The Beermat Entrepreneur: Turn Your Good Idea into a Great Business

Citation

(2002), "The Beermat Entrepreneur: Turn Your Good Idea into a Great Business", Work Study, Vol. 51 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/ws.2002.07951fae.002

The Beermat Entrepreneur: Turn Your Good Idea into a Great Business

The Beermat Entrepreneur: Turn Your Good Idea into a Great Business

Mike Southon and Chris WestPrentice-Hall BusinessISBN: 0273659294£12.99

You know where the title of this book comes from. Many of us have doodled ideas while sitting in a bar, perhaps waiting for a colleague to turn up. The ideas we have are rarely taken forward – even the good ones. Now someone has decided that those ideas should not be thrown out with the day's debris – and that someone has "been there and done it". Southon has been involved in seven different startups, including The Instruction Set, which he successfully sold to Cap Gemini.

The Beermat Entrepreneur takes you through all the crucial stages of a company's growth, and introduces the people and strategies required for success at each stage. This starts with the crucial testing of the initial idea and finding a mentor, through securing your first customer, to deciding when to "go for growth" and managing it.

This book is easy to read. It reads as if told by two ordinary "blokes" one might meet in the pub – quite appropriate really! The authors have obviously thought hard about what does and does not work and how to adapt as you find out along the way.

Perhaps their "universal truth" is less than that; it is possible to identify issues and areas that might not always be transferable. However, the book is so easy to read that it is worth doing that so as to get at part of the "truth" in working towards your own success path.