Making It Big In Small Business 2006 Review

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(More customer reviews)In an editorial review of this book, the CEO of ASCII Group, Alan Weinberger said, "Imagine attending a dinner party with the top 15 SMB consultants\resellers, learning all about their awarding winning business model recipes and engaging in invaluable "table talk." That's what this book is about!" That's all I needed to hear to buy this book, despite its $40 price. I hoped for a "Good to Great" tailored to the industry niche. I wanted to hear exactly how the best SMB integrators scaled their businesses year after year with growing bottom lines.

Making it Big in Small Business 2006 is a collection of descriptions of 15 SMB-focused IT companies, or perhaps more accurately, bios of the companies' principals. Each organization has a Microsoft practice with focus on SBS2003. The book is well organized following an easy to read pattern for each company. Mulzer has a casual, personal style that gives a good sense of each entrepreneur's background, interests, and personality.
One of the most valuable pieces of each chapter are sections called "The Secret Sauce" which describes the differentiating qualities of each company. Examples include a system for creating tailored proposals that take 15 minutes to complete, or mastering the fundamentals of delivering a solid solution repeatedly.
Another chapter section that contains applicable nuggets is ____'s Top Ten Nuggets for Success. Each of the 15 owners gives their top tips, and many ring true.
What I felt was noticeably missing from this book was financial best practices and standards. If these truly are the top 15 consultants, I wanted to understand how they were seeing 15-25% net profitability and growing in up and down economic cycles. Instead, virtually no attention was paid to the financial performance of these companies, causing me to wonder, are some of them just scraping by rather than thriving? The main measurement used for size was typically employee and client count.
If you are considering starting an IT SMB practice, this book would be an excellent resource. If you are already up and running your practice, you will gain good insights you can try in your organization. After reading "Making it Big..." I feel I know the characters, but I'm not so sure I know how to "make it big." Still, it was certainly worth my time for the tips and insights I picked up.


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Finally - a book that addresses the hottest area in technology - Storage Area Networks (SANs) and now applied to the hottest technology sector: Small Medium Business (SMB). This is your guide to planning for a SAN in the SMB.

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