The Book That Dares To Reveal What Starting Your Own Small Business Is Really Like!
Welcome Video from Author Alan Stransman
Are You Thinking of Starting Your Own Small Business?
Do you think you have a really good idea for starting up your own business?
Are you planning to try to get that really good idea for your own small business off the ground?
Do you intend to get your really good idea for your own small business off the ground using someone else’s money?
If you answered “yes” to all three of the above questions, don’t do anything before you read “Don’t Let Your Dream Business Turn Into a Nightmare?”
“Don’t Let Your Dream Business Turn Into a Nightmare” is a “must-read” for anyone who is even thinking of launching a business with someone else’s money.
Why?
Because I thought I had a really good idea for my own small business - one of the first day spas in the world for men.
And I got my small business idea off the ground with someone else’s money.
And now I’m sharing my experience - and, specifically, the mistakes that I made in starting my own small business - with you.
So that you can benefit from what I learned, and not make the mistakes that I made when you start your own small business.
Is my book worth reading?
Absolutely!
But why take my word for it, when you can take the word of experts in the field of starting your own small business?
This is what Professor Ron Close, Executive Entrepreneur-in-Residence at The Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario, one of the top 100 Business Schools in the world, said about my book in an email to me:
“I could imagine this being a pretty robust way to expose my Entrepreneurship students to some key start-up issues like:
- market validation (what evidence can you find that people actually want your service?)
- market sizing (how big is the opportunity?)
- competitive analysis and positioning (why, specifically, will customers buy from us/0
- channel strategy (how will we sell it?)
- operations
- staffing
- administration
- financial planning (modelling of revenues and expenses, “what-if” analysis)
- funding (what is the optimal financial structure?0
- risk analysis and mitigation
The Ivey School of Business - one of the top Business Schools in the world - adapted my book into a case study!
That’s how important the lessons in my book are.
Testimonials from Business Professors, Entrepreneurs and Students About “Don’t Let Your Dream Business Turn Into a Nightmare”
Want to provide a book to your students that is engaging, entertaining, and useful? Then you must require Don’t Let Your Dream Business Turn Into a Nightmare in your Entrepreneurship or Management Courses. The book contains a plethora of information that will help aspiring entrepreneurs learn the ropes of starting and maintaining a successful business. This is one book that students will not want to sell back when the semester is over.
Christopher P. Neck
Associate Professor of Management
University Master Teacher
Arizona State University
(Don’t Let Your Dream Business Turn Into a Nightmare) describes the challenges faced by entrepreneur Alan Stransman as he starts up a men’s-only spa with no money, no business experience and no team. It provides students a real-life opportunity to discuss the needed ingredients for business success: an attractive idea; a qualified team; a compelling plan and adequare funding. Stransman arguably encounters challenges on each of these four fronts. This case is valuable reading and extremely useful for facilitating real-world discussion of all of these critical issues.
Ron Close
Executive Entrepreneur-in-Residence
The Richard Ivey School of Business
University of Western Ontario
Alan Stransman’s book provides an entertaining cautionary tale for all those with dreams of turning an entrepreneurial idea into reality some day. The huge surge of interest in entrepreneurship that accompanied the dot-com boom in the late 1990′s produced a whole generation of mainly young people , who wanted to drop whatever it was they were doing in order to launch a start-up. The equally huge rate of dot-com failures should have been enough to demonstrate that starting a new business is fraught with pitfalls, but somehow, that message didn’t seem to get through as well as it might have done. Alan’s book is, thus, a timely reminder to all would-be entrepreneurs that the road to realizing entrepreneurial dreams is by no means an easy one.
Patrick Turner
Affiliate Professor of Entrepreneurship
INSEAD Asia Campus
Alan’s book is a true “hands-on” account of a real business experience. The reader is in Alan’s shoes to get an experiential trip, warts and all. If you are thinking of starting your own business and want to get a feel for another side of the coin, be sure to include Alan’s book in your research.
Donald Prescott
Director, The Eric Douglass Centre for Entrepreneurial Studies
Faculty of Management
Royal Roads University
The students truly enjoyed the experience of having you come to the classroom, the exercise, analyzing your book and creating the feasibility study. What was most enjoyable, and what I appreciate the most, was the time and effort you took to attend the night of presentations. The students so appreciated the fact that you were there for questions and input. These students are in their 3rd and 4th year, so the ability to bring the “real” world to their studies was a great experience….It was your personal touch, the pressure of having the author in attendance that added such a thrill and challenge and made the assignment such a great experience.
Professor Cammie Jaquays
Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario
Don’t Let Your Dream Business Turn Into a Nightmare is an engaging document of Alan Stransman’s experiences in creating Canada’s first spa for men. Stransman takes the reader along for the roller-coaster ride of a new start-up, from opportunity identification to planning and financing, start-up and ongoing mangement of the venture, cleverly exposing the underbelly of the world of entrepreneurship and the realities faced by novices. It is engaging and suspenseful because the reader suspects that a train wreck is coming - he or she just doesn’t know when, how or how much damage will be caused. Stransman is an artful storyteller and the messages delivered are important ones for prospective entrepreneurs; not simply as a warning to be wary, but as a foil for learning how to avoid his mistakes.
J. Brock Smith, Ph.D.
Professor, Marketing & Entrepreneurship,
Winspear Scholar & Entrepreneurship Area Champion,
Faculty of Business, University of Victoria
Victoria, British Columbia
I have used Alan Stransman’s book Don’t Let Your Dream Business Turn into a Nightmare in my business and law classes with great success. The book challenges students to analyze the reasons for the business failure and measure those reasons against traditional business model concepts, especially the notion of using Other People’s Money. It stimulates great discussion amongst the students.
Alan Franklin, JD LLB LLM
Canadian Business College
If you have ever thought of starting your own business, Alan Stransman’s book Don’t Let Your Dream Business Turn Into a Nightmare is a MUST read. A cautionary tale, indeed.
Anne Dimon
Publisher/Editor
http://www.traveltowellness.com
Just read your book cover-to-cover. I’ve got a small venture running in my basement - it’s a REALLY GREAT IDEA. There’s an angel-finance guy pushing me to accept some investors and build a company. He’s gor $500k lined up for me, ready to go. I drafted and redrafted a business plan 7 times before he was happy enough with it to present it to them - and each time it got better looking. Of course, we are still figuring out who our market is and what our product is, but that’s okay, everyone does that. But now that I’ve read your book, Hmmm, I realize that I have a REALLY GREAT IDEA and a really wrong business plan. Add money and investors looking for fast results, that’s a recipe for disaster. I’ve put the finance on hold, will keep running on a shoestring until I learn the business. Thanks for a really great book. It probably SAVED MY LIFE.
Tom Berend
Software Developer/Entrepreneur
If the above testimonials have not convinced you of the value of my book, check out the right side of this screen, and click on the Video Excerpts which I have posted, and watch a few of them.
If you like what you see, buy my book.
For $14.95, it’s a lot better than spending money on pricey consultants who have never started a small business in their lives.
Then send me an email or leave me a comment and tell me what you thought of it.
New, New, New!
I now offer affordable consulting services! Check it out.
To contact me anytime:
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 416-519-4427