Name: Growing a business
ISBN: 9780671671648

Growing a business

Nearly everyone harbors a secret dream of starting or owning a business. In fact, 1,000,000 businesses start in the United Sates every year. Many of them fail, but enough succeed so that small businesses are now adding millions of jobs to the economy at the same time that the Fortune 500 companies are actually losing jobs. Paul Hawken-entrepreneur, environmentalist, and bestselling author-wrote Growing a Business for those who have set out to make their dream a reality. He knows what he's talking about: In the early 1970s, while he was still in his twenties, he founded Erewhon, the largest distributor of natural foods. Later, he founded Smith & Hawken, the premier garden tool company. Using examples like Patagonia and Ben & Jerry's shows that the successful business is an expression of an individual person. The most successful business your idea for a business will grow from something that is deep within you, something that can't be stolen by anyone because it is so uniquely yours that anyone else who tried to execute your idea would fail. He also dispels the myth of the risk taking entrepreneur. The purpose of business, he points out, is not to take risks but rather to get something done.

What Hacker News says

jdale27Nov 2012

Pick up the book "Growing a Business", by Paul Hawken.

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tptacekDec 2011

I read Cialdini years ago because Joel Spolsky recommended it here:

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/navLinks/fog0000000262.html

From that list, I also highly recommend:

* Peopleware (get your cofounders to read it too)

* Godel Escher Bach

* A Pattern Language (but don't bother reading it straight through)

* Growing A Business

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jjguyAug 2011

Link dead for me. Found the list republished here: http://thenextbigtechthing.com/10-books-every-entrepreneur-s...

"The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Business Law" -- LLC vs C-corp vs S-Corp? Founder’s vesting? Liquidation Preferences? Equity vs Debt financing? This book will educate you enough to be able to answer these and many other important questions.

"Bootstrapping Your Business" -- From the founder of RightNow. The amazing story of how a geographically-challenged (Montana) entrepreneur built a world class business.

"Purple Cow" -- Dead simple premise, the key to marketing is to build something remarkable.

"The Art of the Start" -- The Art of Pitching, Marketing and Funding your Startup.

"The Innovator’s Dilemma" -- If your startup beats all the odds and becomes hugely successful prepare yourself for the innovator’s dilemma, cannibalize your product before someone else does.

"The E-Myth Revisited" -- How-to create a business not a job.

"Permission Marketing" -- The greatest marketing asset your startup can build is the permission to market to your customers and prospects.

"Growing a Business" -- Sincere advice for creating a company culture that your team and customers will love.

"The Cluetrain Manifesto" -- Successful marketing is a conversation.

"Bottom-up Marketing" -- Pure bottoms-up execution. Marketing tactics to grow your business.

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davidwNov 2010

I agree about Jim "Business Guru" Collins: his books seem a bit like "empty calories" to me. I was left without much of a sense of any practical takeaways.

My favorite business book, I think, is "Growing a Business" by Paul Hawken. Pretty down to earth and he says a lot of things you'll see by people like 37 signals, except he said them back in the 80ies: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0671671642?tag=dedasys-20

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tptacekOct 2010

This list is missing some pretty vital books:

* 4 Steps to the Epiphany (Steve Blank's mimeograph-quality bible of lean startup marketing)

* Growing a Business

* The Knack

* All of Seth Godin

* Blue Ocean

It's weird that the list has so many big-business suit-and-tie titles (Ogilvy, New Rules, etc) but is missing small business core titles like these.

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davidwAug 2010

One of my favorite business books is 'Growing a Business' by Paul Hawken. It's from the 80ies, but much of his advice would look quite at home in a blog post by 37signals or some such.

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