How to Start Your Own Business on a Shoestring and Make Up to $500,000 a Year: 4th Revised Edition

I got my copy of this book in about 1970. So it is the first edition (with a slightly different title ["..up to $100,000..."] before the inflation of the '70's).This book helped give me my first dream of being self-employed. It gave me my first education in how to run the "nuts and bolts" operation of a small business (especially mail-order).Sure, it's got it's share of hype and "positive" talk, but that is what I needed at that stage in my development into a self-employed business owner. It also lacks details that you will need with your own business. But so what? If you are serious about starting your own business, you'll be wanting to read several other books, anyway, to gain the help you need. Some of it will be general information, like this book, and others will contain more specific information about your particular industry/trade.32 years later, I'm self-employed and have been that way for the last 15 years, at least. I am grateful to Tyler Hicks for givng me a start and pointing me in the right direction.--George Stancliffe, author, SPEED READING 4 KIDS

I don't know why this book's reviews average 3 1/2 stars. Maybe the people who bought it thought they would open it up and find a million dollars stashed inside. This book was full of incredible very easy to do ideas. I do beleive that by applying the techniques put forth in this book, anyone can make more money than they already have, and that's never a loss. The only reason I withheld one star, was that the author used the book to advertise a bunch of other services.

This book is perfect for the average person trying to get money by working at home. I definitely feel that anyone interested in starting a home business NEEDS this book to quickly get profits. My only minor suggestion to the author: Stop plugging your newsletter and your other books in the pages of this book! You can have an informational page in the back of the book for this purpose. It gets really annoying to see "and if you need information on such-and-such topic, subscribe to my newsletter!" or "You can find more info in my OTHER books, 14.95 each!" Your confidence in your system is great and it supposedly has made you a lot of money! So WHY do you constantly refer us to your other books or kits when you could give it to us in this book? Most of these other books are $14.95, but are only 96 pages! If you have so much money and are confident in your system, you should be able to afford giving us the info instead of having us give you another 15 bucks or more! Yes, this book IS chock-full of useful information, but the information that ISN'T here is the problem. PROSPECTIVE BUYERS: Buy this book, learn the ropes, and make the money. It is a good, well thought out book. But beware that the actual information that is needed to start many of the ideas in this book will cost you!Mr. Hicks gives you a good push in the right direction, but if you want to reach the finish line, only your hard work can get you there, not an author. DaveP.S - If you do decide to spend the money to buy the information at the back of the book, more power to you. D