Overview - Why I wrote The Entrepreneur

A recent study by Harvard Business School shows that 75 percent of new businesses fail, and a great number of new products are rejected. The biggest question in the minds of most people is: "Why do new businesses or products fail?"

Truth is that new businesses fail, not because founders do not build exactly what they wanted, but because they waste too much time, money and effort in planning and building something that nobody wants to buy. When it comes to starting a business, everyone seems to follow one traditional pattern: find an idea; write a business plan, pitch to investors, build what you want, and sell to the market. For many years entrepreneurs and product developers have followed this same pattern to build what they thought customers liked; only to realize after trying too hard to sell without success that nobody actually wanted what they built.

What if entrepreneurs were smart to engage prospective customers early in product design stage to discover what they want? What if they had gone out of the building to understand customer's pains and build sufficient features to resolve them instead of relying on untested business plan assumptions?

Who I Wrote 'The Entrepreneur' For

The Entrepreneur provides a "Lean Culture" approach for startups and product developers to eliminate waste, turn ideas into reality, and launch products and services that solve customer's pains in the market. This book offers carefully selected concepts and tools which are guaranteed to raise the odds of success for startup founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs, small business owners, product developers, and programmers who are at various stages of starting and growing a business if applied. It is highly recommended for coaches, mentors, training and workshop facilitators who are passionate about startup business and product development.

What You Will Learn from The Entrepreneur

'The Entrepreneur' references profound Lean Culture models such as Customer Development Model, Lean Business Canvas, Business Model Design, Minimum Viable Products, and Customer Validation process to demonstrate how you can create products or services that will win in the market.

In this series you will learn how to:

• Link idea to customer pains or needs
• Develop hypotheses for business model
• Create Minimum Viable Products (MVP)
• Get out of the building to test, learn and validate hypotheses
• Iterate or pivot based on feedback
• Find Product/Market Fit and launch

This book provides a step-by-step guide that shows you how to eliminate waste and build products and services that customers will be willing to buy and pay for.

What You Will Find Inside

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1 - The Search for Market Fit

This Chapter begins with the search for market fit. As you will discover from The Entrepreneur, when starting a business, or developing a new product or service; the primary objective of startup founders and product development organizations should be to find a market fit for their products and services. This is a crucial search, which outcome determines whether any business or product should be built. In this chapter, you will discover the Number One reason why many businesses - products and services fail. You will also learn what you can do to overcome the obstacles and raise your odds of success.

Chapter 2 - Being Willing to be Laughed At

The journey of entrepreneurship can be weird sometimes. Majority of the people that started fell off the curve by the way side. Why? Well, successful entrepreneurs demonstrate unique qualities and attributes that guide them through the plateaus of business and life. There is no doubt though that those who fail have their own traits also. In my experience of building my own businesses, and helping others do the same, there is something about entrepreneurial success that is tied to making mistake and being laughed at. This Chapter will give you insight into why business founders are laughed at, what they do to overcome their detractors, and how you can stay focused to win your own game.

Chapter 3 - Business Model Vs. Business Plan

Go and write a business plan. That's what we often get told each time we present new business ideas to "experts." What we did not realize until recently was that business plan is not relevant for starting a new business or building a new product. Unfortunately, many business people still don't understand the difference between business model and business plan. They don't quite know which one to prepare, when to prepare each and why. In this chapter, you will learn the major differences between business model and business plan. You will also understand which of the two business tools you should use; when you need it and why.

Chapter 4 - Minimum Viable Products (MVP)

Creating a “Minimum Viable Product (MVP)" introduces a radical lean approach to product or new business development. MVP concept challenges the belief that companies understood customer's problems, and therefore knew the solution to build for them. It goes further to provide the basis for turning business model hypotheses into a product with minimum features for the purpose of learning and understanding the pains of the customer. This chapter reveals incredible concepts such as prototyping, customer feedback, customer validation, iteration and pivoting; all of which play key roles for entrepreneurs to find market fit for their products and services.

Chapter 5 - Application of Lean Culture

Chapter Five is where the rubber meets the road. It pulls together your learning from chapter one to chapter four into practical application. It assembles the best lean culture tools, and lays out step-by-step guide from formulating hypotheses to building your first MVP. Some of the tools you will be using here includes Lean Business Model Canvas, customer development model, and minimum viable products. It goes further to explain each of the nine blocks of the lean canvas and shows how you can iterate or pivot your hypotheses. Understanding this chapter and actually implementing it will certainly raise your odds of success in building a sustainable business.

Chapter 6 - Company Creation

Anybody wishing to start his or her own business needs to first understand the different legal structures to build on. That said, I believe in my mind that creating a company is useless until one finds a product-market fit for the product or service he or she wants to offer. This chapter introduces you to the various legal business structures you can consider when incorporating your business. You will learn the benefits of each structure in detail, and the considerations you need to make to incorporate your business.

Chapter 7 - Website Development Concepts

As the wave of technology is blowing across the globe in recent times, many successful businesses are following the trend to go digital with their operations. To my mind, building a company website is one of the greatest assets every future based business must invest in. Although building a website is technical, the evolution of 'drag and drop' technology is gradually replacing the technicalities. In Chapter Seven you will learn the key functionalities you need to consider when talking to your website designer in order to build an interactive site for your business. This chapter provides fundamental website ideas that will be useful to you.

Chapter 8 - Raising Finance

As you may have known, banks do not lend to startup founders. Why? The reason is that they are considered too risky. More over, startup founders don't always have the type of assets banks can seize should they fail to repay their loans. Although it can be argued that there are a lot of business investors out there, who can finance startups. The truth remains that business investors such as Angels and Venture Capitalists (VCs) are selective in the type of businesses they want to finance. Chapter Eight puts forth incredible financing options that can be very useful for startups to explore. It further explains the importance of each finance source and what to do in each case.

Chapter 9 - Making the First Sale

Making the first sale is one of the long lasting experiences founders and new product developers cannot wait too long for. It is an important part of every entrepreneurial venture. In this chapter, you will learn some important marketing strategies that can lead to your first sale when implemented. You will find a lot of useful insights about what to focus on to attract your ideal clients.

How I Plan to Launch The Entrepreneur

As much as I have loved to write The Entrepreneur, I need great resources to get the book into the market. I believe that raising $10,000 through this Preorder Campaign with your help will be so cool for me to push through the finish line and get the book into your hand.

I aim to have The Entrepreneur out by the 30th of November 2015, and I believe this will be a reality with your help.

I welcome corporate and bulk orders also. Please contact Nkem at info@cognitionglobal.com for inquiry.