The 7 Irrefutable Rules of Small Business Growth

Starting a small business and making it a success isn’t easy. In fact, most small business owners don’t get rich and many fail. This book presents the straight truth on small business success. It doesn’t offer cure-alls for every small business. Instead, it outlines real, effective principles for continued small business growth and success. Written by business growth expert Steven Little, The 7 Irrefutable Rules of Small Business Growth skips empty small business positivism in exchange for real-world, practical solutions. If you’re a small business owner or an entrepreneur just starting out, you’ll find answers to all your most important questions on topics such as technology, business plans, hiring, and much more.

Customer Reviews:

Essential, if not irrefutable

By Robert Morris - March 17, 2005

Perhaps Covey is to be blamed for the fact that so many authors of business books treat the number seven as sacrosanct. The "rules" which Little offers in this volume could well have been 11 or 21...if not more. All are essential to business success. For example, "Establish and maintain a strong sense of purpose" (#1) and "Attract and keep the best and brightest" (#6). No news there. The great value of this book is derived from what Little has to say about each rule and, more importantly, HOW and WHY all seven are interdependent. At this point, it may be of interest to share information cited by Michael Gerber in his recently published E-Myth Mastery: "Of the 1 million U.S. small businesses started this year [2005], more than 80% of them will be out of business within 5 years and 96% will have closed their doors before their 10th birthday." Opinions vary as to the percentages as well as to the reasons for such extensive failure. However, the fact remains that a substantial majority of... read more

Has a great message for wanta-be entrepreneurs to read and hear.

By Jeff Lippincott "JLIPPIN" - August 24, 2006

I'm a SCORE counselor and the mission of SCORE is to help wanta-be entrepreneurs and actual small business owners either successfully start a business or maintain/grow an existing business. Typically "clients" come in to the face-to-face counseling sessions with questions, lots of questions. If the client is a wanta-be entrepreneur, then one of my first questions is: Have you written a business plan? If the client is a small business owner and having problems or is interested in growth, then one of my first questions is: How does this relate to your business plan? Interestingly, both types of clients usually answer that they don't have a business plan, or at least they don't have a written business plan.

Mr. Little's book covers what I have to tell my SCORE clients when they tell me they don't have a business plan or don't use a business plan. It sure would be nice if I could just hand the clients Little's book and call it an evening. However, the clients probably prefer to... read more

Book lives up to the keynote presentations...

By Needlegrinder "Nobs7777" - March 2, 2005

I saw Steve speak at an industry trade show recently and came away with plenty of information I could use right away. I've been looking forward to this book coming out and was not disappointed. Like his keynotes, this is entertaining, but also crammed full of interesting insights and examples. There aren't a lot of books I would recommend to others trying to grow companies. For those of us in the trenches, most of the advice we see from so-called "experts" is bunk. It's obvious that Little has lived in the real world and that he knows what he is talking about. I recommend this as both a pleasure to read and as a "how to grow" manual.