TauCan62's 12th House

Given the current economic climate, I’m posting a book report I wrote in college some years back. A job is great, but it might be prudent to have a plan B-just in case…
The reasons for selecting this topic are few, but there are, and have always been, very powerful motivators. It has been a dream for as long as quality of life has been an issue in my life to have my own business, my own road to success, and to actually create my own little piece of the world.

Thus far, there have been no jobs in my life that I could have remotely equated to a career. It could have had something to do with not wanting a job. “Competitive wages”, the “ghettoizing” of America through a global economy, and the dependence on a paycheck for survival all contribute to the attraction of owning my own business. This is a topic, which for me, sheds light at the end of a very dark tunnel. A job is not the way for me. This is the way.

This particular selection reached out and grabbed me with the title: Starting on a Shoestring. Not everyone has access to the capital necessary to start an entrepreneurial endeavor, which put this book right up my alley. The prospect of literally starting with nothing, and using guile and savvy to maneuver into a position of success is, in my view, as much laudable as it is irrational.

Many years ago, I remember a no down payment real estate guru ask, “If you had to succeed, if you’re life depended on it-you either succeed or you die. Could you?” I have no credit, no 401K, no savings to speak of, and no valuable property. I have a girlfriend who has placed her future in my hands. I either succeed or I die. All I have is this shoestring to start with. This book almost came off the shelf on it own.

This book deals with the primary aspects of starting your own business with little or none of your own money. It first requires you to determine if this is the right decision for you, even providing a checklist of questions to facilitate the recognition of the realities involved. Although general in nature, it covers the salient questions that must be asked before that seminal moment of deciding to start your own business. Dreamers need not read this book. It takes a no-nonsense approach, exploring the good, the bad, and the ugly aspects of starting on a shoestring.

This book is all about planning. It questions your determination, what is realistic and what is not, and even how big your endeavor should be. The size of a new business will not be the same for everybody, and the book will challenge the reader to find “the right fit” for him or her. There are plenty of anecdotal stories of would be entrepreneurs who only got into a business because they thought they could make money. Those individuals did not fare well. There are also plenty of stories of people who found something they loved, and found a way to create wealth doing it.

There is some contradiction in the book when it comes to management. As the book moves along, management skills become an apparent necessity for starting a business, but initially the author states, “I offer no long shopping list of personal attributes or managerial skills. It just doesn’t work” (Goldstein, 11). Later on he states, “What management mentality will your start-up need? Plenty.” (Goldstein, 24). The latter seems more reasonable. The former was just part of his “you never know until you try it,” speech.

From deciding what kind of business to start, to assembling a business plan, to various financing possibilities, This book takes a real view of what it will be like in those first few years, including the inevitable belt tightening at the beginning.

Strategic planning in an existing business is a basic plan to broaden a company’s horizons. For the shoestring entrepreneur, it is about creating a horizon. A business may ask, “Where do we go from here?” while the shoestringer asks, “Where do we go?” period. Once a strategic plan has been established, a company moves on to long range planning. This is the stage where an existing business and the potential shoestring startup start to sound a lot alike. What kinds of products will be featured? How will financing be realized? What will the target market be? What about facilities? At this stage, it is the difference between perpetuation and commencement. Once these critical questions have been addressed, planning moves to the operational stage. This is the day-to-day, nuts and bolts of a business. The shoestring entrepreneur will spend many hours at this level, based on the reality that there will not be enough capital to do much hiring.

A business moves through these three levels of planning using executives, chief division managers, and executives from each unit or division, with some overlap. A shoestring entrepreneur must be savvy at all these levels. The future depends on it.

After reading this book, I now realize how benevolent this government actually is. It is not always apparent when reading about the daily machinations of-well, that’s another blog. The government will actually help you develop new products, test those products, and even help market them. I am sure much navigation will be required through the bureaucracy, but help is available.

“A well-prepared business plan is mandatory when dealing with prospective investors or lenders,” (Goldstein, 71). It may sound obvious, but I was not aware you actually needed to show up at the bank with a business plan in hand.

If I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Arnold S. Goldstein, Ph.D, I would have to take him to task on his stance on dreamers. He is a very down to earth person, very practical (if this book matches his personality), and the impression I got was that he sees dreamers as foolish and unrealistic. That may be true in some cases, but at the same time, aiming too low may be as bad as aiming too high. I once heard an old adage, “Shoot for the stars, and you might reach the moon,” That is my philosophy, but this guy is obviously more materially successful than I am, so there is an excellent chance that he knows what he is talking about. It would be an interesting clash of ideas though.

Works Cited Goldstein, Arnold S. Starting on a Shoestring 2nd Edition. New York: John Wiley & Sons 1991 Montana, Patrick J., and Bruce H. Charnov. Management. Third Edition. Hauppauge: Barron’s Educational Series, Inc. 2000