First Business

Most beginners fail on their first deal—not because they’re lazy, but because they don’t know what to watch for. One wrong move can leave you with a money pit, bad tenants, or debt you can’t recover from.That’s where this book comes in—to make sure your first deal builds wealth, not regret.

This is the memoir of James C. Hormel - a man who grew up feeling different not only because his family owned the Hormel “empire” and lived in a 26 bedroom house in a small Midwest town, but because he was gay at a time when homosexuality was not discussed or accepted. Outwardly he tried to live up to the life his father wanted for him - he was a successful professional, had married a lovely woman, and had children - but as volatile changes in the late 1960s impeded on the American psyche, Hormel realized that he could not hide his true self forever.

Between the constant pressures of job performance and demands on your time, it’s easy to lose sight of your values, letting them shift out of alignment. Those simple misalignments are keeping you from feeling joyful and fulfilled.

Meghan is a beautiful, naive, and sheltered young woman working for her father's company. When Meghan asks to work for a difficult and demanding senior executive named Mark, she never suspects how far she will be asked to go to help her father's company out. She accompanies Mark to a convention and is presented with a unique opportunity to entertain investors in a way that she has only dreamed about. One night in a hotel room, Mark opens her mind to a whole other world of sexual fun.

How can women become effective leaders in large organizations without sacrificing who they are, as women and as mothers? This audiobook answers the question: They should live out the 10 characteristics of today's winning leaders. These characteristics - compassion, honesty, and authenticity, for example - were once seen as feminine weaknesses in the command-and-control corporate world. But today, in an inclusive and connected world, they define the leader who strengthens organizations rather than undermines them.

Vincent Stanley, Patagonia's director of philosophy, with Yvon Chouinard, founder and former owner of Patagonia, draws on fifty years' experience to challenge all business owners and leaders to rethink their businesses in a time of cultural and climate chaos. The authors describe the current impact of manufacturing, commerce, and traditional capitalism on the planet's natural systems and human communities, and how that impact is forcing business to change its ways.

Everything you've ever wanted to know about publishing but were too afraid to ask is right here in this funny, candid guide by acclaimed author Courtney Maum. Before and After the Book Deal: A Writer's Guide to Finishing, Publishing, Promoting, and Surviving Your First Book has over 150 contributors from all walks of the industry, including internationally best-selling authors Anthony Doerr, Roxane Gay, Garth Greenwell, Lisa Ko, R. O. Kwon, Rebecca Makkai, and Ottessa Moshfegh, alongside cult favorites Sarah Gerard, Melissa Febos, Mitchell S. Jackson, and Mira Jacob.

Right now in America, there are about two million homes with solar panels. Considering there are about 90 million single-family homes, that doesn’t seem like a lot. But consider this: We’re now on track to start adding a million new solar-powered systems each year. It’s taken a while to get here, but solar energy is increasingly becoming a popular option to power the home of the future.

As a 24-year-old line cook, Ellen Marie Bennett couldn't stand the kitchen staff’s poorly designed, cheaply made aprons. So when her head chef announced he was ordering a new batch, she blurted out, “Chef, I have an apron company” - even though she had no company, no business plan - just a glimmer of a design idea and a business license. Through hustle and a willingness to leap into the unknown, time and time again, she built that first order into a multi-million-dollar company called Hedley & Bennett.

This booklet from Carolyn Howard-Johnson, a UCLA Extension Writers' Program instructor for nearly a decade, helps authors love the project they most love to hate - writing a book proposal. She has taken the guessing out of the book proposal process. Now, there is no need to take expensive, time-consuming classes or spend hours reading a tome to find the voice and format that will propel an author's idea from a dream to reality.

In The 90 Day Cybersecurity Career Guide, Taimur Ijlal unveils a proven, step-by-step roadmap to launch a successful cybersecurity career—even if you have no prior experience, no degree, and no technical background. Drawing on years of experience in the field, he simplifies the process, helping you avoid common pitfalls, leverage AI to accelerate your learning, and position yourself as the top candidate recruiters are looking for.

With the advent of numerous job search websites, finding and applying for jobs might be easy. But when it is time to face the first interview, the thought will probably be scary. In this powerfully effective listen, entrepreneur and author T. Muralidharan shows how to be successful at that first interview.

A chapter from Zoom by Daniel Roberts and Fortune contributors. With Zoom, Fortune magazine extends one of its most successful franchises, 40 Under 40, to bring you original insight on the best-kept secrets of top entrepreneurs, business leaders, and rising tech stars.

Sixty-three percent of Kickstarter campaigns fail. Do this one thing, and you’ll be among the 37 percent who succeed. The one thing is pre-launch. Ask any crowdfunding creator, and they will confirm that it is the key to success. You will learn how to prepare for your first crowdfunding campaign and do a pre-launch with a minimal budget by using personal efforts and delegating some work to others.

Are you striving for organizational excellence? Do you need to implement or revitalize your Quality Management System (QMS) to ensure consistent improvement and customer satisfaction? Look no further than "Quality First: Developing Effective Quality Systems," the definitive guide to mastering quality management in your organization.

Transform insecurity, procrastination, indecision, and inequality into attraction-affirming, debt-mastering, and security-building money management and become a free, balanced woman ready to embrace her true potential at home, at work, and at play! Millions of people have already experienced the power of chakras and resolved their material, emotional, and mental issues through ancient yet simple practices. Be one of them.

This audiobook is filled with proven solutions, options, and problem-solving methods that every first-time author needs to know - no matter what writing challenges you face. Follow the advice given in this audiobook and by the end, after putting what I have to say into action, you will have easily written a high-quality book.

From humorous to unbelievable stories, the author takes the listener on a journey of mostly true stories into the sometimes-crazy life of a car guy. With lessons learned from either a sales, or management, point of view, each story concludes with a "moral of the story" to bring home lessons that can be applied in different areas of daily business life.

Patagonia, named by Fortune in 2007 as the coolest company on the planet, has earned a reputation as much for its ground-breaking environmental and social practices as for the quality of its clothes. In this exceptionally frank account, Chouinard and Stanley recount how the company and its culture gained the confidence, by step and misstep, to make its work progressively more responsible, and to ultimately share its discoveries with companies as large as Wal-Mart or as small as the corner bakery.

Recruiters and recruiting firm owners are overwhelmed, frustrated with their clients, candidates, and by completely unpredictable revenue. Most training simply puts recruiters in more overwhelm with marginal results. It’s possible to go from annoying vendor to trusted adviser, from rollercoaster revenue to predictable income, and from total overwhelm to clarity. It’s possible to build a recruiting business that runs without you there!