The Beermat Entrepreneur: Turn Your Good Idea Into a Great Business. Mike Southon and Chris West

Does a book have to dense to be thoughtful? Does it have to use ten-dollar (or should I say pounds sterling) words to be smart? I don't think so.Mike and Chris do a great job of clearly describing some of the key points and milestones of building a successful business. As a business advisor, MBA graduate, and entrepreneur, I agree with Chris and Mike that business is easy. The problem is there are several key points that you must tenaciously focus on and get right to be successful.They do a great job of organizing and describing some of these key points based around an elevator pitch, a mentor, and your first customer. Other business books and scholars might describe it differently, but not in as interesting or entertaining a fashion.If you're an entrepreneur, with little time to spare, The Beermat Entrepreneur, provides you many key insights in a quick, breezy, entertaining way. Enjoy.

I have a business that I started myself and with the help of a great team have developed it into a successful business over the past five years. The authors view points from the startup (seedling) stage all the way to becoming a large (mighty oak) organization are very insightful and done from the perspective of someone that has truly been there and done that. Most business startup books I have read tend to take you way off base into textbook theories that is just that, theories. The Beermat Entrepreneur is for the real entrepreneur that truly wants good practical advice on how to get a business from an idea on a napkin (beermat) in the bar to a successful business.

The book is a step by step guide from initial idea to great business, with wisdom that only successful business people, such as the authors, could give. The clarity of thought is amazing. Especially helpful is their outlining of key success factors for each stage of a business, and how success factors change as the business grows. People, sales, finance, mentors, elevator pitch, business plans, motivation and leadership are all covered in clear and succinct fashion. No fluff. A good, quick read.

After living in and doing management research in Silicon Valley for the past 20 years, my first reaction to this book was: How can Americans possibly learn anything about entrepreneurship from authors based in the United Kingdom? I was wrong. This is the most concise, complete, and engaging book you can read about how to grow a company. It is also might be the only charming book on entrepreneurship ever written. The Beermat Entrepreneur trumps the competition. Southon and West dispense with the annoying hype that fills so many management books. Instead, they give sound and useable advice about what every founder can and should do to build a great company. Not only that, this concise book is a joy to read. I teach management and entrepreneurship at Stanford University, and if I were to advise an aspiring company founder in any part of the world to read just one book, this would be it.

Contrary to the first two reviews, I thought both authors did a really great job of defining the key elements for building a successful business. For once, here is a book that actually tells you the secret recipe from taking an idea, and turning that into a successful business. Everyone who knows Mike Southon and his success in selling his company to what is now Cap Gemini Ernst & Young will tell you that book is full of substance. If you're an aspiring entrepreneur like myself, I would encourage you should get your hands on this book!