Parachute 2011 Chapter 9

Chapter 9 begins by discussing the steps to creating your own business. The first type of business Bolles discusses is the home business. The first fact that is introduced about home business is that most home business' only generate 70% of what their office based equal produces. After Bolles points out all the negative associated with running a home business, he begins to advise on choosing the particular kind of business one wants to run. Bolles suggests that you ask yourself, what do you love to do? He also suggests you look at your dreams in order to find your answer. Another approach is to ask yourself, what services might your community need? If that isn't enough ask yourself, what services does the world need? Bolles suggests using internet websites like eBay for marketing  products. Once you have finally decided what kind of business you want to open. the next step is to do your research, talk to people who have opened the same kind of business and ask them questions about the ups and downs of running the business. This step is usually overlooked and is a big reason why most small businesses end prematurely. The most important piece of advice provided in this chapter is that there is only "one life to live don't let your pessimistic friends and family's opinion get in the way of your dreams."



Exercise

The Exercise in chapter 9 is called the A-B=C. This exercise is used to determine what skills you are lacking in order to run your future business successfully. In order to do this exercise you will have to interview a business owner who is running the kind of business you plan to open in the future. You will make a list of all the skills that the owner quoted as required, then you will need to make a second list of all the skills you posses. For the final step, subtract all your common skills from list A and B and the remaining skills will be transferred to list C. The skills in list C will be the skills one needs to acquire through training or one needs to recruit someone else with those skills. The exercise is a very simple way to find out the good and bad of running a business. This exercise is a real eye opener and can really help in preventing someone from getting in over their heads.