c.2012, Square One Publishers $16.95 / $19.95 Canada 119 pages, with index
You’ve got an idea that really gets you excited.
When someone asks you about it, they’d better be prepared to listen for awhile, because you’re white-hot passionate for this possibility. You are, in fact, beginning to think that it’s time to heat things up by taking it to the next level.
But are you ready? How can you ensure that the glow remains and your dreams don’t just go up in smoke? You can open “How to Start a Business & Ignite Your Life” by Ernesto Sirolli, PhD, and keep the spark alive.
When introduced to someone who claims to be an entrepreneur, Ernesto Sirolli says that his first question is “What is your passion?”
The answer gives him a feel for the entrepreneur’s future success (or lack thereof). If “money” is the answer, he says, a good turn-out is iffy; one’s passion must lie in one’s product or service.
But passion is never enough to sustain business, long-term. The biggest myth of start-ups, he believes, is that an entrepreneur must know all and do all. The rugged, self-reliant entrepreneur is generally the image we hold dear, and that’s damaging.
To remedy that situation, Sirolli created The Trinity of Management®.
To fully embrace The Trinity of Management, you need to first understand your own personality, strengths and weaknesses; specifically, are you most interested in what your business provides, marketing that product or service, or managing the money and the business itself? Once you can answer that question honestly, then you can put together a strong team because, again, no entrepreneur is an island.
Creating your team, Sirolli says, leaves you (as the entrepreneur) free to focus on what you do best and love most. A good team will tap into the strengths of three people of different abilities who understand and are passionate about the business plan you’ll lay out together. This also helps break through other business myths.
Just be cautious about those you choose.
“A business partnership,” says Sirolli, “is a lot like a marriage, but getting out of it is much more difficult.”
“How to Start a Business & Ignite Your Life” is thin and it’s got lots of graphs in it. The print is good-sized, too, so you might think it would be quick and easy to use.
And you’d be wrong.
Author Ernesto Sirolli packs a massive amount of info into this skinny book, but it’s somewhat repetitious and it sometimes contradicts common-sense. What, for instance, does one do when “team”-building is premature? And when relying on “free help” from friends and family, don’t you still get what you pay for? I appreciated the abundant advice in this book, but those were just two of the questions I had…
And yet, I think there are good nuggets here that could be useful for someone with a entrepreneurial spirit but nowhere to go with it. If that’s you, and you can read and think carefully, then “How to Start a Business & Ignite Your Life” might help you set the world on fire.