don't be this person! Get up out of your chair and take action to make your goals happen. Realize that it may take several iterations of creating a business plan, or cycling through various ideas, before you feel confident in moving forward with one in particular. This is okay -- and in fact, it's the exact reason why you need to be efficient during the initial planning and evaluation stage. Much better to spent one or two weeks cycling through 5-10 ideas than an entire year getting nowhere. In this book, we'll cover the following topics: -The importance of validation, and how to validate your business idea. -The key elements of designing an amazing cover page for your business plan. -How to write an executive summary, and why it must be written last after everything else. -The proper elements that make up your Company Objectives section. -The right approach to laying out your Products & Services section. -How to setup a target customer profile including the right questions to ask. -Websites and tables that will greatly simplify your industry and competitor analyses. -Several possibilities for getting started with sales and marketing, and the difference between each. -The key elements that will comprise your operational plan and any business logistics. -What roles need to be defined in your Management section. -The preferred formats and metrics to use in your business capitalization (initial funding) section. -How to lay out your financial plan, both for your business and your personal finances. Please know fat was trimmed from every section of this book to ensure you can get through it and understand the key principles quickly and move on to actually creating your own plan. Only the critical elements were left in, with additional explanation added at key junctions to ensure comprehension. Whether you're venturing out for your first time as an entrepreneur, or you're a seasoned veteran looking for a no-nonsense way to manage the planning process for your next venture, 24 Hour Business Plan Template belongs on your tool belt.

    Many leadership books can be boring. Instead of reading another repetitive book about 100 leadership essentials by a corporate CEO, search no more for the perfect leadership book. In "The Diary of a West Point Cadet," by Captain Preston Pysh, the author teaches essential West Point leadership through the most fun and unique reading of any book in its class. If you are an aspiring cadet, a small-group leader, or even an emerging leader in corporate America, this book is for you. Each intriguing firsthand account of Preston's most memorable stories from attending West Point will capture your interest and imagination. At the conclusion of each gripping story, Preston efficiently summarizes how the experience taught him lessons about leadership, which later prepared him to be a combat commander. If you like twists and turns while reading and learning, you are in for a treat. Prepare to be glued to your seat and the text as you experience unforgettable stories and lessons from "The Point."

    Put simply, FBA allows sellers to outsource their product storage and distribution to Amazon. FBA is giving rise to a new, post-eBay, entrepreneur: people who want to spend their time re-selling, designing, branding and marketing products. With FBA, you don’t have to worry about being hacked or setting up payment systems. There’s no more traipsing to the Post Office or worrying about being away when an order needs to be fulfilled. This gives you freedom too – you can run your FBA operation from anywhere in the world. All you need is access to the Internet. There are numerous books available on this subject, but this is the first to focus solely on Amazon.co.uk – that means UK case studies, pounds not dollars and UK/EU laws/rules. If you’re a seasoned FBAer, this book is probably not for you – although you will learn a few new things. However, if you’re thinking of entering this market or have less than a couple of years’ experience this guide should prove invaluable. This books covers the following topics: • Finding products that will sell. • Creating your own brand – branded products sell for a premium. • Importing goods from outside the EU. • Sourcing/buying products from overseas suppliers. • Registering as a seller on Amazon. • Listing FBA products on Amazon. • Getting your products to Amazon’s fulfilment centres. • Commodity codes, import duty and VAT. • Pricing your products. • How to get great customer reviews to boost sales. • The dark arts of Amazon SEO. • Selling as a Pro Merchant. • Product requiring prior approval by Amazon. • Promoting your products, including: o Amazon Sponsored Products advertising. o Facebook for business. o Amazon money-off promotions. o Amazon Launchpad. o Handmade at Amazon. • List on eBay, sell via FBA. • Returns and damaged stock. • Amazon Lending. • Rules and regulations – tedious but necessary. Amazon FBA is a moveable feast – things are changing every week. I have included my email address in the book and encourage readers to ask questions, make suggestion and point out any inaccuracies. Hopefully there won’t be too many of the latter! Enjoy and good luck. Ned Browne 15th July 2016.

     What if you could start your day out with an excited shout instead of a frustrated sigh? Unfortunately, selling handmade goods online is no longer as simple as throwing together a product listing and waiting for sales to roll in. There are now millions of people with handmade products and they are all eager to build a sustainable income. The Handmade Entrepreneur uses precise methods based on proven marketing techniques to set you above the competition. It teaches you how to create a genuine business you can count on rather than a bundle of shop pages and social media accounts built on a foundation of guesswork. What You Can Expect to Learn from This Book: • How to take DIY pictures that get clicks and sales • How to set up a shop that turns visitors into buyers in under two seconds • How to price your items • How to write titles and descriptions • How to brand your business with DIY techniques • How to rank your pages • How to find targeted audiences • How to build up your list of followers • Where to promote your listings • How to sell without selling • How to form relationships with people who can send you extra sales • How to start a "buzz" about your products • Which tools to incorporate into your business The goal of this book is to free you from having to rely on any third-party website for your sales. Yes, you can take advantage of platforms like Etsy, and you should, but websites come and go, and if all your sales come only from that website, you run into trouble every time there are algorithm changes, a saturation of sellers, or cheaper products to compete with. You are trying to generate sales, which means that you are trying to run a business, which in-turn means that you need a real business plan. Brick and motor stores don't just buy a bunch of goods, throw them in a building, and hope people will come. They plan, study their target market, pick a perfect store location, and prepare to market themselves. Just because you sell online does not mean that you can skip all of these steps. You have billions of products to compete with online and a crowd of shoppers who have an overwhelming number of options before them. You must prepare your storefront, get your products ready, know your audience, and then know how to market to them. Optimizing Your Shop for Sales Dani starts out showing you how to prepare your products with photos that attract clicks and sales. It doesn't just tell you how to do it, though. It SHOWS you. Thanks to the help of many carefully selected Etsy sellers, there are many example photos for each point. In addition to this, the author only shows you DIY photos to prove that you can do it all on your own. Next, Dani discusses how to optimize your shop. She goes through every aspect such as banners, profiles, descriptions, tags, and titles. You will learn how to optimize your pages so that people stay there instead of leaving instantly. This can be done by creating an inviting environment with images and content that buyers can skim through in under two seconds. If buyers can determine that your page is worth staying on in less than two seconds, you have won the battle. Finding Targeted Audiences and Marketing The issue with selling online is finding people who would be interested in your products.

    The book talks about in-demand online skills and the different paths one can take to become an expert in these fields. A stable income from freelancing in college was the bedrock that had allowed the authors to explore their ambitions further and get to where they are today. In the process, they've worked with many of their own batch mates, colleagues and friends to help them set up highly successful freelance careers. The author duo decided to detail their story of what worked for them and how anyone in the country could thrive without being tied down to a full-time job. The authors feel the timing of the book is perfect because of the growing freelance economy and growing aspirations among millennials to find a job they love and not just something that pays their bills.

    Starting up a business is no different—it needs preparation.This preparation is about understanding your “why”; about generating and testing business ideas; about building your founding team; about talking to your family; about taking care of your career and your finances. It is about getting mentally prepared to get started. This book will help you ask the right questions. It will guide you, steer you towards finding your answers.You are ambitious. You are a go-getter. You are destined to win. This book will help get you what you deserve."About the AuthorPankaj Goyal grew up in a typical Indian middle class family in Rajasthan. In a family of government employees, he was taught the standard script to build your career: “Work hard on academics and get the highest scores”. And that’s the path he took. While he got his Bachelors in Computer Science from IIT Kanpur and an MBA from IIM Bangalore, there was always an itch . . . an itch to start a business. He started his company in 2008 and ran it for three years. His experience was bitter sweet. The business generated good cash, but failed to grow. He then took a break, moved to the USA and joined McKinsey and Company. Ever since, he has worked across the world in the technology industry. His work is now focused on applying Artificial Intelligence for the benefit of companies. He continues to be involved in the world of entrepreneurship as an angel investor and as an advisor to startups in the Silicon Valley and India.

    Companies that think winning their business is a simple matter of creating a Twitter account and applying outdated notions of "cool" to their advertising are due for a rude awakening. "Marketing to Millennials "is both an enlightening look at this generation of consumers and a practical plan for earning their trust and loyalty. Based on original market research, the book reveals the eight attitudes shared by most Millennials, as well as the new rules for engaging them successfully. Millennials: - Value social networking and aren't shy about sharing opinions - Refuse to remain passive consumers--they expect to participate in product development and marketing - Demand authenticity and transparency - Are highly influential--swaying parents "and" peers - Are not all alike--understanding key segments is invaluable Featuring expert interviews and profiles of brands doing Millennial marketing right, this eye-opening book is the key to persuading the customers who will determine the bottom line for decades to come.

    In this newest translation of The Art of War readers will benefit from the interpretations from other translators and strategist, as well as the 50 strategic rules, including: -- How to look for strategic turns to meet the competition-- How to attain strategic superiority and crush the competition-- How to plan surprise and stay ahead of the game-- And more timeless wisdom that will allow you to compete and win in the dynamic business environment!Business managers around the world have tapped into this ancient wisdom; it is time to master The Art of War for Manager for the existence and growth of your business!

    When this investors’ darling was exposed as a house of cards, tales of fraudulent accounting, a lavish lifestyle involving multimillion-rand racehorses and ructions in the ‘Stellenbosch mafia’ made headlines around the world. As regulators tally up the cost, 'Financial Mail' editor Rob Rose reveals the real inside story behind Steinhoff. Based on dozens of interviews with key players in South Africa, the UK, Germany and the Netherlands – and documents not yet public – Steinheist reveals: how Bruno Steinhoff formed the company by doing business in the Communist bloc and apartheid South Africa; how the ‘Markus myth’ started in the dusty streets of Ga-Rankuwa and grew thanks to a ‘bit of luck’ in a 1998 takeover; how Jooste insiders shifted nasty liabilities off Steinhoff’s balance sheet to secretive companies overseas in order to present a false picture of the profits; how Wiese was lucky to lose only R59bn and how Shoprite narrowly escaped getting caught in Steinhoff’s web; and what happened behind closed boardroom doors in the frantic week before Jooste resigned.

    Our work follows us home, even on weekends and vacations.The result is stress, burnout, and strained relationships. Ironically, burning the candle at both ends makes work quality suffer too.Days full of busyness, where you go to bed wondering where all the time went and why so little got done, is primarily the product of habit. One action triggering another that fills every moment of the day, crowding out anything that's not an emergency.It's automated overwork. And when a person succumbs to the stress and leaves for greener pastures, this “burnout pattern” follows them around from one job to the next.But there's good news . . .Self-automation can become your advantage as well.And it's all laid out in the newest book from Michael Hyatt & Company, No-Fail Habits.No-Fail Habits reveals how you can permanently drop habits that don't serve you.You'll also discover how to identify negative triggers and replace them with actions, habits, and rituals that free your time and give you the mental space for deep work—the fertile soil of accomplishment.No-Fail Habits is the blueprint for leveraging habits to build a life of success at work and in your personal life. No-Fail Habits will help you achieve more than you ever thought possible.

    

    Through detailed explanation and over 40 case studies, you’ll learn how to make money by wholesaling, buying, and/or rehabbing small apartment buildings - using none of your own cash or credit, and with no prior experience. You will discover the step-by-step approaches for finding deals, qualifying deals, finding buyers, finding investors and monetizing your small apartment deals; plus how to scale-up to larger apartments. This book contains the know-how and the motivation for you to jump to the fast lane and start doing small apartment deals now. Since 2002, when he bought his first small apartment nothing-down, Lance Edwards has done apartment deals ranging from 3 units to nearly 300 units. And since 2007, he’s also been teaching others how to escape the rat race faster and play bigger - by starting with small apartments.