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How They Started: How 30 Good Ideas Became Great Businesses | 
 enlarge | Author: David Lester
Publisher: Crimson Publishing
Category: Book
List Price: £12.99
Buy New: £5.70
You Save: £7.29 (56%)
New (17) Used (10) from £3.81
Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 5470
Media: Paperback
Edition: New title
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 9 x 5.9 x 1
ISBN: 1854584006
EAN: 9781854584007
ASIN: 1854584006
Publication Date: June 15, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 superficial August 30, 2008
Punit Shah (London)
I think another reviewer here said that this looked like a cut and paste job. That pretty much sums it up. Appears to be little or no original research. The analysis of the secret of their success, whether in the approach they took, their innate character or their ideas seems very superficial.
Clearly some of the individuals profiled had no time for the author or just had absolutely nothing insightful to say. A real pity, because it would have been great to have found inspiration, hope and ideas from great entrepreneurs.
Plenty of good ideas May 1, 2008
Peter Wade (Colchester England)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
How they started How 30 good ideas became great businesses BY David Lester
I devour business books but this one looks like a cut an paste job. It is trying to appeal to a large audience but it is set out like a reference book.
A good business book should mix facts with anecdotes and personal stories. It claims that their criteria for choosing was they were started by individuals, they are successful and they are a household name. Perhaps I hadn't been paying attention but they were a few I had not heard of . Out of 30 there were nineteen I had really heard of.
The good ones have been well covered elsewhere such as Dyson, Friends Reunited and Moneysupermarket .com.
People who think about starting businesses but ever get round to it cite two reasons ! I need a good idea 2 someone will steal my good idea. Perhaps there are no new ideas just variations on a theme. Even modern phenomena like Bebo never claimed to be the first just one of the more successful. Very rarely if ever does someone come up with a world beating new idea. even Dyson was just developing a better vacuum cleaner.
Another reviewer has commented on the section on what we can learn from these businesses as a group? that is 1 The X Factor 2 Minimal personal reward financially 4 Do what it says on the tin 5 Keep it simple 6 Work hard than you might think possible 7 Kept trying and believing 8 Who needs money? 8 Ambition 9 So what?
Can I make a plea for business book writers and journalist to stop telling us that X ! Quit the rat race" to start his own business. It is rubbish and boring.
Maybe a book for people who do not read the business pages but there are better books out there on ideas and how to start your own business. Business appears to have become the new Rock and Roll but on The Apprentice we see it is a lot harder than you think. Perfectly bright intelligent hard working people do not seem to be able to get it right.
They are uplifting stories but like the apprentices you should try just a basic business to start with to see if you have the staying power. The vast majority of the population will not make it in business because they are not hard working enough, do not have enough ambition and have an inability to work consistently every day.
A reasonable enough book but it did not inspire me to read it from cover to cover. I dipped into the ones that I liked.
Anyone can do it ..... February 18, 2008
Mr. P. Stewkesbury (Kent, UK)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Persistence is omnipotent, if you overcome the obstacles you will succeed in the end. The quantity of success stories in this book proves this.
It is possible to start with very little and then, through great endeavour, build a successful business.
Unfortunately, I found the book rather boring. You will learn and take away a little from those businesses that are similar to yours (or perhaps what you intend or hope to do), but with 30 chapters covering 30 businesses it becomes a little samey.
There are wise words in the introduction and a fair summary of what you will learn from the book on pages 3-5; the author effectively puts his conclusions at the beginning of the book:
What can we learn from these businesses as a group?
The X Factor - no single X-factor, but a collection of traits which drive people to succeed.
Minimal personal reward initially - most are not able to, or choose not to, take much money from the business at first.
Do what it says on the tin - focus on one idea - normal for startups.
Keep It Simple (Stupid) - stick to your knitting - focus on the one idea - and, of course, your customers.
Work harder than you might think possible - startup entrepreneurs tend to put in a lot of hours.
Keep trying and believing - it takes time - persistence is omnipotent.
Who needs money? - most start with minimal funding.
Ambition - you need passion and commitment to become successful - a desire to earn loads of money will probably not engender sufficient drive for the long-term.
So what? - "they needed extraordinary levels of passion, energy, self belief and stamina, the ability and desire to focus, and a good measure of judgement."
After that, I don't think that the next 235 pages are worth the effort.
 Feeling of inspiration June 19, 2007
Entrepreneur virgin (sussex, england)
13 out of 14 found this review helpful
I actually felt quite inspired after reading this book. It's so depressing reading how people have made millions from having started with quite a lot of money in the first place, but all these people seem to have done it just by persistence, self-belief and hard work.
Most people don't have a raft of multi-millionaire contacts in their back pocket, they've just got a really good idea and it's the getting started that the most difficult - these people all did it differently, but it's given me renewed hope and another blast of adrenaline.
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