The Art of the Start Buchzusammenfassung - das Wichtigste aus The Art of the Start

Einleitung anhören

00:00

Zusammenfassung von The Art of the Start

Name: The Art of the Start
Rating: 4.4 (78 reviews)
Author: Guy Kawasaki

Guy Kawasaki

The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything

4.4 (78 Bewertungen)

20 Min.

Kurz zusammengefasst

The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki is a helpful guidebook for entrepreneurs seeking to launch a successful business. It provides practical advice on everything from creating a pitch to securing funding, and offers tips for overcoming common hurdles along the way.

Themen

Start-Ups Kleine Unternehmen Unternehmertum

Inhaltsübersicht

The Art of the Start
in 11 Kernaussagen verstehen

Audio & Text in der Blinkist App

Kernaussage 1 von 11

What’s in it for me: Get the basics you need to start and run a business.

The Chinese philosopher Lao Zi once said: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” But often when we want to start some larger-than-life task, like our own business venture, we get so caught up planning 50 steps that we skip over the very first one.

That’s why in these blinks, you won’t get in-depth analyses of the management tools you need to start and run a business. Instead, you’ll get just enough to take that first step. Among other things, you’ll learn how to pitch for funding and survive even if you don’t get it. You’ll understand how companies can position themselves successfully and create powerful brands.

You’ll also discover:

why you shouldn’t be afraid of hiring someone smarter than you,
how IBM succeeded in hijacking the computer market from the leading brand, and
what makes some products so popular they’re contagious.

Entrepreneurs should strive to make meaning, not money.

Many people dream of starting their own company, and often their motivation stems from the desire to get rich quick.

But this is the wrong way to go about it: entrepreneurship should be about making meaning, not making money. And you make meaning when you create a service or product that somehow contributes to the world becoming a better place.

And not only does making meaning help the world, it’s also a critical element in your company’s success. It’s far more difficult to be an A-list entrepreneur if you don’t make meaning. Both you and your employees will be far more motivated if money isn’t your primary goal.

So how can you create this meaning?

Formulate a short, powerful mantra that reflects it. A mantra is a simple, frequently repeated statement that reminds the employees why the company exists. For example, Nike’s mantra is “Authentic athletic performance” and Disney’s is “Fun family entertainment.”

You may think that a company’s mission statement already performs the same function, but a mantra is different in that it is shorter, more direct and more memorable.

For example, Coca-Cola’s mission statement is “The Coca-Cola Company exists to benefit and refresh everyone it touches.” That’s a mouthful. But if we formulate a hypothetical mantra for the same company, we could come up with something like “Refresh the world,” which is much catchier and easier to keep in mind.

Don't just wing it when it comes to business: you need to set milestones, test assumptions and define tasks.

Many start-ups operate in a state of constant chaos: no one really knows where the company is going or how much progress it’s making.

Don’t let this happen to your company. Instead, use the MAT framework: define Milestones, Assumptions and Tasks.

Your company’s positioning should tell the customer what you do in a clear and personal way.

One area where start-up organizations frequently falter is positioning, which means the way in which customers perceive the company. But positioning need not be complicated. The most important thing is that it clearly answers one question: “What do you do?” Find a great answer to that question and communicate it to the market – giving the customer a reason to buy your product.

So what do you need to do to achieve great positioning?

Pitching should tell the audience what you do and why it’s important.

Everyone knows that no entrepreneur can succeed if she’s the only person excited about her idea. This is why a key part of entrepreneurship is pitching: presenting your business idea so that others get excited about it too.

To pitch properly, you need to keep a few things in mind.

Every start-up should prepare a business plan.

There’s more than a grain of truth to the age-old saying, “If you don't plan to succeed you plan to fail.” Traditionally, firms use the business plan: a formal written document outlining goals and the methods for reaching them.

Because the business plan is such a formal document, writing one may seem like a useless chore for a start-up contending with a ton of unknowns. But in fact, it does have several benefits.

If you can’t get external funding for your company, focus on generating cash flow.

Many start-ups owe their existence to investors who fund them in the early stages. But you can also build a start-up by bootstrapping: running it without any external investment.

To succeed at bootstrapping, you need to focus primarily on generating cash flow, or getting money into your bank account. After all, you need it to pay your bills, rent, salaries, and so forth.

To build a great team, hire people better than yourself and fire those who don’t perform.

No matter what industry you’re in, you can’t run a successful company without a great team of people behind it. So how do you ensure that you build this team?

First of all, never be afraid of hiring someone who’s better than you. This is essential for success.

If you enter into a partnership, make sure it produces a tangible financial benefit.

Start-ups can’t remain start-ups forever – they either grow or fail. And one of the tactics that can help your start-up grow is making partnerships with other businesses.

Let’s look at a few factors that make your partnerships successful.

To build a brand, make your product so great it spreads like a virus.

Every founder dreams of her start-up one day becoming an internationally recognized household name. So how can you brand your product so that it becomes a legend?

Your main focus should lie in creating products that are contagious – people should be infected with the enthusiasm to try them.

Keep your eyes open for unexpected opportunities.

You may never have heard of it, but once upon a time, a company called Univac led the computing market. But the company made a crucial error of judgment: it saw its computers as sophisticated tools to be used by scientists only, and therefore only produced machines suitable for complicated scientific calculations. At this time, however, another company realized that businesses were also interested in the potential of computing, and so it began building machines targeted at this new consumer market. Though the name Univac is long forgotten, you may have heard of this second company. It’s IBM.

So what’s the lesson?

Final Summary

The key message in this book:

Companies should be started because the founders want to make meaning, not because they want to make money. Focus on generating cash flow and pursuing unexpected market opportunities, and you can thrive even without external funding.

Du möchtest die gesamte Zusammenfassung von The Art of the Start sehen?

Kernaussagen in The Art of the Start

Mehr Wissen in weniger Zeit

Sachbücher auf den Punkt gebracht

Kernaussagen aus Sachbüchern in ca. 15 Minuten pro Titel lesen & anhören mit den „Blinks”

Zeitsparende Empfehlungen

Titel, die dein Leben bereichern, passend zu deinen Interessen und Zielen

Podcasts in Kurzform ^Neu

Kernaussagen wichtiger Podcasts im Kurzformat mit den neuen „Shortcasts”

Worum geht es in The Art of the Start?

The Art of the Start offers a brief overview of some of the key aspects of starting and running a business. It covers topics such as pitching for funding, recruiting the right people, and building a successful brand.

Bestes Zitat aus The Art of the Start

Positioning should be about what you do for your customers – not about what you want to become.

—Guy Kawasaki

Wer The Art of the Start lesen sollte

Entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs
Anyone who works for a start-up or small company

Über den Autor

Guy Kawasaki is the former chief evangelist of Apple, and current chief evangelist of the online graphic design tool Canva. He is also a venture capitalist with his own company, Garage Technology Ventures.

Kategorien mit The Art of the Start

Unternehmertum

Ähnliche Zusammenfassungen wie The Art of the Start

Company of One

Paul Jarvis

Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business

30 min

4.5

The Unfair Advantage

Ash Ali & Hasan Kubba

How Startup Success Starts With You

19 min

4.0

Start with Why (Old Version)

Simon Sinek

How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

Say Less to Get More from Any Pitch or Presentation

The Bulletproof Plan to Age Backward and Maybe Even Live Forever

Secrets of the Fastest-Growing Startups from Their Founding Entrepreneurs

Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It

26 min

4.5

Awakening Your Ikigai

Ken Mogi

How the Japanese Wake Up to Joy and Purpose Every Day

An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

25 min

4.7

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Daniel Kahneman

Intuition or deliberation? Where you can (and can't) trust your brain

28 min

4.5

So Good They Can't Ignore You

Cal Newport

Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love

Fire Your Boss, Do What You Love and Work Better to Live More

The Fight to Master Our Greatest Opponent

22 min

4.4

Leading an Inspired Life

Jim Rohn

Timeless Wisdom and Practical Strategies to Find True Fulfillment

Unprepared to Entrepreneur

Sonya Barlow

A Method to the Madness of Starting Your Own Business

18 min

4.1

ReWork

Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

Unorthodox advice for growing companies

19 min

4.5

Start-up of You

Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha

Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career

14 min

4.4

The Warren Buffett Way

Robert G. Hagstrom

Investment Strategies of the World's Greatest Investor

How to solve big problems and sell solutions like top strategy consultants

18 min

4.0

The Art of Public Speaking

Dale Carnegie

Become a confident, effective public speaker

Stories of Startups’ Early Days

22 min

4.1

Value Proposition Design

Alexander Osterwalder

How to Create Products and Services Customers Want

15 min

4.3

How to Start a Start-up

ThinkApps

The Silicon Valley Playbook for Entrepreneurs

12 min

3.8

How Successful People Think

John C. Maxwell

Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life

16 min

4.3

Relational Intelligence

Dharius Daniels

The People Skills You Need for the Life of Purpose You Want

Overcome Common Pitfalls and Create Effective Marketing

21 min

4.1

The Young Entrepreneur

Swish Goswami & Quinn Underwood

How to Start a Business While You're Still a Student

How to Bridge the Distance Between Business Strategy and Design

10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative

Upgrade Your Brain, Learn Anything Faster, and Unlock Your Exceptional Life

31 min

4.6

Financial Intelligence

Karen Berman & Joe Knigh with John Case

A Manager's Guide to Knowing What the Numbers Really Mean

How to Work Less to Achieve More

20 min

4.4

The Automatic Customer

John Warrillow

Creating a Subscription Business in Any Industry

18 min

4.3

Put Happiness to Work

Eric Karpinski

7 Strategies to Elevate Engagement for Optimal Performance

19 min

4.4

Ideaflow

Jeremy Utley & Perry Klebahn

The Only Business Metric That Matters

How to Have a Happy Hustle

Bec Evans

The Complete Guide to Making Your Ideas Happen

28 min

4.5

The 3 Secrets to Effective Time Investment

Elizabeth Grace Saunders

Achieve More Success with Less Stress

14 min

4.3

I Will Teach You To Be Rich

Ramit Sethi

The easy approach to smart banking, saving, spending and investing

An Essential Guide to Life

Getting the Customer to Yes: How Problem-Centric Selling Increases Sales by Changing Everything You Know About Relationships, Overcoming Objections, Closing and Price

Reclaim Your Closet and Rediscover the Joy of Getting Dressed

17 min

3.4

It Didn't Start With You

Mark Wolynn

How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End The Cycle

13 min

4.2

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Stephen R. Covey

Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

23 min

4.7

First, Break all the Rules

Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman

What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently

26 min

4.2

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Unlock the Secrets of the Universe with This Intellectual Masterpiece

17 min

4.0

The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success

Deepak Chopra

A Pocketbook Guide to Fulfilling Your Dreams

366 Meditations on Power, Seduction, Mastery, Strategy, and Human Nature

Classic military strategy for politics, business, and everyday life

11 min

4.1

❤️ für Blinkist️️️

Ines S.

Ich bin begeistert. Ich liebe Bücher aber durch zwei kleine Kinder komme ich einfach nicht zum Lesen. Und ja, viele Bücher haben viel bla bla und die Quintessenz ist eigentlich ein Bruchteil.

Genau dafür ist Blinkist total genial! Es wird auf das Wesentliche reduziert, die Blinks sind gut verständlich, gut zusammengefasst und auch hörbar! Das ist super. 80 Euro für ein ganzes Jahr klingt viel, aber dafür unbegrenzt Zugriff auf 3000 Bücher. Und dieses Wissen und die Zeitersparnis ist unbezahlbar.

Ekaterina S.

Extrem empfehlenswert. Statt sinnlos im Facebook zu scrollen höre ich jetzt täglich zwischen 3-4 "Bücher". Bei manchen wird schnelle klar, dass der Kauf unnötig ist, da schon das wichtigste zusammen gefasst wurde..bei anderen macht es Lust doch das Buch selbständig zu lesen. Wirklich toll

Nils S.

Einer der besten, bequemsten und sinnvollsten Apps die auf ein Handy gehören. Jeden morgen 15-20 Minuten für die eigene Weiterbildung/Entwicklung oder Wissen.

Julia P.

Viele tolle Bücher, auf deren Kernaussagen reduziert- präzise und ansprechend zusammengefasst. Endlich habe ich das Gefühl, Zeit für Bücher zu finden, für die ich sonst keine Zeit habe.