The Beermat Entrepreneur by Mike Southan and Chris West
Book Review - 4 Stars
"The Beermat Entrepreneur: Turn Your Good Ideas Into A Great Business" by Mike Southan and Chris West has been a best selling book in the UK and lays down a path for aspiring entrepreneurs to build a big business. That last bit is important.
"The Beermat Entrepreneur" is not a book for entrepreneurs who want to build a nice small business with a steady income but for ambitious entrepreneurs who have a vision to float their business on the stock market in five or ten years time.
The book divides into three main sections which represent distinct phases in the life of the business:
- The seedling enterprise
- The sapling enterprise
- The mighty oak
So lets take a look at each.
The Beermat Entrepreneur & The Seedling Enterprise
You are a budding entrepreneur and you have an idea which you believe has great potential so according to this Beermat your first three steps are:
- Create an elevator pitch to communicate your idea
- Find an experienced mentor to guide your business
- Get your first customer
A nice simple plan to get going.
Now that you have proven your business by passing it through your mentor and winning your first customer, it is time to start building your team.
The Beermat Cornerstones
To build a big business you can't do it all and the Beermat Entrepreneur involves four functional specialists in the top team plus him- or herself and this book argues that you should all be equal shareholders:
- The entrepreneur - who has the vision and ideas
- The technical cornerstone - the technical wizard and innovator who turns the idea into a workable concept
- The delivery cornerstone who is focused on customer satisfaction and getting the orders completed.
- The sales cornerstone who will generate more orders.
- The finance cornerstone to keep the business under control and make sure that it doesn't spend money it doesn't have.
After the team is in place you have to write the business plan and use it to raise capital and the Beermat Entrepreneur book provides ideas for how you can raise the cash with venture capitalists very near to the bottom of the list.
The Beermat Entrepreneur & The Sapling Enterprise
As the business grows, you build the team beneath the cornerstones which means that you must face up to all the issues involved with recruiting, employing and managing people.
The Beermat Entrepreneur & The Mighty Oak
You now have around 20 people in the team although this number seems to reflect Mike Southan's background in the IT industry as many more straightforward businesses will move into the stage later.
The business is established and serial entrepreneur will now be bored and want to move on to the next challenge while other entrepreneurs will continue to create value within the business.
Conclusion On The Beermat Entrepreneur
"The Beermat Entrepreneur" by Mike Southan and Chris West is a good book that shows the path to building a big business. At only 148 pages it contains good practical advice rather than complex management theory.
It is easy to read and presents one way to build a business although you may fight against some of the ideas like the equal shares for the entrepreneur and four cornerstones.
I rate The Beermat Entrepreneur as a 4 star book. Recommended reading for anybody thinking of starting a business and want it to be big.
It is available from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk (affiliate links) - it seems that the book is more appreciated in the UK than the USA.
Other Recommended Entrepreneur Books
If you already have a business and have the problems that brings, I recommend "The E Myth Revisited" by Michael Gerber and "The Chic Entrepreneur" by Elizabeth Gordon.
Other Beermat Books
There are a number of other books in the Beermat series and I will be reviewing "Sales on a Beermat" and "Finance on a Beermat"
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