Do As I Say, Not As I Did!
By Carol Frank
*A Book Review*
by Michael C. Gray
© 2017 by Michael C. Gray
In Do As I Say, Not As I Did!, Carol Frank shares the expensive lessons from the "school of hard knocks" of many successful entrepreneurs. After making major errors in her businesses that almost resulted in bankruptcy, Carol decided to share some of the lessons that she learned in a book, and interviewed other entrepreneurs to also share their stories.
The result is a collection of "horror stories" that are an invaluable reference for anyone thinking of going into business. The major lesson: "Look before you leap!"
For example, Carol tells her own story. She started her career in public accounting as a CPA and MBA. Then she got the entrepreneurial bug and got into the retail pet supply business. After experiencing employee theft and other problems, she decided to change to selling upscale bird cages to retail pet stores.
She was so busy getting her business off the ground that she "didn't have time" to attend to registering intellectual property rights to her cage designs. She only had one source for manufacturing her cages that was located in Mexico. She introduced her manufacturer to her customers at a trade show. That manufacturer bypassed her company and began selling her cages directly to her customers.
Finally she was able to find a lawyer who found a way to use the copyright laws to stop the manufacturer from shipping the cages into the United States. (Other lawyers told her she couldn't defend herself.) She was also able to have her insurance company finance suing the manufacturer for violating her copyright and get enough funds to help her get back on her feet again. By the time she wrote the book, Carol secured several sources for manufacturing her cages in China.
The other stories are case studies of business owners who weren't paying attention to their books and records, weren't assuring their payroll taxes were paid, didn't research their markets, didn't do background checks of their customers, employees, and business partners. Most of the disasters resulted from trusting people who weren't trustworthy (including friends and family members).
The reader of this book should be relieved to see that the entrepreneurs profiled in this book, who were all quite bright, often made mistakes that on reflection might seem foolish. Human beings do that sort of thing. They learned from their mistakes, recovered and became more successful.
What are some details in your business that you haven't been attending to, that could result in financial disaster? Read Do As I Say, Not As I Did! and find out.
Buy it on Amazon: Do As I Say, Not As I Did!: Gaining Wisdom In Business Through The Mistakes Of Highly Successful People
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