Click Here To Purchase From Amazon The Best Secrets of Great Small Businesses

Author: Ray Silverstein

Publisher: Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, Inc.

ISBN-13: 978-1-4022-1766-2

ISBN-10: 1-4022-0766-2

The Best Secrets of Great Small Businesses is a softbound, 242 page book.  Comprised of ten chapters, an epilogue, index, and a brief biography of the author, this book is the product of discussions among member of PRO (President’s Resource Organization), founded by the author, Ray Silverstein, in 1993.  PRO is a paid, peer advisory group.

            The content represents a collection of vignettes; generalizations of specific fact patterns.  It addresses issues likely to be of greatest interest to smaller, entrepreneurial owner-managers.

            As a Certified Public Accountant, with nearly thirty years of small business tax planning and consulting experience, I found one vignette to be representative of the type of content one might anticipate.  On page 86 of the book, the issue of “when and how to fire a customer” is addressed.  The answer is, in my humble opinion, flawless, and addressed parsimoniously.  This is not a topic likely to be covered in a college course, though, once explained, makes perfect sense and/or is intuitively appealing.  It is also precisely the practice employed by those successfully building their practice in, for example, public accounting firms, without, as Silverstein suggests, any likely downside.  This single insight and its delivery impressed me and will make this book worth considering.  It is likely to require only a few hours to read and digest.

            Beyond the above, this book is not likely to contribute to the education of those with, say, an undergraduate degree in business administration.  It is certainly not for the MBA employed by a large, bureaucratic organization.  These audiences are likely to have had coursework that includes complex case studies, though targeted, more often than not, at the large, bureaucratic firm.  This recommendation is relevant unless you are a recent graduate of such a program and ready to launch your own entrepreneurial endeavor.  This brings us to the target group likely to benefit most from this book.

            I would recommend this book for the highly independent, entrepreneur.  The successful small business owner, possibly described by others as a maverick who succeeded, but without formal education, and is seeking to fine-tune their operation and/or take it to the “next level.”  Many entrepreneurs are simply incapable (lacking the skill set) of growing their small business, but attempt to do so, and fail.  They are often unwilling to relinquish control or fail to view the very strengths that led to their success, with their smaller firm, as weaknesses, for this “next level” goal or objective.  For this group, PRO may represent a solution, and this book will introduce them to a broad variety of simple solutions to simple problems and, perhaps even lead them to PRO membership and/or participation.  This target group or audience is also far more likely to accept advice and guidance from their practically-oriented peers, when compared to a business consultant, CPA, attorney, and so on.

Click Here To Purchase From Amazon The Best Secrets of Great Small Businesses

The above review was contributed by: A.J. Cataldo, Ph.D., CPA, CMA

Northeastern University - Boston, MA

Anthony (A.J.) Cataldo II.    Dr. Cataldo holds a PhD from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University , MAc ( University of Arizona)  unofficial minor in Marketing , BSBA  (University of Arizona). He is a Certified Management Accountant and a Certified Public Accountant:  Click Here to view Anthony's Reviews

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