Business Money Books

This book is solutions focused. It offers concise advice that is really helpful. Learn how to broach the tough money questions with parents who never talked with their kids about sex or money. Then learn exactly what to do to improve your parents finances and your own, and their, peace of mind. I recommend it highly!

I picked up this book after reading about it in Michelle Singletary's column. I can't believe I never knew it existed. I have been struggling to handle my parents' finances and stressing about how to do it fairly, without upsetting my brother and causing family discord. Finally, I've found good, solid advice on exactly how to do this. Not only is this book essential for anyone in my position, but I highly recommend it for anyone who thinks that someday they might be taking care of someone else's finances.

The videos are excellent, it's as if a friend was showing you how to do the business and be successful. Even if you are not planning to do a BBQ concession this package will show you "tricks of the trade" on marketing, operations and using ready-made products with your own twist.
Thanks to the author I learned a lot.

To address some of the questions that the reader might have:

* This course is very easy to digest but will take about 4-5 hours of your time.
* It covers a great deal of many different subjects related to concession sales.
* Previous experience in this field is not necessary.
* The Dvd's give several good menu suggestions next to full instructions on preparing a variety of barbecue meals.
* Mr. Robertson shows a lot of experience and enthusiasm in his field.
* There is an Index of links as well as recipes towards the end of the book.

The author did an excellent job at describing ways how to get started in your own concession vending business. I have been operating a ball game concessions stand for over 8 years, next to my day job as a teacher and I have become quite experienced in this field. I know that there is a lot of money to be made with food sales. At sports events, the food and drinks are an essential part of the whole fun, no matter how pricey they are. The only drawbacks are the ever increasing concession fees to set up at the games. This is yet another reason, why owning a business as an independent operator makes a lot of sense.

After reviewing this course, I was able to learn a great deal more about concession sales. If you are thinking about starting out in this field, I can highly recommend it!

I originally bought this for my husband and ended up watching the DVD's with him. They are really packed with a lot of information and with valuable tips from a real professional.

Now BBQ became our first choice of foods to sell. The recipes in the film are truly wonderful and turned out well the first time we tried them. We also will focus on Tex-Mex foods that are very popular in our area.

The book gave us lots of good ideas that we will use in our own business. The author is right: cooking for fun is one thing- cooking for money is another! It was good to watch someone else do it first. Probably saved me from making lots of mistakes!

Overall, I am extremely happy with this purchase and I am glad I found it!

This was by far the best purchase I made on amazon this year. I enjoyed watching the DVD's that covered far more than I expected.

I have always wanted to have my own restaurant, but never have been able to get it together. The trailer food business is more my thing, as I can leave it parked in my backyard when I don't want to sell. I had trouble finding information on the subject of mobile food vending and I wish I would have seen this course earlier. It has taught me a lot about this business. The film showed interesting background info and a lot of food being prepared for resale. The ribs looked delicious and I now always cook my ribs this way. Watching the procedure is like being there and much better than just reading about it...

The book is easy to follow and covers pretty much everything I needed to know. I am not much of a chef, but people were all impressed by the food I prepared the way it is described in the book. I fed over 300 people in one day by myself at our block party and made good money doing it. This guide was very helpful to me in my rural area. It also made me feel like I can actually put a business like this together in my spare time.

I bought this book shortly after it came out and felt an immediate connection to the author. Cindy writes from the heart. She gives a small section of information about what brought her from failed business to failed business (and yes, failed marriage too) to finally realize, by trial and error what she was missing from the formula.

She provides solid overviews of how to plan out the start up of a new business and shares the reasons that many businesses she tried failed and gives suggestions on what to do to avoid buying before thinking things through.

An entire section of her book gives step by step tutorials with many photos that clearly and simply make the production of personalized items like t-shirts, mousepads, puzzles, and all sorts of heat transfer personalized or custom made products. She even had a section on refillling cartridges even though she said it's really tough and didn't really recommend refilling.

I found every thing she wrote to be truthful and apparently from the heart of someone who's been down the road that many of us are now going down.

She stresses planning and asking questions and also gives her email address and invites all who have the book to write her for additional support when there are questions that come up later. I've written with her about what printer models are the ones to buy since they keep changing and she has been very helpful and nice in her emails.

I read what the person said in a review just now about how there was no information that would help them start and run a business. I don't know if that person read the right book or what. I found this book very helpful, motivational, and extremely informative.

If you're looking for a book about how to start a business and run it on a day to day basis with things like accounting or taxes, this isn't it. What this is, is a book that will teach you how to make personalized items and troubleshoot when things go wrong. It has a glossary that gives most of the terminology used with transfers and puts everything in plain, easy to understand English. I've read it several times because it always seems to bring me new information each time.

I recommend this book to anyone who asks me how I got into doing this business.

She is very good about specifics and how to's. The best part is sending the forums address for issues. Wonderful resource in an everchanging market area.

I got this book so I could learn about T-shirt printing and sublimation.

Lots of great info on regular transfer printing on fabric, but not as much info on sublimation as I was hoping for.

A lot of good advice on running a T-shirt business and tips for attracting customers and keeping them by producing a quality product.

Haven't finished yet, but this is an inspiring book with great info.

After years of experimenting for great results I finally figured out most of the things in this book. However, I STILL learned a few tricks from Cindy. If this book had been available I could have saved hundreds of dollars in failed experiments. Well worth the small investment cost for this book for those serious in perusing this craft/art.

this book has so many great ideas for teaching kids how to manage money at an early age. one idea to encourage children to give was to tell them you will match their giving amount, just like real jobs do. it also focuses on being thankful for our blessings, which encourages children to bless others who are less fortunate. they also show how to give a visual example (using plastic people and candies)of how blessed our nation is compared to other countries, based on population and resources per person.they also teach kids to tithe right from the start, which is definitely the way to go; then they don't know any different. this is a must-have.

The second updated edition of a craft-maker's classic business reference is a pick not just for business libraries, but for general-interest collections catering to home craftspeople. Here's a compendium of tested advice on how to sell in today's craft show and Internet markets, from planning a general marketing strategy for each of these areas to understanding how changing economic and fashion trends affect crafts sales. It comes from an established jewelry maker who provides a range of tested insights, from how to price crafts to handling street fairs and other public show venues. A 'must' for any involved in crafts.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

I read this book along with some others on the subject because I'm considering starting to participate as a vendor in craft shows, and I found this book to be very helpful. It dosen't sugar-coat anything, giving a lot of detail about everything involved in the craft business, even the difficult parts of it. It's kindof a wake-up call for anyone like myself who held a rather romantic notion of the business. I think that for anyone thinking about doing craft shows, this eary-to-read volume would be very helpful.

I dislike purchasing books that offer more in the title than they deliver. I would have preferred more specifics in this book than narrative generalities. B/W photos were poor. The promised section on booth design left me with more questions than answers. This book offers nice filler information, but if you're looking for nuts and bolts, look elsewhere.

This book is hands down better than any of the other books out there about making it as a craftsperson selling at fairs. This book covers it all and is an excellent resource for beginners and more experienced crafters alike.

This book has been lots of help as I venture into my first year of selling my potter at shows! It tells you all the little secrets about promotors and events. Lots of great advice on setting up and maintaing a successful booth.

I have read many, many books on organizing my papers and my finances and considered the complexities and upkeep of many, many systems. However, this book gave me the ideal -- simple to set up, easy to maintain, and logical in approach. This is the one I am using, and it has brought order to the chaos. It is not for perfectionists but rather people who want a straightforward, not-too-complex, "good enough" system for keeping track of those important pieces of paper, warranty books, receipts, and other miscellaneous papers that jam up our lives. Easy to understand, well-illustrated, and practical. Highly recommended.

This is an excellent guide that offers practical solutions to get your finances organized and keep them that way. Debbie Stanley's shining personality stands by the reader throughout the entire book as she offers a myriad of solutions to today's financial challenges. Her focus is on creating an organized, efficient financial system that works for you rather than you working for your system. The author emphasizes that even financial items need homes in order to manage financial clutter. Debbie offers recommendations for setting up financial files, automatic bill payment, financial software, daily mail, paper flow systems, and yes, even shopping excursions! The concept of being "organized enough" is stressed throughout as a pleasant reminder to keep it simple. This book is loaded with helpful tips, visuals and resources to help you save money, time, and frustration by creating a customized, efficient personal finance system. It's a "must have" book if you are ready to organize your personal finances and keep them that way!

This book was very helpful. If you take it step by step as in the book you will be organized in no time at all. I love how it is written step by step. Worked great for me. Now I am ready to face 2007 financially organized.

Whether you have been managing your personal finances for years, or you have just left home and have no idea where to start when it comes to managing your finances, you will benefit from this book. Stanley's approach to teaching the reader how to manage their finances is fun, exciting and motivating. The ideas in this book are practical and easy to implement. They are easy-to-follow and are adaptable to various situations and varous personalities.

Because the books contains consise "To-Do lists" as well as flagged reminders of key organizing principles, it is easy to take the information from the book and apply it to each reader's own situation. Working as a professional organizer, I was able to utilize the information from the book to help my clients become less overwhelmed with all of their papers and stick to an organized bill paying system that works for them.

This was easy to read, easy to follow, had great forms and was general enough to apply to most areas of the business.

This is by far the best book out there on making your horse business a success. It covers, in depth, all of the steps you need to take in marketing your business to your target clientelle. The chapters' cover: 1. Building the Foundation, 2. Do You Have What It Takes?, 3. Determining Your Target Market, 4. Pricing, 5. Marketing, 6. Marketing Communications, 7. Advertising, 8. Advertising Options, 9. Public Relations, 10. The Marketing Plan, 11. What to do When Your Marketing Efforts Work, 12. Building Customer Loyalty. The Appendix includes many helpful forms and questionnaires to help you realize your plan as well as marketing and advertising examples.

Equinomics is written by a marketing consultant who's been in the business for almost 30 years. The best thing about this book is that Lanier has written it to and for the horse person. All of the examples are equine businesses which makes it much easier to implement them into your own equine business.

Lanier's advice and expertise has already helped numerous horse people make their businesses a success. I'm sure she can help you.

Book covers basic marketing lessons that can be fit to use in any business. Some sections go as far to tell the reader that they must pay taxes and have a business plan. This book is not for anyone with a basic understanding of a business. There are far too many spelling and grammer errors.

This book is invaluable. I would go so far as to say that it is a good business class for anyone, not just horse people. The book is not edited very well, but you hardly notice because it is presented in an honest and direct way. I really recomend it for those who want to be able to make a living in the horse world. Its tools for writing a horse business plan are non-threatening and easy to understand. This book helps you focus your energy and money in the most effective ways you can to grow your business. It has everything from how to do simple market analysis, to making marketing materials to how to set business goals you can achieve and feel good about. For those who are dedicated to making a living with horses, I highly recomend this book (especially since the horse world is a very tough one in which to succeed.

For anyone wanting to make a bigger impact with their advertising or marketing program, you should read this book first. It will change the way you see yourself and your potential clients. This is a book you will pick up and reread often. Its goal is to help you define your market and advertise to that market.

This book was very helpful in preparing me to live in France, but I had to struggle to read it as it is very badly written. Yet I would still recommend you read it if you have the time to organize the author's ideas yourself.

FRANCE is very different because they have economic security with lifetime contracts of employment, health care, free education, pensions, and help with the children, lots of vacation while Americans have little to none of any of those things.

The difference in economic structure and the resources available in each country shape the lives of the people living inside each system.

I learned one of the chapters in my political science class. I love the culture difference between these two nation.

Lamont is prescient. This book is timely now. When Americans are saying they should boycott French fries, Franco-American relations are at an all-time low. Dr. Lamont analyzes the differences in how well-educated American men think in comparison to their French counterparts.

She divides the research into 3 themes: elite men divide who they think are good and who they think are bad based upon money, morality, and mannerisms/culture. She looks at the macro level showing how one nation may use more of one or two of the three traits than the other country. She also gets specific by show how the ideas mean different things to individuals. For example, American men like men who know many concrete facts whereas French men like men who are witty and have good grammar. Lamont does a great job in quantify and classifying ideas that most people would think are nebulous and intangible.

This is men's studies by default. Those who uphold "race, class, and gender" rhetoric may be disappointed. She excludes people of color saying few of them fit this elite category. She supposedly compares these men to a small group of women, but the women were only brought up once in the book. When Lamont speaks of the "elite" she is talking about education rather than income. Some of the careers mentioned here (teacher, reverend, bank employee, etc.) do not sound that unique or rare to me. Lamont explores race in her next book. Fans of men's studies and white studies may find this work helpful in formulating theory.

Unfortunately, this comparative work will do little to encourage multinational tolerance. I think Lamont makes French men sound somewhat weird. Many think nothing of cheating on their wives. How is that honest and helpful to a relationship? One French interviewee said he does not care if his employees are competent, so long as they are working on improving their lives. Hello? Sometimes competency is necessary. Is that why part of Paris' airport collapsed recently and 4 people were killed? Because being witty and quoting Rousseau means more than being an expert in your technical field?!

Chapter five is a summary chapter which might as well have been an introduction instead. Students with little time to read this book before class can just read that chapter. Though Lamont rightfully compares the big city to the boondocks, those differences didn't really play out. Since they were neither here nor there, they might as well have been excluded. I am impressed how she got so much information on such esoteric matter from each man in just approximately two hours.

I liked Lamont's second book better. This was took forever to read unlike her more recent book. That book brought up schisms that materially affect nations whereas, truth be told, the Americans and the French are never going to come to blows about anything. Still, this shows she's a deep thinker and that she continues to improve as a scholar.

This is one of the best real estate books that I have read. The reason is that it is a "follow the steps" book and works perfectly for beginners and would probably be equally as good for experienced investors.

Making Money in Real Estate, by Dolf De Roos & Diane Kennedy

Between 2000 and 2004 my partner and I purchased over 30 buildings. I remember clearly it was around the end of 2000 and I went to see Dolf in NYC, and it just so happened that I was meeting a prospective silent partner who would be putting up all the money for our 5th building. As luck would have it I had a P&L to show our prospective partner and during the seminar, Dolf asked if anyone could share some numbers on a prospective deal they are looking at. I did one better, I pulled the P&L out and Dolf went over the numbers in front of the several hundred attendees. His response was, "You guys would have to nuts not to do this deal". I am also the author of a real estate book, "A 20,000% Gain in Real Estate" (and this particular deal is explained in detail in it).

(Dolf was very informative and motivational by the way)

In the first chapter of Dolf's book are three concepts that jumped out at me; and if you can always remember them I'd say you have a great shot at making some real money in real estate. They are:

-Life is about priorities.
-Investing in real estate is all about the numbers.
-"Just Do It"

This one is so true, I just never heard it put like this:
"Every property has cash flow. The question really is, "Which way is the flowing?"

While discussing the concept delegating or hiring other people to do some of the tasks that would free you up to do deals he says, "...the three most expensive words in the English language are (Do it yourself)."

By Kevin Kingston, author of: A 20,000% Gain in Real Estate

I purchased both this title and "The Insider's Guide to Real Estate Investing Loopholes" (same authors).

I have two primary complaints. The authors talk down to the reader, constantly making snarky comments that imply that if one doesn't act NOW, the reader is lazy, or paralyzed, or is somehow inept when it comes to business. That's not just annoying -- it's weird, and it made me suspicious of the authors' motives.

That brings me to my second complaint. The book lacks balance. I'm not saying that all of the strategies can't work -- just that it requires an ideal set of market conditions for them to work. We need to see low or declining interest rates, quickly rising tenant incomes, improving neighborhoods, distressed or at least disinterested sellers, few other investors, low insurance costs, and a plethora of service providers (such as roofers) who do great work at a low price very quickly. I can tell you that we don't have any of those factors at work now.

What we do have, at least in areas like mine, where appreciation has outpaced incomes, is a market turned on its head. Sellers will not sell because they are sitting on huge profits for the most part, and don't have to sell. Or, they believe that prices will appreciate at the same ridiculous rate that they did from 2001-2005. Numerous Dolf-inspired investors have flooded the market and bid prices up beyond all reason. Workers are in debt and don't have much money for rent. Neighborhoods where deals are affordable aren't improving, so the idea of refinancing because you painted and put up a new mailbox won't help you. Easy mortgage money has gotten anyone with a pulse into homes. Interest rates are rising, not falling. Insurance is costly and the coverage stinks. And most importantly, rents do not provide positive cash flow for most small real estate investors. I know several who actually consider themselves to be successful and the news is not good. They are carrying their properties, their properties are not carrying them! I know, it's hard to believe that this is success. But in the past few years, appreciation has bailed them out. Put that kind of leverage into effect and you are leveraging a negative, which only means you go broke faster.

A few observations: First, if making untold riches were this simple and this obvious, then so many people would attempt to do so that it would suck the potential profit from such deals down until the actual profit is more equivalent to the amount of work involved. (More about this in a moment -- because I believe that this is actually occuring in part due to all of the real estate evangelism going on.)

As they say on Wall Street: "When enough people find the key to the market, someone changes the lock!" I believe that most people reading this review are smart enough to know that markets are dynamic. Outrageous profits bring in a flood of new entrants, dramatically reducing the profit potential. If a whole bunch of new wannabe real estate tycoons start lining up to bid on properties, then the prices for those properties will rise, as will the price for the money (the financing charges in the form of interest rates). Even without a lot of new entrants, if enough people start using the same financial techniques of leverage, cost-benefit analysis, or tax strategies, then the advantages to be gained will be reduced commensurately. Common sense and basic real-world economics dictate that costs will rise and potential profits will fall. And so it is in the real estate world.

Economies of scale and technological advancements have changed many industries and wiped out others. The ability for a small business person to get a competitive bid on anything is severely limited, whether you are talking about insurance, waste collection, land, communication services, landscaping, or anything else. Big players have the advantage in negotiations and will consistently be able to lower their costs below that a single investor. They can offer their tenants more amenities and constantly remodel and update their units at a far lower cost than you or me. I can't start a profitable shipbuilding company or TV network, nor can I jump into owning large buidings over which I can spread my costs enough to justify what is increasingly becoming break-even or negative cash flow from tenants.

I am not saying that there will never again be opportunities for small real estate investors to use leverage and tax advantages to make decent money. Just that, with so many of your fellow investors looking to do the same thing, you are not going to find (DEEP BREATH HERE!): underpriced positive cash-flowing properties in undervalued neighborhoods with great potential on which you can quickly close at a dynamite interest rate that result in quickly-rented units with stable, high-earning tenants who are happy to stick around so you can quickly refinance at "massively increased property valuation" (Dolf's expression) so you can pay yourself and your investors back, raise rents even higher and go on to the next property with similar ideal parameters, plunk 10% down and do the same thing.

And no, I'm not an unmotivated individual who works harder than I have to, doesn't understand the value of money, or doesn't want financial freedom. We all want that. In Dolf's world, there are numerous individuals who can't wait to to sell you $100 for $50. My question is, if he knows how to get people to do that, why he is telling us about it? I think we all know the answer to this question.

Don't get me wrong: Eventually, the property marketplace will right itself and investment properties will come up that offer opportunity to even small investors, even with the odds stacked against you. However, it won't unlock some kind of magical door to riches. It will simply be one of many investments that helps you build LONG-TERM wealth. Real estate is just another business that goes through cycles and isn't necessarily any more of a path to fabulous riches than owning a chain of gas stations or making molded plastic products.

By the way, the most successful real estate investment firms in America have had a total return about 23% annually for the past five years through March 31, 2006. That includes dividends and share price appreciation. If that's the BEST they can do, (and I'm not saying it's bad...it's actually an amazing performance!), it's because that's the BEST anyone can hope to do, including you and me. Remember, these firms use all the leverage they can muster and have tremendous economies of scale, and the smartest tax accountants and attorneys working on their behalf. We are highly unlikely to see this performance repeated in real estate for the next five years or possibly, ever.

Footnote: I recently studied single family homes in Broward County and Palm Beach County, Florida. Over the past thirty-five years, not including taxes of any kind, residential properties have enjoyed an average annual return of 9.25% per year. Short-run performance tends to regress towards the mean. Therefore, we are virtually assured that real estate will come nowhere close to its recent performance over the next several years, particularly in a higher-interest rate environment with lots of new supply. Buyer beware!

I first learned of Dolf De Roos a few years ago from reading one of his first books that was released through the Rich Dad, Poor Dad series. I have read every one of his books and find his comments about real estate to be "right on the money". He shows you why real estate is the best place to invest and also how you can increase your profits by looking for unique situations. Very valid advice and a very good read. I highly recommend this book.

By Lex Levinrad, author of "What I Learned On Wall Street:Why Real Estate Is the Best Investment".

This Dolf de Roos book is no different from his other books, owning one is the same as owning all. Writes about same topics and ideas. Good author, trying to sell more books by using different titles.

If you don't own any of his books, worth the $20 or so for the book. However, if you do...don't waste your money/positive cash flow


Happy investing

This is one of few books that I read cover to cover, and going to read it again in the next few months to remind myself and my business that there is more than just making money in life - its about making the world a better place to live for.

Although it doesn't contain any recipe for ice-creams (wasn't looking for one), it does contain the recipe for a successful business model built on a socially responsible organization that grew into a giant franchise all over the world - from a gas station and a mere 4 grands. GREAT role model for those going into business as well as those already in business.

Great resource annex at the back, from suppliers to other valued-led business. I live in Singapore, but if I have the chance, I will want to visit Vermont when my business takes off.

Since this book was a pre-Unilever take-over publication, it did not mention about the business model changes after that.

The world is getting messy - war, poverty, madness, scandals and terror, this book injects humanity into us, it gives me comfort when I go to sleep at night knowing that there are still hope and greatness in most of us. I give it 5 stars.