The Entrepreneur Guide: 2010 Edition (BOOK REVIEW)

by Owen O. Daniels
Edited by Latasia D. Brown
The Small Business Zone, Inc.
Paperback, $29.95
204 pages, illustrated
ISBN: 978-0-615-32297-1

Book Review by Kam Williams

“Are you someone seeking to start your own business and frustrated with the lack of straightforward answers to your countless questions? Or are you a business owner whose time is too consumed with researching how to spark growth instead of actually performing the right actions that will and success? Or is there an entrepreneur inside of you that isn’t [doesn’t] know where to start?
…The Entrepreneur Guide will walk you through the entire journey of building your own business from the ground up… This guide breaks down the most difficult tasks and possible future obstacles so that producing success from scratch becomes simply simple.
Now don’t get us wrong, there will be blood sweat and tears involved—more tears than anything else. Bu now you have the best tools and the right answers at your fingertips.”
-Excerpted from the Introduction (pg. 1)

There’s been a bumper crop of books published lately by black authors offering all sorts of relationship advice. But in order to be able to afford to do all that dating, you might want to make a little money first. And for folks so inclined, The Entrepreneur Guide arrives like a refreshing and worthwhile change of pace.
The book is the brainchild of Owen O. Daniels, who recently returned to the States after serving his second tour of duty over in Iraq. Besides rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Army, the author has also earned a Bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from John Jay College in New York, and a Master’s in Computer Science with a minor in Business Administration from Webster College in St. Louis.
This unique combination of skills obviously came in very handy in enabling Daniels to craft a sensible step-by-step resource designed to address any question which might arise in the mind of a budding entrepreneur en route to making that first million. Succinctly written in layman’s terms the average educated person can understand, the user-friendly text virtually takes you by the hand and walks you through the typical start-up process in sequential fashion.
Thus, it starts by having you assess your basic business idea before coming up with a plan and then picking and registering a name, if warranted. It subsequently helps you decide whether you might need to incorporate or protect any intellectual property via patent trademark or copyright.
From there, the guide moves on to a variety of marketing concerns, and pertinent issues involving insurance, taxes and employees. Detailed-oriented Daniels even devotes attention to such minutiae as internet access, domain names, office furniture and barcodes for your products. As an attorney/MBA and small businessman myself, I was quite impressed overall, and can guarantee that The Entrepreneur Guide arrives stocked with some solid advice.
That being said, however, as the author states in his intro, your success ultimately will still be contingent on your work ethic and willingness to spill some blood, sweat and tears.

Originally published at AALBC.com