Thinking Like an Entrepreneur: How to Make Intelligent Business Decisions That Will Lead to Success in Building and Growing Your Own Company [Paperback]

Peter Hupalo has written a unique book for Entrepreneurs. I've read a lot of books about business and entrepreneurship, but this one is different. It speaks to people just thinking about starting a business and yet it has a lot to offer to the veteran entrepreneur.

If you're thinking about starting a business, the first few chapters will do a great job of helping you think about the risks in quitting a "safe" job and starting your own company. It's not as risky as you might think. This isn't the book to read about business licenses or accounting systems - it is much more important than that! It really is as the title suggests a book about thinking like an entrepreneur.

I've been in business for more than 10 years, but I'm still making mistakes and trying to learn new things. A mark of a good book for me is the number of pages that I dog-ear to mark interesting ideas. My copy of Thinking Like an Entrepreneur has at least 20 pages marked, and I've referred back to it many times since I finished reading it. It will definitely go on my favorites shelf of business books. I've already recommended it to my entrepreneur friends.

The author's style is to mix stories about experiences from actual entrepreneurs with good step-by-step walkthroughs of "thinking like an entrepreneur". It is 272 pages with 27 chapters. Each chapter can stand alone, making it easy to focus on the areas you're really interested in while skimming the ones that don't apply so much to your business. Peter seems to have a technology background, but I think any businessperson will find a lot to learn in this book.

My favorite chapters include:

* Don't Get Bournouillied - an interesting discussion of risk

* Men are cheaper than guns

* The importance of margins - Most books don't cover this VERY important topic

* Expectation Values and Decision Making

* Personality and Business Choice

* You Know Enough, But Keep Learning Anyway

* The Role of Luck in Business

* An introduction to the Nature of Compounding and the Time Value of Money

* Relationship Marketing - The cost of losing clients

* The Value of Time

This is a very readable book. It is entertaining while having good solid information on important topics that you'll find yourself rereading several times. Highly recommended!

Initially I was a little skeptical about this book, because I could not find anything about what the author actually does for a living. I was expecting another "let me show you how to write the best business plan" kind of book. Instead, I found a very enjoyable and practical book that should be a must-read for every aspiring entrepreneur, regardless of which industry this aspiration may lie in.

The 266-page book is divided into 27 chapters, each covering a specific topic. That makes about 10 pages per chapter, which translates into material that's easily understandable and digestable. Topics covered range from risk assessment to basic accounting (very basic indeed, but an excellent way to start especially becuase many of us find accounting unbearably boring) to managing resources to, yes, writing a business plan. The author mixes his philosophical musings along with anecdotes and hard business lessons (like calculating NPV and profits). His constant humor and approachable style make the book very easy and fun to read.

The emphasis of the book is on how an entrepreneur should *think*. Of course, thinking often is not enough; action is also paramount. But starting with the right mindset increases the chance of success -- and also helps one live more happily. The author points out very early on that we all fear failure, and this fear holds most of us back from starting our own businesses. He then delves into how we can overcome this fear partially by analyzing the risks associated with an adventure. This approach makes the subject much less boring than one otherwise expects and also makes the material easier to absorb. As Zhuangzi, the ancient Chinese philosopher, once said, "Starting with the right mind set increases your chance of success tenfold." The constant mind coaching from this book is what I appreciate the most.

The author writes as he speaks, so there are a few grammatical and punctuation errors, but overall this book is highly readable and you may be like me and not want to stop in the middle of a chapter. Each chapter should be read at least twice. In this regard, this book reminds me of Dale Carnegie's classic volume on achieving popularity: full of useful and practical information so that you can never re-read it too many times.

The title of this book is a little misleading. It is not helping you learn how to think like an entrepreneur. In fact, the book teaches you how to more accurately make assessments that entrepreneurs have to make. If you do that, your entrepreneurial success should be higher.

I like books about avoiding thought patterns that delay or derail progress, and thoroughly enjoyed this one. In many ways, the book parallels the outstanding book about personal decision-making, Smart Choices, that I strongly recommend you read as well.

Why, then, did I rate the book at four stars rather than five? Basically, the book didn't quite get the editing it deserved. There are some minor misspellings of the sort that should have been caught. More seriously, the book indulges in unnecessary vulgar language in a few places. If those things don't bother you, see this as a five star book. It certainly is in every other way.

Some of the subjects include how to overcome risk aversion, how to lay off risk, picking the type of business to go into, establishing a business model that has the best chance of success, and how to have the business match your personality and preferences. These are subjects I feel are important for any entrepreneur, and are often not covered by business books. I was especially impressed by the focus on ethics and high moral tone of the advice.

This book will have value both for people who are thinking about becoming entrepreneurs and those who are already running small businesses. Since the book often focuses on computer consulting and computer-based training, those who are in those fields will find the book to be especially valuable.

As a test of the value of the book's content, I applied the concepts to my own management consulting firm and found that the analyses were accurate and useful. So you can add management consulting as another business type for which this book is good.

One of the things I liked about the book is that it realistically encourages people to think about entrepreneurship. Even if you decide that having your own business is not for you, this book will give you a better basis for feeling confident about that decision.

If you do decide you want to buy or start a business, I suggest you share this book with your spouse and a person who already has a business in the same area. Then discuss your ideas with each of them in terms of the concepts in the book. Their feedback will help you form a more realistic view of your ideas.