Successful Business Planning in 30 Days: A Step-By-Step Guide for Writing a Business Plan and Starting Your Own Business, Third Edition

Average customer rating:

Work of Art

One day at a time ...

useless

Good Book for those just starting out

Good overall book, but not enough examples.

Successful Business Planning in 30 Days: A Step-By-Step Guide for Writing a Business Plan and Starting Your Own Business, Third Edition
Peter J. Patsula
Manufacturer: Patsula Media
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Entrepreneurship | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
New Business Enterprises | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Business Plans | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Business Start-Up Kit

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Starting Your Own Business, 5th Edition (Complete Idiot's Guide to)

The McGraw-Hill Guide to Starting Your Own Business : A Step-By-Step Blueprint for the First-Time Entrepreneur

What No One Ever Tells You about Starting Your Own Business: Real-Life Start-Up Advice from 101 Successful Entrepreneurs (What No One Ever Tells You About Starting Your Own Business)

The Complete Book of Business Plans: Simple Steps to Writing a Powerful Business Plan (Small Business Sourcebooks)

ASIN: 0967840236

Book Description

Now in a newly updated and expanded 3rd edition, Successful Business Planning in 30 Days is a concise, reader-friendly guide that contains all the information needed to craft a comprehensive business plan for any type of entrepreneurial activity within a 30-day time frame. It provides step-by-step procedures as well as hundreds of company startup and operating strategies. There is even a section showing readers how to create a mini- "one day business plan" in a single afternoon to give any current ideas they have a needed focus when time is of essence. Successful Business Planning in 30 Days is currently used in colleges and universities in America and abroad.

Revised with international readers in mind, this 3rd edition also offers more than 200 educational and motivational quotations as well as 33 profit tips and 11 entrepreneurial success stories from around the globe.

Enhanced with more than 100 time-saving checklists and worksheets, a sample business plan, and over 150 newly added sample paragraphs to help readers with the language of business, this guide is a key ingredient for anyone interested in planning a business.

Customer Reviews:

Work of Art.......2003-12-11

I enjoy reading books based upon Business like themes, and I must say that this is one that has completely stood out from the rest that I have read. I recently started my own business after 20 years of experience, and I must say that this book covers not only all the basic methods to start a business, but also to make it shine amongst the rest. It is practical and brilliant at the same time, and very easy to follow for anyone who has the motivation to start their own business. Pave your way to success and climb to the top, using this book as an essential tool.

One day at a time ..........2003-11-28

A friend recommended this book to me. I was skeptical at first skimming through it, because there's so much information, but with a little patience, I began to see the big picture. It's well organized. Once I worked through a couple of days of worksheets (the worksheets are nicely organized day by day at the end of each section), I began thinking more and more like a business woman. I'm now going through my day thinking about logos and mission statements, target markets etc., and it doesn't come easy, because good ideas never do, but it's exciting. I'm starting to see my business ... my own ideas. There's a good range of examples to help you get your wordings right. Generally, I don't like books that tell readers how easy it is to start a business, providing inspiration without substance, because businesses just aren't that simple. Otherwise, we would all quit our jobs tomorrow. And I don't like textbooks. This book has a nice balance. Some problems though are that it has a lot more information than I can digest in one sitting. So I'm working through it one day at a time, as much as I can. I'm on Day 23. Another complaint I have, I guess, not about the book though, is that starting a business involves a lot more planning than I thought it would. I wish it had more sample business plans, though it has a fairly good one about an online health business, and some of the forms could also have a little more space for writing ideas, some more thinking room. I also came across some typos. But these are minor complaints. Overall, well organized and well worth the money.

useless.......2003-11-10

If you are proficient with coorporate double-speak this book should be fantastic. I just found it irritating. The workbook format is a good idea, but the author doesn't give good definitions of what he is asking for. After reading the first seven pages I'm completely confused about the differences of a "Mission Statement", a "Business Vision" and "Company Goals". The definitions sound almost identical but the author insists that they are not the same.
I can write complex computer programs, but using this book, I cannot write a business plan!

Good Book for those just starting out.......2003-04-10

I bought this book for my son, he found the book very informative and helpful good for anyone who is just starting out

Good overall book, but not enough examples........2002-07-26

This book has helped me a great deal in thinking about my business, but I wish it included more examples of current BPs. That would have been very helpful.

Book Description

Credit and debt appear to be natural, permanent facets of Americans' lives, but a debt-based economy and debt-financed lifestyles are actually recent inventions. In 1951 Diners Club issued a plastic card that enabled patrons to pay for their meals at select New York City restaurants at the end of each month. Soon other "charge cards" (as they were then known) offered the convenience for travelers throughout the United States to pay for hotels, food, and entertainment on credit. In the 1970s the advent of computers and the deregulation of banking created an explosion in credit card use--and consumer debt. With gigantic national banks and computer systems that allowed variable interest rates, consumer screening, mass mailings, and methods to discipline slow payers with penalties and fees, middle-class Americans experienced a sea change in their lives.

Given the enormous profits from issuing credit, banks and chain stores used aggressive marketing to reach Americans experiencing such crises as divorce or unemployment, to help them make ends meet or to persuade them that they could live beyond their means. After banks exhausted the profits from this group of people, they moved into the market for college credit cards and student loans and then into predatory lending (through check-cashing stores and pawnshops) to the poor. In 2003, Americans owed nearly $8 trillion in consumer debt, amounting to 130 percent of their average disposable income. The role of credit and debt in people's lives is one of the most important social and economic issues of our age.

Brett Williams provides a sobering and frank investigation of the credit industry and how it came to dominate the lives of most Americans by propelling the social changes that are enacted when an economy is based on debt. Williams argues that credit and debt act to obscure, reproduce, and exacerbate other inequalities. It is in the best interest of the banks, corporations, and their shareholders to keep consumer debt at high levels. By targeting low-income and young people who would not be eligible for credit in other businesses, these companies are able quickly to gain a stranglehold on the finances of millions. Throughout, Williams provides firsthand accounts of how Americans from all socioeconomic levels use credit. These vignettes complement the history and technical issues of the credit industry, including strategies people use to manage debt, how credit functions in their lives, how they understand their own indebtedness, and the sometimes tragic impact of massive debt on people's lives.

Customer Reviews:

Mouse On A Wheel.......2007-01-17

In "Debt for Sale" Brett Williams examines the history of debt in America and focuses on the many tenets of the Debt Industry. Debt is not only a financial phenomenon but also a social and cultural one heavily embedded into U.S. society. The Debt Industry is a very sophisticated, organized, methodical, and politically powerful industry in America. Close to 70% of the American economy is now propelled and highly dependent upon, consumer spending. As fixed expenses (expenses we have to pay) increase and take more and more out of the average American's income, Americans are increasingly, spending and borrowing --> borrowing to spend. A high percentage of Americans are now using debt for "cost of living" and not soley for crass, mass consumption. This has become increasingly common for the middle class.

There's also the ignorant and myopic:
In 2007 the ARM mortgage payments will increase we'll be hearing more and more of the people who used them. :)

Most of us have been in these debt situations. I certainly have. But the degree and size of this situation is what has been increasing dramatically, in particular over the last 2 decades. Debt can help us in many ways (Good debt). However, one question to ask is: how did the *size* (per capita debt ratios) get so big?

Williams discusses how debt is now arguably one of the most pervasive aspects in American society. Yet it seems real discourse regarding it is rarely if ever discussed. If there is discussion, it remains on the superficial level of TV talk shows, and newspapers and web articles that redundantly regurgitate "How to get out of debt" or "How to dig your way out of the hole." "Cut up your cards, pay off the higher interest rates first, establish a budget, itemize all expenses." And, "cut down on the Cappuccino from 5 days a week to two. You'll save X amount of dollars per year this way."

Perhaps the question should be not "how" (to dig out of it) but "why" it is there in the first place. Per capita has debt grown so much in the last 20 years that simply 'living beyond one's means' is not the main factor, for many. Further anchoring (revolving) debt into lifestyle normalcy is potential employers running credit checks on non-financially sensitive positions being applied for by job applicants.

In many instances, the FICO score has become an almighty determiner about "who a person is." Further confusing the already bemused, are the Self-anointed pop culture gurus and money management helpers who rarely if ever ask the "why" questions, as well. Of course there is good debt, and borrowing can help us in many ways. Obviously, most of us cannot pay cash for certain necessities, such as the car we need to commute to work. (In the U.S. a car is a necessity in most areas.)

Excluding the Mortgage and Car Loan, (and in many instances including these 2 debts) one could look at the concept of American debt this way: the systematic engineering to encourage, promote, and place Americans, in debt. Many organizations benefit from this. Corporations prefer to hire and employ people with revolving debt payments. This provides the control and leverage to the employer. The employee is the dependent party in the relationship. The employee works for income and then pays creditors, over a period of months and/or years, while the principle of the debt balance slowly whittles away. The employer holds a disproportionate amount of power in the relationship because the worker has given Self-Determination, or choice, up.

As for the non-interest payment treadmill, whatever happened to pay as you go? We sign contracts from everything from cell phones, to gym memberships, to Karate lessons, now.

The government likes and wants to keep its citizens in debt. Employees will work longer hours and be more efficient. And productivity improves statistically, when workers have certain minimum Per Capita Debt Ratios.

The author notes the normal concept of having debt begins during or right after high school, and usually extends until death. Debt has been internalized by a high percentage of Americans. It is a cultural norm.

As for the recent explosion in education costs since 1999, how does the U.S. government address it? By loaning more money; increase the debt ceiling.

Williams also asserts the poor get targeted more, proportionally. This is true, however everyone on the socio-economic spectrum gets targeted to acquire, increase, and maintain debts. The poor are the ones that are affected the most severely. The poor get hit more than than the socio-economic groups above them in many ways.

This book examines the social history of debt and the credit trap. And although credit card companies can seem predatory, how will "debt forgiveness" advocated in this book, help? Would these people change their behavior? And, would they be able to reduce their fixed expenses? Could debt forgiveness just exacerbate the problem for a sizeable percentage of the population? We also know forgiveness won't happen.

This book can motivate some to get off of the treadmill if they choose to, if it's not too late.

Debt for Sale.......2006-11-14

"Your account is now delinquent in the amount of $40.00. Until your account is current and below your established credit line, we must insist that you do not use your card. We must inform you that failure to make at least the minimum monthly payment will leave us no other alternative but to turn your account over to our Collection Attorneys. Please be advised your account is also being reported as delinquent to a local credit bureau. Key Federal Savings Bank." (107) All this heckling is the name of $40. Imagine you are in the shoes of Will Harrison suffering from diabetes with two amputated legs that opened his own small flower shop years ago and owed $1,000 a month in interest payments alone. Imagine you are Megan of whom half of her earnings go to pay the minimum of each of credit card bills who has a girlfriend screen her calls as she is terrified of the collection agencies and is depressed as a result of her debt. What a depressing, demoralizing, and humiliating toll the credit industry is taking on the poor of our country.
These are the stories of exploitation that Brett Williams recounts in her newest book Debt for Sale: A Social History of the Credit Trap. Williams is clear from the very onset that she is making no attempts at neutrality and objectivity; she is simply telling it like it is, or at least the way she thinks it is. She herself suffers from massive credit debt. And yes, the language of suffering and victimization saturate this expose. The institutions, the government, even the consumer culture are to blame in this book for the downfall of the American poor and lower middle class. She uses the tragic tales of the few to stand in for the exploitation and suppression of the masses at the benefit of these ambiguous, all encompassing, and greedy financial entities, who ironically are the major source for employment in the US's new service sector economy. Despite this irony, the book is well put together in its explanations about how creditors, whether credit card companies, cash checking facilities, pawn shops, or mortgage brokers, exploit notions of American entitlement to freedom, choice, flexibility, and materialism in order to pedal their products.
Our story begins in the 1970s when credit and debt became "the engine of the US economy." Through acquisitions, mergers, improvements in technology and communication, the financial services and credit industry has boomed and enabled the wealthy to become wealthier while feeding on the misfortune and inability of repayment of the poor debtors. Attempts have been made in constraining these financial giants such as Senator D'Amato's push for a 14% cap on usury, but have mostly been defeated through the rhetoric of credit as the new welfare, enabling the poor to get by when even their own government was not there to support them. Williams demonstrates the cyclical damage that the credit industry has laid upon the less fortunate through treating those who pay their bills and do not carry a balance as "deadbeats", and therefore encouraging people to pay the bare minimum and get caught up on exponentially high interest rates.
The industry paints a picture of comfort, freedom, and security for those in tight financial situations and not only could care less, but thrive on the automatic cycle of debt. She tackles the idea of convenience users verses revolvers; convenience users being those who basically use credit as short-term, low-interest loans, and revolvers being those who get stuck in an endless succession of barely paying the minimum and rolling over their balance and interest into future periods. The institutions seek out those who are desperate and/or ignorant and turn their bad year into a horrific one. If you thought that credit cards and banks were the only people profiting off of ridiculously high interest rates, Williams offers up some additional institutions for examination. Student loans have become a large portion of current financial aid packages, putting terror in the eyes of those who intend to use their education for the betterment of the world instead of their own purses. Rent-A-Centers charge outrageous monthly fees for usage of furniture, appliances and more that amount to interest rates of up to 150 percent. At pawn shops, customers often pay $0.25 for every dollar of an items value while it is being held. Payday Loan Corporation reckons that its customers pay a whooping 1288.5 percent interest on five day loans. (98)
The point of Williams book, however, is not entirely wrapped up in the banking and credit world of fancy terminology and high interest rates, but perhaps more importantly attempts to expose how credit is linked to American society. She states, "Credit and debt only make sense in the context of other social relations and obligations." (5) This theme of the book is expressed well in the chapter entitled Seducing Students in which credit almost becomes a rite of passage for teenagers, ushering them into the mature, responsible adult world. Materialism and the need to put up a front of lavishness and style are cited as additional reasons that people are seduced into the world of credit. The book is not at all intended, however, to focus on why people make certain purchases, or how they get into debt, but the institutions that take advantage of their bad luck and keep people there at their own profit.

Williams does, unfortunately, leave the reader wanting for more. The book is challenging for those with little economics background or credit training. It spends virtually no time discussing what a credit score is and how that influences ones ability to purchase and pay, and the extent to which it can sway interest rates. Williams offers a myriad of solutions in her short conclusion including usury caps, reenact New-Deal-type programs for employment, and the government liquidating debt burdens. The distressing part though, is that the suggestions for the most part are barely explained and not feasible solutions for the problem of debt inequalities in America. What is realistic in a capitalist country based on a consumer culture in which the ability to buy is the ultimate test of citizenship?

Credit: The Reverse of a Modern Day Robin Hood.......2006-10-27

It might be our biggest problem, but Americans still are not talking about it. Although high levels of debt have become widely prevalent in the United States, American social conventions prohibit most discussion of personal financial troubles. Instead, this downward spiral into debt silently worsens during economic hardships, through "people's desperate, sometimes misguided, often inescapable efforts to maintain the illusion of a middle-class standard of living." (43) With 1.2 million people filing for bankruptcy in 1996, (60) the lack of a productive conversation about issues of debt and credit is startling.
Debt for Sale: A Social History of the Credit Trap is Brett Williams' attempt to change that. Her anthropological work indicts the booming debt industry for its unscrupulous role in creating massive profits for lenders by hammering poor Americans deeply into debt. Rather than blaming the indebted, she attacks the lending institutions for their predatory tactics and deceitful business practices, which she insists brought about such unnecessary adversity for so many people.
Brett Williams is a professor of anthropology at American University in Washington D.C. She has lived in the nation's capital since 1976, where she has researched a variety of topics related to urban politics and poverty. She is also "an unwilling participant-observer in the social relations [she describes]." (7) Having used credit cards since arriving in D.C., she has experienced difficult times of debt and makes no attempts at neutrality in this work. This aspect is refreshing, as the author devotes her entire energy to exposing the damage wrought by the credit industry without pretending to be objective. With that said, the author backs up her statements with carefully researched detail, so despite its lack of a neutral stance, this book is still firmly based in experience and statistics.
Debt for Sale is a powerfully surprising presentation of the credit industry as an exploiter of poorer Americans. Williams explains that, unexpectedly, credit companies prefer consumers who can not pay off their entire balance every time it is due. Instead, they seek those who are unable to handle their usual balance and impose "a creative plague of penalty fees for every little malfeasance imaginable." (33) Because these punishments provide so much profit for the banks, people who pay too faithfully are avoided by companies like Capital One, where "your account may be cancelled if you don't charge enough or if you pay too fully and faithfully." (50) This seemingly illogical structure sets the tone for the book as a meticulous revelation of the many ways that banking methods defy reason.
This book compellingly describes an American economy based in a self-reinforcing set of inequalities, slanted heavily toward the rich. Not only do the banks market their products less aggressively toward people more able to pay, they also give those people better credit cards deals. Rather than hassle the wealthy with higher interest rates, lending institutions unload these burdens on already strapped debtors. As Williams tells us, "this flow of money from the poor to the rich is just one example of how middle- and upper-class economic privileges are sustained by the poor." (113) While banks could easily lessen the burden on the poor--who often need credit to get through medical emergencies or lay offs--they instead cater to the wealthy, leaving the lower classes in even worse shape. Illuminating these trends of inequality with true stories, Williams succeeds in bringing her readers to deeply question the methods and motives of these lending giants.
Her work is strengthened further by its comprehensive analysis of fringe banks, which exploit the poor while enjoying monstrous profits. Fixtures in impoverished areas, they engage in "the most outrageous, expensive and quasi-legal transactions." (98) Check cashers, payday lenders, pawn shops and rent-to-own businesses all benefit from taking advantage of poor Americans who need a little extra cash to get by. For example, Rent-A-Center, the largest rent-to-own store in the United States, made $100 million in profit in 2003. (104) Compounding these issues, these institutions also further impoverish and disenfranchise members of poor communities, "leaving them with no records of proof of payments, no ongoing relationship to build up a credit history, and in greater personal danger from carrying cash." (99) Sometimes charging annualized interest rates over 1000%, the contrast between these booming institutions and the suffering they profit on brilliantly highlight the inequalities caused by debt today.
Williams' chapter on the attempts of banks to establish a presence on college campuses, to gain access to largely uninformed potential customers, widens this book's scope by describing another aspect of manipulative lending businesses. Seeing students as a "current and future source of profits," (67) banks fight to develop a large client base among younger and younger students. In this section, Williams expertly incorporates the stories of three separate college students as she traces the notion of the credit card as a rite of passage gone wrong, through their parallel stories that begin with a credit card in college and end in "an adult life saddled with seemingly intractable debt." (68) The true accounts given here and throughout the book allow it to resonate on a personal level, something not often found in works on economic subjects.
Overall, Williams' work breaks down stereotypes of debtors as "the poor, the welfare state, greedy and impulsive women, or racially marked and foreign others." (4) She draws attention to the real causes of these issues, pinpointing the big banks that encourage states to abandon anti-usury laws and governmental agencies to keep regulation low, so that profits stay high. Her focus on the way that "credit cards work to obscure, reproduce, and exacerbate divisions of class, race and gender ... in a patronizing, asymmetrical economy of debt" (6) brings the reader to want change in this industry of exploitation. As Williams explains, "we are all participating in the same economy; we are all connected" (123) and subjected to the dangers of this unsustainable growth in credit. As a result, her revelation of the previously hidden aspects of the debt industry represents an important first step in starting a discussion about these collective issues.

Incredibly important topic.......2005-03-07

Debt -- and the degree to which our society and economy have become dependent on it -- is an incredibly important topic. It was thus with high hopes that I picked up "Debt for Sale", Brett Williams' history of the "credit trap." The book made for a quick, emotionally-charged read, but its flaws ultimately left me hoping for a more balanced, more complete treatise in the future.

The emotional charge of the book comes from its many anecdotes of the victims of predatory lending, many of which make one's stomach turn and one's blood boil. One cannot help but be disgusted by the rapaciousness of credit card companies tempting college students with easy money, or the avariciousness of the banking marketing exec explicitly targeting the poor with usurious check cashing services. The many stories of those living in debt penury (stories that Williams calls "debt porn") and a solid (if brief) history of the credit card business are the strengths of this book.

Unfortunately, the book does a better job convincing of the seriousness of the problem than it does explaining its broad scope or inner workings, let alone exploring solutions. Among the book's several flaws is its nearly exclusive focus on the poor. Debt is an important topic because it is has become pervasive -- it is not limited to just the poor. And indeed, the elephant of debt -- mortgage debt -- is virtually undiscussed by the book. Given the rise of insane debt devices like interest-only ARMs and flexible payment ARMs -- and the dubious judgement of the GSEs pumping the liquidity in the first place -- the lack of discussion of mortgage debt is a serious failing.

Even when the book is on its home turf of credit card debt, there are dubious assignments of blame. For example, the author accuses those of us who don't keep a balance on our credit cards as getting a "free ride" on the backs of those who are paying crushing interest. Further, the author suggests that mandatory monthly payments should be required for such people. This is a naive suggestion: if my credit card company were to not extend a grace period, I would simply stop using my credit card. Remember, the point is that I (and millions of others like me) have the money in the bank to back every one of our purchases; the credit card is thus simply a convenience, not a source of true credit.

Most of the other suggestions for improving the system are similarly untenable, even in the absence of the banking lobby. For example, in one paragraph, the author advocated debt forgiveness -- but in the next, feared that the government would have to bail out the greedy, overextended banks. It is clear that the author didn't understand that the first suggestion would bring her fears to reality. The problem with debt is that it becomes repackaged and resold so many times over, that forgiving debt at one end of the system is robbing savings at the other. The book doesn't touch on this interconnectedness at all; the author doesn't seem to realize the connection between an Asian central bank soaking up 10-year treasuries and a new credit card offer showing up in the mail. There very much is a connection, of course, but the task of exploring it awaits a more comprehensive book...

Book Description

This fully revised and updated edition of a seminal reference work provides a detailed chronological account of the development of European integration. The history of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), which began immediately after World War II, is recounted in the form of a descriptive summary of the most significant events, measures, arrangements and conferences. The chronology concludes at the end of 2001 with what is arguably one of the most important events in European history: the introduction of the euro notes and coins in twelve nation states. Throughout, Wim Vanthoor offers a detailed yet concise account of the evolution of the economic and political ideas which have culminated in this defining moment. The book is interspersed with quotations from the addresses, orations and comments of politicians and those closely involved with the process of European integration. This accessible book will be essential reading for anyone with an interest in the history of European integration.

Book Description

"Many marketing people still pursue interactive sales solely for their immediate cash return rather than the contribution they can also make to brand values - hence 'loyalty' programmes which have nothing to do with real loyalty. No-one who has read this highly readable and significant book would ever make that expensive mistake." Sir Martin Sorrell, Chief Executive WPP GROUP PLC

"A wise and thoughtful book by an author who understands to the core that customer relationship management is about human connections." Leonard L. Berry Distinguished Professor of Marketing, Texas A&M University, and author of Discovering the Soul of Service

Customer Reviews:

The subtitle should be the title.......2002-05-08

It IS all about how you make them feel

To the company or individual who believes that price and product features are dominant drivers of customer behavior, Barnes doesn't so much reveal secrets, as issue a direct challenge arguing that the health of the customer relationship determines the long term outlook of the business.

Barnes' view, based on a considerable amount of research with companies in North America and Europe, is that even customer satisfaction and customer loyalty are not sufficient concepts for understanding why customers chose to do business with a particular firm. In his view, it's emotional. Customers have so many choices today, and there are so many good suppliers, that they can, (in fact need to), base their purchase decisions on how they feel about doing business with a given supplier.

Just because it's about emotions, however, doesn't mean it's unmanageable or even unmeasurable. For his clients, Barnes assesses the value that can be created for the customer in the relationship. He tests the company's actual performance in delivering it. He assesses, as well, the long term economic value of the relationship to the company and the cost of maintaining it. With this information strategic decisions can be made about where and how much to invest in developing relationships.

Like many business books today, this book could stand a resolute editor. Barnes is clearly pitching a point of view, so perhaps it's understandable that he covers the same ground from several different directions, but it does get repetitive. The repetition, however, doesn't diminish the message, and the reader looking for justification for developing about the emotional connection to the customer will find a great deal of support, insight, and methodology here.

Finally!.......2001-04-11

At last, someone who understands that "loyalty" is an emotional bond, human feeling, not simply bribery or monopolization under a sweeter-sounding name. Barnes' background in psychology allows him to take this view, and as a result he can write more usefully about what loyalty really is and really isn't than most anyone else out there.

CRM is personal........2001-01-02

Barnes's discussion on CRM is unique: instead of looking at managing systems and processes--what I called the operation issues of CRM--Barnes discussed and illustrated how personal CRM should be. This is not a manual for CRM implementation; if you do happen to work on CRM related matters, this is a must as you will gain an insight of what CRM is about--making your customer feel good. It's that un-complicated!

One chapter I found irresistable is the chapter on Internet and CRM. I believe the author had summarized and highlighted the essence of implementing CRM through Internet, and what considerations to give etc.. It is not tactical, but you will find his inputs valuable.

Happy reading.

An important reminder about loyalty!.......2000-12-20

Barnes argues that "genuine" customer relationships are built by understanding and attending to the emotional experience generated by customer interactions. Accordingly, retention tactics that merely increase switching costs or reward customers for loyal behaviour are not sufficient in creating true long-term customer value.

Barnes' work accepts and compliments the work of other authors who present a more mechanical, economic view of the customer relationship. He reminds those with technology-driven customer strategies that CRM is fundamentally about people. Readers using this book in addition to Rust, Zeithaml and Lemon's "Driving Customer Equity" will gain a very balanced appreciation of customer-focused marketing today.

Long on text and short on graphics and case examples, this book is not a quick read. However, for those compelled to invest some time in this subject, the content is well written and useful.

Chapter 4 contains a particularly useful discussion on drivers of customer value.

In Chapter 10, Barnes presents a relatively pessimistic view on possibilities of developing genuine customer relationships through the Internet. Accordingly, those looking to improve their e-channel knowledge should probably look elsewhere.

Dan Michaluk is a simulation designer for ExperiencePoint, creators of award-winning business simulations.

A must read.......2000-12-19

No serious manager in the new e-nvironment can talk about web based commerce ignoring the basic principles of Customer Relationship Management. This book gives the reader an insider's view of the general idea, basic guidelines and - most important - the philosophy of CRM. Well structured, well written...a must read.

Secrets of Customer Relationship Management: It's All About How You Make Them Feel

Average customer rating:

Secrets of Customer Relationship Management: It's All About How You Make Them Feel
James G. Barnes
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Companies
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OFK6AU

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books