Product Description

"It does appear to be the perfect handbook for anyone wishing to start their own business, and they certainly could not have a better role model to learn from.  I only hope that it might encourage other young people with innovative ideas." - His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales

You've never run a business before. Now, you're thinking of giving it a go. You've no little handy cash reserves and no wealthy relatives - so you're starting from absolute scratch. Welcome to the ordinary hero's club. You can do it - and this is the book to show you how.

This book takes you through every stage as you follow the real life start up experience of award-winning entrepreneur Liz Jackson’s business start up from her decision to leave her safe job with no cash and nothing to fall back on, to the £2million business employing 100 people she runs today. Packed full of practical advice and tips, it’s as extremely useful as it is inspiring and entertaining.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4550 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 145 pages

Women in Business
Offers not just inspiration, but also highly practical advice.

From the Back Cover

Start Up!

Starting a business from absolute scratch with no cash, no backing and little experience can seem pretty daunting. That’s the position Liz Jackson found herself in when her boss suggested she started her own company. This is the book that tells you how it feels – and how you can do it too.

Start Up! takes you through every stage of planning and starting a business, as you follow the real-life start-up experience of award-winning entrepreneur Liz, from her decision to leave her safe job with no cash and nothing to fall back on, to the £2 million business employing 100 people she runs today. Packed full of practical advice and tips, it’s as extremely useful as it is inspiring and entertaining.

The book takes you from the day Liz wrote her first fledgling business plan and her attempts to get funding, through the trials, tribulations and successes that have led to the large and successful company it is today.

The practical advice and lessons from experience cover everything from writing your business plan and winning customers through employing staff to developing growth strategies. Plus of course how to succeed in the face of big setbacks – not all of which are as major as Liz’s, when she went blind only a year into her business start-up.

This is the most honest, real book about starting and growing a business. This is a book for the ordinary hero. This is what to do and how it feels.

About the Author

Liz Jackson is Managing Director of Great Guns Marketing, a telemarketing business she founded in 1998 with the support of a GBP 1000 grant from the Prince's Trust. A year later, Liz lost her sight and was registered blind. Today, Great Guns Marketing has annual revenues of nearly two million pounds. The business has a solid client base of 500 companies, including British Telecom, Wella and Johnson and Johnson. Great Guns Marketing won the Customer Focus Award 2004 at the National Business Awards, sponsored by Orange. Liz is the winner of the T-Mobile/Sunday Express Women Mean Business Award 2003. Liz, aged 30, is an inspiring business visionary with an incredible story of success over adversity. HRH The Prince of Wales, commented: "Elizabeth has overcome the most extraordinary difficulties to make Great Guns Marketing the success that it is. She is an inspiration to young businesswomen everywhere."Great Guns also features in the Top 21 UK businesses founded with help from The Prince's Youth Trust.

Michael Spain early career was in electronic engineering. He joined the burgeoning computer industry in its heyday, gaining experience in marketing and business management as a senior manager, before setting up and running his own management consulting business for 6 years. Eventually he was tempted away from his own business by daughter Liz in 2002 to join her in fast-growing Great Guns Marketing to develop the franchise model and to run the resulting network of telemarketing centres.

Customer Reviews

If anyone can you can!
This book is very easy reading and is excellent for giving a positive view point against the odds.

One half of the book gives the biography the other half shows you how you too can start up a multi million pound company

This is a real inspiration and very candid so If anyone can you can! It really gives a flavour how Great Guns Marketing works and the staff must be very inspired by their leader.

A must read for entrpreneurs
This is a highly motivating book with down to earth practical advice on how to enhance any business. With such a positive attitude Liz shows that it is possible to pursue any dream and turn it into reality, overcoming even some of the most difficulties. I learned to embrace failure and turn every negative into a positive after reading this. Any business would succeed with an attidude like Liz's and it shows that you don't have to be a genius to do it!

What a wonderful Story
The story of how young entrepreneur Liz Jackson turned a self employed venture into an award winning enterprize is a tale that will touch anybody who works in any business anywhere. Not only does this book truly show how people can overcome obstacles it has sound advice on who to call for help and how to turn your idea into a successful enterprise.

Bravo Liz