Books
What Others are Saying | Read Excerpts
Half of All New Ventures Fail After 5 Years- What Is Driving This Sobering Statistic From The SBA And Others?
Today’s market, technology, and competition challenges are tougher than ever. New markets, technology, and players are attacked by newer players using even newer 
technology. And these challenges are expanding exponentially. Entrepreneurs face serious challenges from all directions to reach the critical 5 year survival milestone and succeed.
You invest time and resources, maybe take a second mortgage on your home, and have been fortunate to attract some investor funding for your business. Statistics show these efforts are all at risk if you are not equipped to meet today’s challenges.
“Survivors” and “Maybe Next Time” Entrepreneurs
Think about two types of entrepreneurs, what I call a “Survivor” and a “Maybe Next Time” entrepreneur.
Despite having what seems like a great idea, maybe proprietary technology, real market need, enthusiasm, solid team, some funding, maybe a customer or two, statistics show half of new ventures fail in five years, entrepreneurs pick up the pieces, and go into the bucket of what I call Maybe Next Time entrepreneurs.
Your challenge is to survive the critical five year milestone, press onward, grow your business, and go into the bucket of Survivor entrepreneurs. More rewarding and a lot more fun compared to the Maybe Next Time entrepreneur bucket.
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“Being an Entrepreneur can be a brutal experience, especially with brimming optimism and no guidelines. Paul Silverman has written a ‘Tough Love’ book that both confronts one with serious doses of reality; and the model that success follows. His experience and observation flows through the text to the great benefit of the reader. This is one reference book for winners in the marketplace of ideas. “
-Michael W. Wynne, Former Air Force Secretary; and Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition Technology and Logistics. Now an Entrepreneur as Chairman, Hackproof Technologies.
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Powerful New Tools To Help You Succeed: 8 Building Blocks To Launch,- Manage, and Grow A Successful Business
8 Building Blocks To Launch, Manage, and Grow A Successful Business provides the foundation for Entrepreneurial Management 2.0, a new entrepreneurial management discipline developed by the author to help you analyze today’s turbulent business environment, develop winning strategies, succeed, and create value. Helping you be a Survivor entrepreneur is why this book is written.
The 8 Building Block Skills in Entrepreneurial Management 2.0
Entrepreneurial Management 2.0 includes a portfolio of new entrepreneurial management skills organized into 8 core Building Blocks.
The 8 Building Blocks provide a solid foundation to help you launch, manage, and grow a
successful business.
Each of the following 8 Building Blocks are discussed in separate chapters in the book and provide you with many examples and a solid foundation to help you launch, manage, and grow a successful business:
- Building Block 1: Idea vs. Opportunity: Do you have a Business Idea or a Real Business Opportunity?
- Building Block 2: Business Model: How Will You Create Value for You and Your Investors?
- Building Block 3: Marketing Plan: What Will You Sell To Whom, For How Much- How Will You “Cross The Chasm?”
- Building Block 4: Financials: What are Your Financial Projections?
- Building Block 5: Competition: Current, Future, Market Evolution, Outlook?
- Building Block 6: Business Plan: What is Your Strategy to Create a Sustainable, High Growth Company?
- Building Block 7: Capital Formulation Strategy: What Are Your Funding Needs, Structure, Timing?
- Building Block 8: Growth Management: How Do You Manage Your Company to Demonstrate Credibility and Scalable Growth Opportunities?
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“To be a great athlete or entrepreneur, you must master the fundamentals of the game. If you want to score big as an entrepreneur, Paul Silverman has provided the path–all the basics plus compelling real life stories. A must read for the next Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, or Jeff Bezos.”
–Tom McMillen, Former Congressman, Olympian, NBA star, and businessman
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Other Studies Provide More Insight On The
Challenges Facing Entrepreneurs …
One recent SBA study shows that 87 percent of business failures were driven by management issues in three areas:
Percent of All Business Failures
- Management Competence 46%
- Lack of Managerial Experience 30%
- Lack of Market Sector Experience 11%
So How Do You Improve Your Chances To Succeed?
Unfortunately today’s start your own business or SYOB books (my shorthand for start your own business books) fall short and don’t really help here, and do not help you develop the skills needed to be a Survivor rather than a Maybe Next Time entrepreneur.
Simply put, yesterday’s skills do not meet today’s entrepreneur’s needs.
Starting a new venture really is the easy part– from business idea, business plan, resources, and launch- these skills can be learned.
My recent search on Amazon showed 9,003 “how to start your own business” books and many are excellent. And they cover skills I call Entrepreneurial Management 1.0.
So with plenty of books out there, why kill trees for one more?
The more relevant question is… despite all these resources, why do half of all new ventures fail to meet the critical five year milestone?
The answer is to be a Survivor entrepreneur, today’s challenges demand you know more. Entrepreneurial Management 1.0 skills are just not good enough to help you reach the Survivor entrepreneur bucket.
Develop strategy management plans. Develop defensible business model
s. Execute winning capital formulation strategies. Understand and defend how shifting markets, technology, competition impact your business. Use value chain analysis to drive and defend your business model. Understand how to gauge and defend your market attractiveness using Five Forces models. Identify “crossing the chasm” strategies to create market scale for your business. Analyze and defend your financials using economic and accounting metrics. Manage and communicate professionally to investors and stakeholders. Dissect and defend your target markets.
These are not today’s typical start your own business skills but they must be
And before committing resources to develop a new venture, Fortune 500 firms go further, looking at strategic issues, identifying alliance and global strategies, understanding how new venture metrics impact overall ROI given 3 to 5,000 other products and services, and so on.
And these new skills are the foundation for what I call Entrepreneurial Management 2.0, a new entrepreneurial management discipline I developed drawing upon Fortune 500 firm techniques for launching and managing new ventures, and my experiences working with many early stage companies.
Entrepreneurial Management 2.0 Provides Two Powerful Benefits For Entrepreneurs
- Improve your ability to “professionally manage” your business
You will send a strong positive message to investors, stakeholders, partners, colleagues, and your company community of interest. And as you use Entrepreneurial Management 2.0, you learn by doing, make some mistakes along the way, but sharpen your management skills helping you be a Survivor entrepreneur.
- Improve your ability to attract investors and secure ongoing financing to support growth
You may have a great business idea and target a high growth market sector, maybe have
some initial funding and market traction. All good, but how you demonstrate to investors that you understand your market, competition, pricing, strategic positioning, and are executing well thought out and defensible strategies will be the real drivers on whether you secure funding needed to succeed. That message is woven throughout Entrepreneurial Management 2.0 – improving your ability to secure capital is, as most know, always a critical objective. And Entrepreneurial Management 2.0 portfolio of skills will help you achieve this objective.
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“Paul Silverman has done it – again. His latest book, ‘8 Building Blocks To Launch, Manage, and Grow A Successful Business’ packs decades of business wisdom into a very concise and readable guide. Every chapter includes cogent insights to help an entrepreneur sidestep pitfalls, achieve success, and avoid becoming a ‘Maybe next time’ entrepreneur.”
Jay Wright, President, Bayberry Capital and co-author of “Finance and Accounting for Nonfinancial Managers, 7th edition”
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What The New Book Is Not:
Don’t expect a get-rich quick scheme or a secret formula to gain wealth and fame. If that is what you expect here, don’t buy this book.
If however, you want to improve your entrepreneurial management skills, learn new 
management tools, develop winning strategies to attract funding, successfully grow your business, address today’s business challenges, and improve your ability to be a Survivor entrepreneur, this book is written for you.
Grounded on proven management techniques, 8 Building Blocks To Launch, Manage, and Grow A Successful Business will help you on your journey to launch, manage, and grow a successful business.
What You Will Learn Reading 8 Building Blocks To Launch, Manage, And Grow A Successful Business
- How to analyze ideas vs. opportunities before committing money and time
- How to use a four step process to analyze markets and develop forecasts
- How to manage your business using the Management Operations ReviewTM process to strengthen management and send powerful signals to investors
- How to use ‘tprg’ models (transaction, pricing, revenue, gross margin) to develop pricing, sensitivity analysis, and improve investor positioning
- How to define your business strategy: low cost vs. differentiation (the “Walmart” vs. Nordstrom” strategy)
- What are business models, how are they used, impact on valuation, and where we are heading
- How to develop defensible marketing plans
- How to develop powerful business plans
- Why you need both tops-down and bottoms-up market projections
- Using Value Chain Models To Support Business Strategy
- Understanding Financial Ratios: ROI, ROE, ROA
- Understanding And How To Use Investment Ratios: NPV, ROI, IRR
- How creative key performance indicators (“KPI’s”) Are used to enhance business plans and valuation
- How new sec and state equity crowdfunding regulations create new financing options for entrepreneurs
- How the private placement process works- regulation d, regulation a+, and securing investment capital
- The “Going Public” Process- How It Works
- How the audit process works: Compilation, Review, and audit engagements
- … and more
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“8 Building Blocks To Launch, Manage, and Grow A Successful Business is the ultimate source of knowledge and know how for those who want to build a scalable business or scale the one they have. ‘Eight Building Blocks’ carries the reader from idea all the way to capital markets and touches each base as the entrepreneur races toward home plate. It defines and demystifies the basic elements every entrepreneur should understand before he or she takes the leap into starting a business or risking the one they have in order to scale it.”
Carl Eckstein, – CEO, NextGen Venture Group (NVG); former Managing Director NextGen Capital (Venture Capital Fund)
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Read More Reviews for 8 Building Blocks To Launch, Manage, and Grow A Successful Business at What Readers are Saying…
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Read Excerpts from 8 Building Blocks To Launch, Manage, and Grow A Successful Business
Four Key Elements in the Marketing Plan – Building Block 3: Marketing Plan- (Page 62)
How to Develop “Bottoms-Up” Market Projections– Building Block 3: Marketing Plan (Page 65)
How Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) Improve Your Business Plan- Building Block 6: Business Plan (Page 130)
Crowdfunding: Creating New Options to Secure Investment Capital- Building Block 7: Capital Formulation Strategy (Page 151)
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Why This Book is Written
8 Building Blocks To Launch, Manage, and Grow A Successful Business is one of my contributions to help emerging entrepreneurs understand how to launch, manage, and successfully grow new ventures.
8 Building Blocks To Launch, Manage, and Grow A Successful Business, meets the requests from many readers and colleagues to develop a more prescriptive, “how-to” book for entrepreneurs, improve their ability to secure funding, and create value for shareholders. I have been pleased with the positive reviews the new book has 
received from initial reviewers.
My commitment is to offer both entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs strategies and insights that will make a difference, help them succeed, and increase the number of Survivor entrepreneurs.
I have had my share of both successes and failures (or “learning experiences” as both Thomas Edison and I like to call them), and learned a bit along the way.
What we will do together in 8 Building Blocks To Launch, Manage, and Grow A Successful Business is review a wide range of new venture issues, tools, and management perspectives to help improve your odds of being a Survivor entrepreneur, and successfully develop, launch, manage, and grow your business.
I look forward to sharing the journey with you- welcome aboard and let’s get started!
About the Author
Paul B. Silverman’s vision is driven by more than four decades senior global corporate management experience, management consulting working with leading global firms, and serving as CEO/founder of both public and private companies.
The author has held senior management positions with RCA, GTE, Xerox and IBM (SBS). He has also served in senior global management consulting positions with Coopers & Lybrand, Booz Allen and Hamilton, and James Martin Strategy, an Amsterdam-based management consulting firm, where he served as CEO for North America. He currently serves as Managing Partner at the Gemini Business Group, LLC, a global new venture development consultancy firm.
Mr. Silverman has also contributed to the education sector since 2002, currently serving as Adjunct Professor in the R.H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, and formerly in the School of Management at George Mason University and the Kogod School of Business at American University, and has taught undergraduate and MBA courses in entrepreneurship, strategy management, international, and other business courses since 2002.
The Worm on a Chopstick series draws upon the author’s global experience to help entrepreneurs understand how to develop, launch, manage, and successfully grow new ventures.
The author has conducted hundreds of presentations worldwide and published numerous articles addressing strategy, policy, entrepreneurship, and new business development issues. The author holds a BS in Physics from CCNY and an MS in Management from Polytechnic University of NY, and resides in the Washington, D.C. area.
About The Worm On A Chopstick Title
The Worm On A Chopstick series title relates to the author’s experiences at a senior level meeting in a dimly lit Tokyo restaurant many years ago. Confronted with a “what do you do now” situation where the ability to define the animal/food boundary was a real challenge, this vignette, described in the initial book, provides insights and a learning experience on global business management challenges, unpredictability, how to handle global social and cultural issues and survive, as well as some creative uses for Chivas Regal.
Book Release Date:
8 Building Blocks To Launch, Manage, And Grow A Successful Business will be released on Amazon on July 1, 2015 and a Kindle edition will be available July 6, 2015. Coupled with the book release, an entrepreneurship education program is being launched August 15, 2015 working with selected investment firms, non-profit organizations, regional economic groups, and universities who share the author’s vision on the role of entrepreneurship to spur economic growth, improve economic conditions, and create new business opportunities in the U.S. and abroad.
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8 Building Blocks To Launch, Manage, And Grow A Successful Business, the second book in the Worm on a Chopstick series, provides the foundation for Entrepreneurial Management 2.0, helping entrepreneurs improve management skills, attract funding, and grow their business.
Author: Paul B. Silverman
Publisher: Gemini Business Press
ISBN: 978-0-9835374-2-7
LCCN: 2015908450
Number of Pages: 234
No. of Chapters: 10
Soft Cover 6”x 9” $14.95
Kindle Edition (July 6, 2015) $6.95
Order at
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A portion of the proceeds from all book sales is being donated to the American Cancer Society.
