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Entrepreneurship: Back to Basics by Gordon B. Baty and Michael S. Blake Entrepreneurship: Back to Basics
By Gordon B. Baty and Michael S. Blake
2003/01 - Beard Books
1587981408 - Paperback - Reprint
US$34.95

This book offers the prospective entrepreneur some idea about how to collect his building blocks and offers the up-and -running entrepreneur some glue to hold them all together.

Publisher Comments

Categories:  Bankruptcy & Insolvency | Banking & Finance

Of Interest:

An Entrepreneurial History of the United States

An interesting and informative source for the entrepreneur and the would-be entrepreneur, this book is a reprint of a highly acclaimed 1990 book. A new preface and a newly added epilogue bring the insightful teachings of the book to a current level of usefulness. While the basic demands for becoming an entrepreneur remain the same, the environment in which an entrepreneur needs to operate has changed. This book is a veritable treasure trove of invaluable information for anyone seeking to run a company on his own, particularly if the goal is to build a rapid-growth company by exploiting some new technological or marketing data.

Review by Henry Berry
>From Turnarounds and Workouts, October 15, 2003:

Entrepreneurs have to wear many hats--CEO, CFO, marketing manager, copywriter, bookkeeper, secretary, and at times delivery boy or girl.  Baty and Blake cover all of these.  In one section, they divide the many different positions and tasks the entrepreneur has to fulfill, especially in the early stages of a business, into the general categories of entrepreneurs and custodians.  "Entrepreneurial tasks involve the setting up, planning, and motivational activities of the firm."  This uniquely entrepreneurial activity includes such business matters as initiating market research, setting budgets, and finding the right banker.  Custodial tasks, on the other hand, include tracking budget expenditures, buying materials and supplies, supervising production or services, and the like.

"As a rule, entrepreneurial tasks are much less delegable than are custodial tasks."  The authors make this fundamental distinction so that the entrepreneur will understand the different work necessary during the start-up or early phases of a business, and not become so absorbed by custodial tasks that the business suffers from losing the spark most important to it.  This distinction is important for the entrepreneur to keep in mind in order to understand what kinds of work to delegate if the business is to remain on a sound footing and to grow properly.  If the reader derives nothing else from this book than this important fundamental distinction between entrepreneurial and custodial tasks, Baty and Blake's book will have proved valuable.  The distinction is useful in organizing the entrepreneur's frame of mind, planning, leadership and management.

But the authors offer much more than this.  Both authors are steeped in entrepreneurial enterprises.  Baty has been involved in founding, running, and financing entrepreneurial businesses, including three high-tech firm, and has taught entrepreneurship at MIT and Northeastern University.  Blake has worked with budding entrepreneurs in Russia, and has other international experience in the field.  Their treatment of every conceivable topic of interest to the entrepreneur is imbued with the right amount of overview, concrete information , tips, and intangible considerations such as having the right attitude even for routine but necessary tasks, or establishing quality personal relationships with key players such as employees, bankers, and lawyers.

The authors' understanding of the personality of the entrepreneur comes through in their treatment of each topic.  While recognizing that entrepreneurs may vary from doctors, lawyers, and others who may work alone to inventors and engineers who may build large companies from their ideas, Baty and Blake understand that what ties them all together is the desire for independence, control of their own destiny, and a good income.  The authors understand, too, the enthusiasm for the entrepreneur for his work, and the commitment and hopes entailed in entrepreneurship.  This understanding informs the subjects of the book. But the authors also understand the limitations of the nature of the entrepreneur, and they deal with these at appropriate points.  The very qualities contributing to an entrepreneur's creation of a successful business usually work against him when it comes to day-to-day management and the routine of sustaining an established business.  Thus, the authors also cover how entrepreneurs can optimally leave their business if and when it becomes necessary.

Mr. Baty is a partner and founder of Zero Stage Capital and chairman of Navigator Technology Ventures.  Mr. Blake is a senior consultant for Jaako Poyry Management Consulting.

From Nightingale's Healthcare News,  November 2007

Entrepreneurs vary from doctors, lawyers, and others who may work alone to inventors and engineers who may build large companies from their ideas. What ties them all together, however, is the desire for independence, control of their destiny, and a good income.  Samuel Johnson, presiding at the sale of a London brewery, expressed it well: “We are not here to sell a parcel of boilers and vats, but the potentiality of growing rich beyond the dreams of avarice.”  

Entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs seeking the potentiality of growing rich should start by reading Entrepreneurship: Back to Basics.  The book is written by two practitioners of the art and science of spinning ideas into profit-making ventures.  Gordon Baty has started, managed, merged, sold, financed, studied, and advised entrepreneurial ventures, including a succession of high-tech firms.  He has also taught entrepreneurship at MIT and Northeastern University.  Michael Blake worked closely with budding entrepreneurs in the Soviet Union during that country’s economic transformation.  He has also assisted many others in formulating business plans and approaching bankers and venture capitalists.

With their background, Baty and Blake understand better than anyone the enthusiasm of the entrepreneur for his work, and the commitment and hopes entailed in entrepreneurship.  More importantly, they understand the basic demands for becoming an entrepreneur, which continue to be the same, although the environment in which the entrepreneur operates is constantly changing.  Nonetheless, the very qualities contributing to an entrepreneur’s creation of a successful business usually work against him when it comes to day-to-day management and the routine of sustaining an established business.  Thus, the authors also cover how entrepreneurs can optimally leave their businesses if and when it becomes necessary.

Entrepreneurs have to wear many hats – CEO, CFO, marketing manager, copywriter, bookkeeper, secretary, and at times delivery boy or girl. Baty and Blake cover all of these.  In one section, they divide the many different positions and tasks the entrepreneur has to fulfill, especially in the early stages of a business, into the general categories of entrepreneurs and custodians.  “Entrepreneurial tasks involve the setting up, planning, and motivational activities of the firm.”  This uniquely entrepreneurial activity includes such business matters as initiating market research, setting budgets, and finding the right banker.  Custodial tasks, on the other hand, include tracking budget expenditures, buying materials and supplies, supervising production or services, and the like.

“As a rule, entrepreneurial tasks are much less delegable than are custodial tasks.”  The authors make this fundamental distinction so that the entrepreneur will understand the different work necessary during the start-up or early phases of a business, and not become so absorbed by custodial tasks that the business suffers from losing the spark most important to it.  This distinction is important for the entrepreneur to keep in mind in order to understand what kinds of work to delegate if the business is to remain on a sound footing and to grow properly.  If the reader derives nothing else from this book than this important fundamental distinction between entrepreneurial and custodial tasks, Baty and Blake’s book will have provide valuable.  The distinction is useful in organizing the entrepreneur’s frame of mind, planning, leadership, and management.

Baty’s and Blake’s address every conceivable topic of interest to the entrepreneur.  A sampling of the chapters – “Initial Financing,” “Public or Private: What’s the Difference?” “The business Plan,”  Shopping and Negotiating,” “Accounting – Inside and Out,” “Care and Feeding of Bankers,” “Competitors and Wht To Do About them,” Strategic Partnering,” Lawyers and Their Uses,” Millstones and Other Fixed Assets,” – exemplifies the breadth of their book’s coverage.  Nonetheless, the book gets to the point, appreciative of the fact that, for entrepreneurs, time is money.  Readers will find that Entrepreneurship: Back to Basics is imbued with the right amount of overview, concrete information, tips, and intangible considerations such as having the right attitude even for routine but necessary tasks, or establishing quality personal relationships with key players such as employees, bankers, and lawyers.

Gordon Baty is a partner and founder of Zero Stage Capital and chairman of Navigator Technology Ventures.  Michael Blake is a senior consultant for Jaako Poyry Management Consulting. 

Gordon Baty practices, preaches, and promotes entrepreneurship. Professionally, he has occupied every seat around the table. He has run three venture-capital financed start-ups; has sat on twenty boards; has been a private investor in several; and has been an institutional investor in many more. He has also taught entrepreneurship at the university level, has written extensively about it, venture capital, and the management of innovation. Baty has advised government and university officials on entrepreneurship, seed capital, and the commercialization of technology. He holds BS, MS, PhD degrees from MIT. Photo taken from Zero Stage website.

Michael S. Blake has been an active participant at all stages of the entrepreneurial process throughout his career. During most of the 1990s, he worked closely with fledgling entrepreneurs in the new market of the former Soviet Union. He had delivered seminars to teach entrepreneurs how to formulate a Western-style business plan and to approach venture investors. He has assisted several participants to raise capital to start and grow their own businesses. Mr. Blake has worked for an Israeli merchant bank that invested and raised capital for Israeli and North American technology ventures. He is presently a Senior consultant for Jaako Poyry Management Consulting, where he focuses on supporting merger and acquisition activities in the forestry and paper industries. Mr. Blake is a CFA Charterholder and holds a BA from Franklin & Marshall College and an MBA from Georgetown University.

Preface xi
Acknowledgments xv
Note to the Educator xvi
PART I. FORMATION
Chapter 1. Why Start a Company 1
Chapter 2. Risks and Rewards 9
Apparent versus Real Risks 9
Financial Risks 10
Career Risks 11
Personal Risks 11
Rewards 13
Balancing Risks and Rewards 14
How to Tell if You're an Entrepreneur? 15
What Kind of an Entrepreneur to Be? 15
Chapter 3. What Kind of Company? 17
Service versus Manufacturing 19
Fashions in Technologies and Markets 19
Where to Look for Ideas 20
Criteria for First Products 22
Venture Architecture 24
What Characterizes Good Architecture? 26
Chapter 4. Measuring the Need 30
Where Do You Look for Information? 33
Chapter 5. Selection of Cohorts 38
Is a Team Really Necessary? 39
Common Team Problems 39
The Question of Stock 40
Equity Distribution: One Approach 42
Housecleaning 44
Chapter 6. The Zero Stage: Form versus Substance 46
What Form Should the Company Take? 47
What Kind of Facilities? 48
Directors, Pro and Con 49
Prototypes and Plausibility 50
Where Does Seed Money Come From? 51
What to Do until the Money Arrives 53
Chapter 7. Leaving the Womb 56
Noncompetition Agreements 57
When to Split 58
What to Take with You 59
Raiding 59
PART II. FINANCING AND FINANCES
Chapter 8. Initial Financing 61
What is the Worth of Valueless Stock? 63
Venture Capital: What It Is and Isn't 64
Why Not Get a Loan? 64
Operating without Capital 65
The Magic of Initial Sales 69
Chapter 9.  Equity Sources: A Range of Motivations 70
Private Individuals or Groups of Individuals 71
Venture Capital Firms 74
Adler's Laws 76
Small Business Investment Companies (SBICs) 77
Fiduciary Funds Managers  78
Industrial Corporations 79
The Only Game in Town? 82
Chapter 10. Public or Private: What's the Difference? 86
Sizing Up the Market 89
The Public Route: Some Additional Considerations 90
Chapter 11. The Business Plan 92
A Variety of Purposes 92
The Fund-Raising Plan 95
How Much Money? 96
The Operating Business Plan 98
Chapter 12. Shopping and Negotiating 100
Sizing Up Investors 100
A Note on Finders 101
Folklore: Don't Shop the Deal 102
Your Initial Approach 102
The Pitch 103
Rank Your Targets 103
A Note on References 104
What Is in a Letter of Intent? 105
The Document 107
The Problem with Bridge Capital 107
The Negotiation Process 108
Chapter 13. Accounting --- Inside and Out 111
Accounting as a Language 112
Accouting Help: How Much and What Kind? 112
Auditors 114
Significance of Certified Statements 114
Selection of an Auditing Firm 115
The Audit 116
Other Big Six Functions 116
Budgets and Control 117
Chapter 14. Care and Feeding of Bankers 120
Differences among Banks 120
Selecting a Bank 121
Grooming the Relationship 122
Miscellaneous Services of Banks 123
Day-to-Day Banking 124
Chapter 15. The Next Round of Financing 126
Financing Future Growth 126
Who Needs those Guys? 128
Financing Past Losses 129
Acquiring an Acquirer 131
PART III. PEOPLE
Chapter 16. People in Small Firms --- General Considerations 135
The Fallacy of Hiring for Future Needs 135
The Outgrown Employee 136
Talent versus Experience 138
Creating Creative Environments 138
Small Business Types We Can Do Without 140
Chapter 17. Acquiring and Divesting People 143
Compensation Packages 143
Recruiting 147
Interviewing 149
The New Employee 149
Divesting People 150
A Note on the Personnel Function 152
PART IV. MARKETING 
Chapter 18. Selling 155
Marketing versus Selling 155
Image versus Reality 156
Advertising Agencies 158
Public Relations Agencies 158
Pricing 159
Continuous Market Research 160
Building a Rep Organization 160
Identifying and Recruiting Reps 161
Succeeding with Reps 162
Beyond reps 164
International Marketing 165
Your Job as Cheerleader 167
Selling Can Be Learned 168
Chapter 19. The Customer 170
Identifying Customers 170
Analyzing Customer Needs 172
Servicing the Relationship 173
Handling Problems 174
The Problem Customer 175
Enforcing Contracts 177
Chapter 20. Competitors and What to Do about Them 179
Who is a Competitor? 179
Competitors as an Idea Source 180
Competitors as a Basis for Comparison 180
Finding Out about Competitors 181
Competitive Structure 184
Hiring Competitors' Personnel 185
Chapter 21. Going International 187
Why Go Offshore? 187
Benefits Flow Both Ways 188
How to Proceed 189
Foreign Marketing in Context 193
Chapter 22. Strategic Partnering 195
What is a Strategic Partnership? 195
What's in it for the New Venture? 196
What's in it for the Big Partner? 197
What are the Form of Strategic Partnerships? 198
How Do You Make it Work? 199
PART V. RUNNING THE SHOW
Chapter 23. A Race with the Clock 201
The Importance of Meeting Targets 202
Entrepreneurs versus Custodians 202
The Principle of Enlightened Mediocrity 203
Cash Balance 203
Maintaining Investor Rapport 204
The Entrepreneur's Credibility 205
Planning Your Time 206
Helping Others Plan Their Time 208
Chapter 24. More on Negotiation 210
Your Opposer is Usually at a Gross Advantage 211
The Negotiating Process 211
Why Technologists are Often Poor Negotiations 212
Knowing Your Opposer 213
Strategies and Tactics 214
Some Additional Considerations on Negotiating 216
Chapter 25. Lawyers and Their Uses 218
Lawyers as Legal Advisors  219
Lawyers as Business Advisors 219
Lawyers as Negotiators 220
Lawyers as Investor Interface 220
Lawyers as Defenders 220
Pick a Lawyer 221
Patent Lawyers 222
Special Counsel 223
Chapter 26. Custodial Operations and How to Avoid Them 225
Too Much Information 230
Chapter 27. Millstones and Other Fixed Assets 232
Make-or-Buy Analysis 235
The Plant-Building Instinct 235
Chapter 28. Managing the R&D Function 238
Engineers as a Species 238
What Engineers Do in Startups 239
Product Engineering: Some Trends 240
Patents 242
Industrial Design 242
Care and Feeding of Engineers 243
In Conclusion 246
Chapter 29. Life after Death: Our Beneficent Bankruptcy Law 247
What is Bankruptcy?  247
What the Law Says 248
What's in a Plan of Reorganization? 250
Diving In and Digging Out 250
Alternatives to Formal Bankruptcy 252
PART VI. OVER AND OUT
Chapter 30 Exit This Way 255
Why Get Out? 255
Life Strategy 256
Exit Modes 257
A Final Note on Getting Out 262
Index 264
Epilogue 271

 

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