Creating business value is not easy. The facts are sobering: Out of 27.3m US enterprises, 26.7m are employing less than 20 people and only 5,000 to 10,000 US enterprises are selling out for $10m or more each year. That's a 1 in 6,000 chance. Therefore, I ask you, are you sure you are increasing business value? Operational tips are needed more than ever. After nearly 100 blog posts of The Smith Report-and many requests for a compilation--I decided to bring these one-page business tutorials together in one place and in a sequence that makes sense. You start with a great a story and build a business around it! I actually wrote my blog posts to a plan. The plan was to answer 9 big questions that make a significant difference to the success of a private company. These are: 1. How do you define and dominate your unique market? 2. How do you create a high growth business? 3. How do you build innovation into your culture? 4. How do you attract and nurture the best talent? 5. How do you build a metrics culture that is relentlessly curious? 6. What are the best business models? 7. How do you raise venture or private equity money? 8. How do you minimize risk and build robustness into your business? 9. How do you do acquisitions and integrate them seamlessly? My blog posts and the resulting book offer lively, concise answers you can use as you scale and grow your business. The answers are the results of my years in the business world, during which I have succeeded in creating significant cash wealth for shareholders. However, remember that as you test these ideas in your businesses, you need to deploy integrated tactics. For example, nailing your compelling story (see Chapter 1) doesn't just give you a platform for attractive marketing campaigns, it helps you recruit great talent, build the correct metrics, raise money, and dominate your market.
