From the author: "This book is aimed at anyone who has ever thought about starting or buying a business. It is for one-man bands, as well as those who are running big companies. It is for all the dreamers who want to control their own destiny and make some money – perhaps a lot – while they’re at it.
This is not a comprehensive manual, like a school textbook. It has practical advice, but what I really want the book to do is to inspire you go out and create a new enterprise. The possibilities are endless. Whenever I meet someone who runs their own company, or read the biography of an entrepreneur, I am fascinated by the haphazard way in which they ended up being their own boss. The journey is rarely planned: it is not a career with a structure and sets of qualifications, like medicine or architecture.
Rather, entrepreneurs create their own career path by providing something new that customers will buy – at a profit. Sometimes that product or service is genuinely innovative – but often it is a conventional offering yet delivered better, cheaper or in a different place. Some are happy to be simple freelancers and avoid the burden of employing staff. Others are more ambitious and want to build a major concern. Whoever they are, the journey they have chosen is unlikely to be the easy path – but for many it will offer much more excitement and satisfaction than the drudgery of working for others.
I think entrepreneurs are the unsung heroes of our time. They generate the jobs and taxes that keep our society civilized. They risk going broke, or maybe just working one hundred hours a week and earning very little. They battle through recessions, regulation and competition to satisfy our wants. I salute their efforts, ingenuity and commitment. This book is dedicated to them: because without dynamism and bold thinking, we would all be immeasurably poorer. I hope one or two of these chapters help motivate and provide a little guidance to the warrior entrepreneurs of our time."
Luke Johnson, London, June 2011