Small Buisness Big Life

"Small Business, Big Life: Five Steps To Creating A Great Life With Your Own Small Business" by financial and business expert Louis Barajas is an articulate, 'reader friendly', step-by-step, how-to manual for aspiring entrepreneurs wanting to establish a business enterprise, building a viable business, and still have a robust and satisfying personal life. The key to it all is the creation and maintenance of a proper 'mind-set' based on the four basic principles of Truth, Responsibility, Awareness, and Courage. "Small Business, Big Life" explains how to identify values and priorities and then fashion them into a kind of 'life blueprint'. Barajas reveals the components for creating a successful business include doing what you love, doing what your good at, and being profitable with what you do. The importance of systems for orderly, manageable growth are stressed, as is creating access to good attorneys, bankers, accountants, insurance agents, and vendors. If you are thinking about launching a small business, regardless of the products or services it will entail, then you need to give Louis Barajas a careful and considered reading!

After many years searching for a book that offers guidance in creating a successful business without compromising family values, I finally found it. I'm a business owner with minor children that hardly know me yet they are the most important part of my life. I have spent countless hours building my business to provide a comfortable living for them but I have failed as a father. After reading Small Business, Big Life, I realized my business was running my life instead of me running my business. I already started creating my life blueprint and the business blueprint and I have to admit that it's been a long time since I been as excited for my business as I am right now. For the first time in many years I will be taking some time off to go to my kid's basketball games. Thank you Mr. Barajas for this magical book.

Small Business, Big Life is a must read for all small business owners. Louis Barajas takes a step back and gives us practical knowledge about establishing and running a business. The book emphazises that the purpose of a business is to give us more life, not to be consumed by it. Oftentimes, however, we neglect and forget this pressing issue until we have health, marital or emotional problems. Mr. Barajas explains, in a step-by-step process, how to avoid this inevitable pitfall. Being that I am a business student with aspirations of establishing my own business, I wish that the curriculum would incorporate and emphazise this theory. I loved reading this book because it is inspirational, practical and helpful.

I enjoyed reading this book. It was well-written, and easy to follow. It explains that a small business does not have to be about ego and/or money. But instead a small business can be about having more control and quality of life. In a way, this book made me think of another book I am going to review tonight: How to Run a Business Like a Girl (ISBN: 1593374550). I liked that book, too. This book is comprised of 11 chapters: 1. Why Start a Business? 2. Truth 3. Responsibility 4. Awareness 5. Courage 6. Your Life Blueprint - The purpose of your business is to give you more life. 7. Your Vision - The source of leadership. 8. Your Business Blueprint - Your business is your business, not your product or service. 9. Your Business Systems - Make it easy to build success. 10. Your Team - The bigger the dream, the better the team needed. 11. Conclusion - Living the dash Chapters 2 to 5 the author calls the "Four Cornerstones of Personal Success." Chapters 6 to 10 are referred to as "The Five Steps to Build a Small Business, Big Life." The book is more philosophical than it is practical. But I think any wanta-be entrepreneur should give it a read. When starting a small business a person needs to be somewhat philosophical so the practical things that need to be done and get done will in fact get done. I would have liked the book better if chapters 2 though 5 had been left out. And I would have enjoyed seeing chapters 6 through 10 more developed. I suppose I say this because I like reading business books, and not a mixture of business and "something else." This book comes across as a business coaching book. It is equally applicable for people starting a business as it is for people who are in need of improving their business. Much of what is included here can be found in the various titles written by Bradley Sugars. My favorite of Sugars' books is Instant Systems (ISBN: 0071466703) which covers a bunch of what is covered in chapters 6 to 10 here. 5 stars!