201 Great Ideas for Your Small Business: Revised & Updated Edition

Rating:
Summary: Very educational, easy read format, stimulating
Review: A great book for any business owner. 201 ideas from successful entrepeneurs across the country. Each idea is between 1/2 to 1 1/2 pages long. This makes it easy reading and good for reference (mine is full of bookmarks). The format makes it easy to skip ideas that don't apply to you. This is a no-brainer for every entrepeneur. I bought 100 to give out as gifts!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent ideas for small businesses!
Review: I think every small business owner should read this book -- full of excellent, and often basic (but overlooked) ideas and tips for making the most of your business.

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Summary: An excellent overview for new business startups and others
Review: I've been familiar with Jane's work for years on both Bloomberg and CNBC and well as other places. This book really puts the whole subject of small business into perspective and spells out the do's and don'ts...including an excellent resource section.

Rating:
Summary: Not Recommended
Review: Jane Applegate's book is an idea journal for the budding entrepreneur. No one business can use all these ideas, every business owner will be able to use a few of the ideas Applegate mentions. Some of her great ideas are specific to a single type of business. Other ideas sound fine, but deal with areas that are difficult for an entrepreneur to control. The book's big drawback is that it lacks an over-reaching strategy. It is a set of disconnected ideas, which makes it more useful as a brainstorming tool than as anything you would use as the basis of a business. It doesn't tell you how to create a marketing plan, but it gives you marketing ideas you can incorporate into the plan you develop. We at getAbstract.com recommend this book to owners of relatively new, small businesses who are hungry for a few ideas to move it further along. [Note: many of the ideas are specific to the United States.]

Rating:
Summary: Good to great ideas for your small business
Review: The new edition of Jane Applegate's "201 Great Ideas for Your Small Business" provided me with some great inspiration for my own small business. I particularly enjoyed reading the examples of real-life small business owners who took their great ideas and ran with them...to the bank! While not every tip would work for every entrepreneur, I've gotten enough ideas from this book that it easily pay for itself (and then some!). I recommend it to any business owner looking for some new and fresh ideas.

Rating:
Summary: Number 202: MARKET YOU!
Review: This book has some great tips, but when it comes to achieving corporate and community visibility, nothing replaces a *personal* publicity plan. To position your small business, you have to position YOURSELF. Bottom line is that people have to know who you are, what you stand for, and why they should do business with you.