A review of resource books which include management tips on starting a small business.
Most small-business resource books claim to have all the answers. That's their first mistake
You probably don't remember that minor rock-and-roll hit of a few years back called "Takin' Care of Business." Performed by an equally minor rock-and-roll group, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, the song was about getting through the workday, and it included the following immortal lines:
If you ever get annoyed
Look at me, I'm self-employed
I love to work at nothing all day.
For some reason, that refrain kept running through my head as I perused the latest crop of small-business resource guides and handbooks. Maybe it was because almost all of these books make starting a business sound a lot like doing nothing all day. At any rate, they sure do make it sound easy.
The Macmillan Small Business Handbook (Macmillan, 1988) by Mark Stevens is typical: "You own your own business or you plan to. Congratulations. You are living the American dream. Self-employed, responsible to no one but yourself, you run your company and your life as you see fit. No boss, no peers, no corporate rules to complicate (or interfere with) the management process. Your word is the law. . . . "
True, almost all the books are quick to counsel that starting a small business isn't for everyone. But listen to how they do it. Here, for instance, is Irving Burstiner in The Small Business Handbook, revised edition (Prentice Hall, 1989): "If you are lucky enough to possess a higher-than-average level of self-confidence, if you can think positively about (and are not turned off by) the prospect of hard work, long hours and onerous responsibility, if each new problem challenges you to tackle it with everything at your command, then owning your own business might be the proper route to chart." In other words, you shouldn't start a business if you think of yourself as an insecure, lazy wimp. Big help.
There is nothing inherently wrong with Burstiner's book. It's just so general as to be worthless. Suppose, for example, that you're thinking of buying a business. Burstiner writes: "Bring in a consultant with experience in the particular kind of business to examine the premise thoroughly." Really? Why is that a good idea? How do you find the consultant? What will it cost? How will you know if he has done a good job? Burstiner doesn't say.
Or consider Burstiner's advice about interviewing job candidates: "Because it's comparatively easy for an interviewer to be overly influenced by an outstanding characteristic of an applicant, it's wise to develop and use an interviewing rating form that touches on all important areas." OK, maybe. But what's in the form? Are there certain things that should weigh more heavily than others? The answer from Burstiner, whose résumé boasts that he has more than 35 years of experience in business as a lecturer, consultant, and professor: "Of course, the more you interview people -- and the more you read about how to interview in books on human resources and administration -- the better you'll be at it!"
Swell. Burstiner bills his book as "a comprehensive guide to starting and running your own business," and then says people should learn on the job and read other books. For $16.95, you might expect to get more than generalities and gentle encouragement.
What you should expect, at the very least, is something like How to Run a Small Business, sixth edition, by the J. K. Lasser Tax Institute (McGraw Hill, 1989). The publisher boasts that it is the most successful book on small business published during the past 40 years. I can see why. It covers every conceivable concern, from accidents (industrial) to the Yellow Pages.
How to Run a Small Business is filled with commonsense tips -- some basic, some less obvious. In the discussion of buying an existing company, for example, Lasser stresses the importance of studying the business's tax returns. "You can be fairly sure that the receipts are not overstated, although expenses may have been exaggerated and the inventory may have been adjusted for tax purposes." Here's another: thinking of locating in a town based on tax breaks and other promises offered by the municipality? "Be-ware . . . mayors and council members change with each election."
And the book is not afraid to take a stand. Should you hire consultants to help you get started (as Burstiner blithely recommends)? No, says Lasser. "You are probably not qualified to judge their worth." It even answers mundane questions you may never have thought to ask, such as this: "If you plan to provide parking facilities, you must have at least 200 square feet of parking lot per car." And this: "The average office needs at least one toilet and one sink for every 15 persons."
It's a good primer. But Lasser's strength -- its attempt to cover every conceivable topic -- is also its weakness. When a 314-page book needs a 20-page index, you can be assured that no subject is covered exhaustively. Thus setting up an accounting system gets 24 pages. Doing business overseas gets exactly eight paragraphs.
Along the way, some strange things happen. Consider the discussion of advertising. The book attacks the conventional wisdom that a small agency will give you more attention than a big one. "A large agency, offering more specialized facilities, may be interested in your business because of your growth potential, and offer more diverse services (such as market research)." Interesting, but where do you find these agencies? Lasser's advice: look in the phone book.
