Small Business Success

For more than 40 years, The Boston Consulting Group has been shaping strategic thinking in business. The Boston Consulting Group on Strategy offers a broad and up-to-date selection of the firm's best ideas on strategy with fresh ideas, insights, and practical lessons for managers, executives, and entrepreneurs in every industry. Here's a sampling of the provocative thinking you'll find inside.

Adam Braun began working summers at hedge funds when he was just 16 years old, sprinting down the path to a successful Wall Street career. But while traveling as a college student, he met a young boy begging on the streets of India. When Braun asked the boy what he wanted most in the world, he simply answered, "A pencil." This small request became the inspiration for Pencils of Promise, the organization Braun would leave a prestigious job at Bain & Company to start with just $25 at the age of 24.

10 Strategies Inspired by Elon Musk: Unlock Potential with First-Principles Thinking and Relentless Focus. Are you ready to think bigger, act bolder, and transform your life or business? Look no further than this groundbreaking guide inspired by one of the most innovative minds of our time: Elon Musk. Written for entrepreneurs, self-improvement enthusiasts, and anyone striving to achieve extraordinary results, this book reveals the 10 game-changing strategies that drive Musk's success.

The $20 SaaS Company: From Zero to Seven Figures Without Venture Capital describes the story of a young entrepreneur who built a $20 investment into a multi-million dollar software company. With no investors, role models, high-tech equipment, or marketing team, the audiobook tells you how to beat venture capital based companies at their game. This audiobook contains the secret strategies to running a profitable SaaS company, describing the tactics to get the word out about your product for free.

Chicken Soup for the Entrepreneur's Soul is a compilation of short stories from entrepreneurs, both large and small, who share their experiences of success, failure and courage, with a little helpful advice mixed in. Many of these stories, told for the first time here, will enlighten you to new methods of entrepreneurship or simply help you believe in the possibilities of getting started.

This isn't your average restaurant business book. Burns fearlessly dives headfirst into the brutal truth of what's been holding restaurants back from greatness. No more sugar-coating or industry double-speak–it's time for a savage wake-up call!

What does it take to create the career you want? It's no secret that the world of work has changed, and we're shifting toward an ever more entrepreneurial, self-reliant, work-from-wherever-you-are economy. That can be a liberating force. But there's a major obstacle professionals face when they contemplate taking the leap: how to actually make money doing what they love. You may have incredible talent and novel ideas, but figuring out how to get started, building your reputation in a new realm, and bringing in a steady flow of new clients can be a daunting prospect.

In the new edition of this fascinating book, a book that has appeared on MSNBC, CNBC, Slashdot.org, Lifehacker.com and in the New York Times, best-selling author Scott Berkun pulls the best lessons from the history of innovation, including the recent software and web age, to reveal powerful and surprising truths about how ideas become successful innovations - truths people can easily apply to the challenges of today.

En un impresionante alarde de síntesis, Francisco Alcaide ha reunido en este tercer volumen cuatrocientas reflexiones cuidadosamente seleccionadas de reconocidas personalidades de ámbitos y disciplinas diferentes a los de los dos anteriores, analizadas por el mismo autor con profundidad y rigor para darles sentido y coherencia. Reflexiones que nos inspirarán y nos empujarán a luchar por nuestros objetivos y retos. Porque, al fin y al cabo, el éxito no es otra cosa que aprendizaje.

What type of business should you start? For the past 10 years, Inc. 500 CEO and number-one national best-selling author, Ryan Levesque - featured for his work in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Forbes, and Entrepreneur - has guided thousands of entrepreneurs through the journey of answering this question. One of the biggest reasons why so many new businesses fail is because in the quest to decide what business to start, most of the conventional wisdom is wrong.

To even the best business owners, marketing often feels like a big bet - the kind where you don’t know the odds or even what happens when you play. And a bad bet is dangerous for everyone. Marketing missteps for big companies go viral, but small businesses that waste money on a bad campaign or halfhearted ads might burn through their resources and sacrifice years of growth.

In our culture, artistic genius and poverty seem inevitably linked, but does it have to be that way? Jim Henson didn’t think so. An iconic creator and savvy businessman, Henson is a model for artists everywhere: Without sacrificing his creative vision, Henson built an empire of lovable Muppets that continues to educate and inspire - and a business that was worth $150 million at the time of his death. How did he ever pull it off? And how can other creators follow in his path?

Philanthropist, investor, and technology pioneer Jean Case brings to life the five "Be Fearless" principles common to the people and organizations that change the world. This audiobook is a call to action for those seeking to live extraordinary lives and bring about transformational change. Be Fearless mixes storytelling and strategy, practical tips and inspiration, to teach individuals and organizations how to put these five principles to work so they, too, can spark the sorts of remarkable breakthroughs that change the world.

Companies everywhere face two major challenges today: getting noticed and getting paid. To confront these obstacles, Bharat Anand examines a range of businesses around the world, from The New York Times to The Economist, from Chinese Internet giant Tencent to Scandinavian digital trailblazer Schibsted, and from talent management to the future of education.

Hardly anyone gets it right the first time, but many of us are crippled by indecision and fear of failure. The desire to get it right can inhibit us from getting started. In this book Rob Moore, the best-selling author of Money, shows that the quickest way to perfect is starting right now and improving as you go. This book will show you how to launch your business or idea, begin the next phase of your career and overcome self-doubt - right away. Get perfect later; get started now.

This is not a story about failure, but it might as well be. When we don't define success in our own terms, finding our purpose, and carving our own path becomes impossible. How do you break the cycle so that you can be better at work and life? In this audiobook, Laura Gassner Otting teaches you how to ignore the rules that created your limits, align your energies and your actions, and do work that really matters so that you can live your best life.

Does your daily effort at work build your dream, or someone else's? Do you do your job for the paycheck or the fulfillment? It's possible to have both, and this book shows you how to get there. The key is in following your passion and purpose. You have a natural-born talent - whether you know it or not - that can make the world a better place. You have a unique story and vision that can lead you to the life you love.

Intentional Success is written for the aspiring entrepreneur, the business professional, the dreamer, and the doer. Taken from actual life lessons, the book provides a real-world viewpoint on what it takes to succeed as an entrepreneur. The book addresses the typical struggles aspiring business owners encounter when starting, managing, growing, and maintaining a successful venture. It features a formula for success that embraces the key tenets of persistence, sales, time management, goal setting, and leadership.

How have Japanese companies become world leaders in the automotive and electronics industries, among others? What is the secret of their success? Two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi, are the first to tie the success of Japanese companies to their ability to create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies.

Not all heroes wear capes. You might not think of yourself as a hero, but every time you create value for others, you're benefiting people and making life easier or better for them in some way. The question is, "Who do you want to be a hero to?" By identifying the key audience you want to create value for, you focus yourself on the most crucial people in your life, helping them to grow their capabilities - and growing your own as well.