If I was going to start a new business today I would be sure to study and pay close attention to Kevin Readys new book,Startup. His wisdom, experience, and his self-effacing and honest writing make this a real gem for aspiring entrepreneurs and business people of all kinds.

Bob Beaudine, author of The Power of WHO

Startup: An Insider's Guide to Launching and Running a Business is for people who are excellent at somethingproduct or web development, writing code, marketing or selling anythingbut who are now toiling for others. Yet they have long had a dream: to take that special skill set and use it, on their own terms, in a startup business.

This pattern is romanticized by the media in the form of the tech entrepreneurthe guy brainstorming with buddies in a garage who ends up selling his startup for millions. But what is the reality behind stories like that one? For that matter, what mental processes, frames of reference, hard knocks, and lessons learned make up the back story behindany startup success? This book not only reveals the actual experience of entrepreneurship, but it provides readers with a set of universal entrepreneurial skills and tools they can use to build a business.

AuthorKevin Ready has made this journey, and more than once. He earned his MBAMaster of Bruise Acquisitionthrough numerous encounters with situations, problems, black holes, bad employees, sea monsters, not enough money, and other karate chops to the organizational body.Startup illustrates in detail the lessons he learned the hard wayso you dont have to.

Backed up by stories of both his successes and failures, Ready helps readers learn shortcuts to help them do what eight out of 10 entrepreneurs cant: Build and sustain a successful start-up.

Illustrates the entrepreneurial journey from start to finishHelps readers decideor nottostart a businessProvides dozens of lessons learned and other takeaways budding entrepreneurs can put to use today

Kevin Ready loves building things and helping people to build things. Over the last 20 years, he has built, run, consulted for, and advised numerous start-ups and businesses. For him, there is nothing more interesting than understanding business models and the problems that entrepreneurs come up against in their markets. As he says often, It is my work and my play. I never get tired of it. Born into an engineering family, Ready started his first company right out of college. While the venture was a success, he saw the limitations to scaling the business. As the Internet era took shape, he joined the "tech wave" through the late 1990s, starting several online businesses. Years before Facebook, he was a founder of a social networking site with nearly one million users. Later, he and a partner spun off and sold a digital mapping business, then moved on to become an online software and media retail business that merged with a larger rival in 2008. That same year, he became a partner at an online real estate business that was in crisis mode. By applying the lessons presented in this book, he helped turn the business around. Just 13 months later, it was acquired by the newspaper industry. That business where he still works as technical director now brings in millions of dollars of profit per year and touches five million consumers every month.

Chapter 1: Setting the Stage for Starting a Business

Chapter 2: Operations and Decisions: Core Lessons in Execution

Chapter 3: Marketing Your Products and Services

Chapter 4: Building a Team: You Cant Do It Alone

Chapter 5: Strategic Thinking: Advanced Lessons for Founders

Chapter 6: The Exit: Letting the Business Go