How Street-Smart Entrepreneurs Learn to Handle Whatever Comes Up

The Knack

A street smart approach and business acumen are within any aspiring entrepreneur's reach - all you need is 'the knack'

Encouraging, succinct and informative, this is an excellent guide for anyone looking to dive into a new business or expand an existing one

Norm Brodsky, the founder of Citi Storage, is an entrepreneur and a three-time Inc. 500 honoree. He began writing his monthly Inc. column (with Burlingham) in December 1995. 
 
Bo Burlingham is Inc.'s editor at large. He is the co-author of The Great Game of Business and A Stake in the Outcome, and the author of Small Giants.

Too many start-ups don't make the grade - what makes a successful business take off? 
 
Starting a new business is exciting, but there are many traps for the unwary. Some would-be entrepreneurs stick so firmly to their step-by-step guides that they don't see what's really going on. Others become so obsessed with potential problems they lose sight of the bigger picture. What they really need, according to serial entrepreneur Norm Brodsky, is a mindset that will help them to stay focussed on the real goals and grab opportunities whenever they arise. He calls it 'the knack'. It's helped him to build eight phenomenally successful companies, and in this book he uses stories of real companies facing real challenges to show you how to develop it too.

Companies That Choose to be Great Instead of Big

Small Giants

Shortlisted for The FT Business Book of the Year Award

Bo Burlingham is editor at large at Inc. magazine. He has also written for Esquire, Harper's, Mother Jones, and The Boston Globe, among other publications, and is the coauthor, with Jack Stack, of The Great Game of Business and A Stake in the Outcome.

It's widely accepted in business that great companies grow their revenues and profits year after year - but bigger is not necessarily better. In Small Giants, journalist Bo Burlingham takes us deep inside fourteen remarkable privately held companies, from a brewery to a record label, that chose a different path to success. 
 
These organizations quietly rejected the pressure of endless growth, deciding to focus more on satisfying business goals - being the best at what they do, creating a stimulating place to work, providing perfect customer service and making important contributions to their communities. 
 
But what are the magic ingredients that make these companies unique? Why and how does their approach work in such widely varying industries? And what lessons can we learn from them? A fresh, inspirational guide to business strategy, Small Giants will help any entrepeneur consider new directions to make their company great.

Bo Burlingham

Finish Big is for all those founder/leaders who want to do more than take...it is for the ones who want to leave something behind.

Simon Sinek, author of Start with Why and Leaders Eat Last

I love Burlingham's quest to understand why some entrepreneurs create a meaningful life after exiting their businesses, while others suffer and wander without purpose. Practical and profound, fast-moving and thought-provoking, masterful in its clear prose and compelling stories - Bo Burlingham has once again done a tremendous service in deploying his craft.

Jim Collins, author of Good to Great and co-author of Built to Last and Great by Choice

Given the plethora of management books, the idea of something truly new is nutty. But Finish Big sprouts from untilled soil, offering invaluable tales of business owners wrestling with life's thorniest issues. Remarkable research, remarkable prose, remarkable book.

Tom Peters, coauthor of In Search of Excellence

This book is a gift, a must read for anyone who has even an inkling that it might be helpful. It will reward you with both peace of mind and a significant ROI.

How Great Entrepreneurs Exit Their Companies on Top

In Finish Big, Bo Burlingham draws on dozens of interviews to identify eight key factors that determine whether owners leave their businesses happily. He showcases the insights, exits and cautionary tales of entrepreneurs across an array of industries including manufacturing, food and services. 
 
 Finish Big is an illuminating and inspirational guide to one of the most stressful, and yet potentially rewarding, processes business owners must go through.

Bo Burlingham

Praise for Finish Big

Finish Big is for all those founder/leaders who want to do more than take...it is for the ones who want to leave something behind.

I love Burlingham's quest to understand why some entrepreneurs create a meaningful life after exiting their businesses, while others suffer and wander without purpose. Practical and profound, fast-moving and thought ...

Given the plethora of management books, the idea of something truly new is nutty. But Finish Big sprouts from untilled soil, offering invaluable tales of business owners wrestling with life's thorniest issues. Remar ...

Finish Big is for all those founder/leaders who want to do more than take...it is for the ones who want to leave something behind.

I love Burlingham's quest to understand why some entrepreneurs create a meaningful life after exiting their businesses, while others suffer and wander without purpose. Practical and profound, fast-moving and thought ...

Given the plethora of management books, the idea of something truly new is nutty. But Finish Big sprouts from untilled soil, offering invaluable tales of business owners wrestling with life's thorniest issues. Remar ...

Finish Big is for all those founder/leaders who want to do more than take...it is for the ones who want to leave something behind.

I love Burlingham's quest to understand why some entrepreneurs create a meaningful life after exiting their businesses, while others suffer and wander without purpose. Practical and profound, fast-moving and thought ...

Given the plethora of management books, the idea of something truly new is nutty. But Finish Big sprouts from untilled soil, offering invaluable tales of business owners wrestling with life's thorniest issues. Remar ...

Books by Bo Burlingham

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