Synopses & Reviews
Praise for Ready, Fire, Aim"This is an extraordinary book—full of practiced, proven strategies and techniques to help you make more sales and great profits than you ever imagined possible."
—Brian Tracy, author of The Way to Wealth
"Wow! A powerhouse book packed with tried and tested street-smart wisdom. I'm impressed!"
—Dr. Joe Vitale, author of The Attractor Factor
"Michael Masterson's Ready, Fire, Aim hits the mark—dead center. Masterson describes the phases of a business in a very helpful and perceptive way. No matter where you are in your business career . . . just starting out or already at the $50 million level . . . you'll better understand the challenges you face. And you'll get some 'bulls' eye' insights about how to overcome them."
—Bill Bonner, founder and President of Agora Inc.
"Ready, Fire, Aim is vintage Michael Masterson. Every sentence in the book is on the mark —stuff you can use right now, today, to accelerate your climb to the top of the financial ladder. What sets Masterson apart from most of the gurus who write about how to do it is that he's actually done it — over . . . and over . . . and over again. The number of successful businesses he's built is no less than astonishing. Every serious entrepreneur needs to avail himself of the information in this book."
—Robert Ringer, author of To Be or Not to Be Intimidated?
Ready, Fire, Aim is both an attitude and a method that self-made multimillionaire and bestselling author Michael Masterson follows to achieve success in business. It's helped him build and grow dozens of multimillion-dollar businesses, including one whose revenues reached $135 million and another still growing at $300 million.
Now, with Ready, Fire, Aim, Masterson reveals how you can use his approach to achieve unprecedented entrepreneurial success and enjoy life to its fullest. Written in a straightforward and accessible style, this engaging guide will prepare you to:
Start a business from scratch and make it profitable quickly
Keep a growing business growing as revenues climb from a million to tens of millions to hundreds of millions
Get other people to do almost all the hard work for you, so you are free to do only the fun stuff
Position yourself as an indispensable business builder, so you can enjoy a big share of the profits even if you are working only part-time
Duplicate your winning strategy in several businesses, so you never have to worry about "needing" any one of them
It takes more than money to build a profitable business—it takes a unique set of skills and strategies. With Ready, Fire, Aim, you'll discover how to develop these essential entrepreneurial skills and use them to vastly improve any business endeavor.
Synopsis
This book walks readers through a focused strategy designed to get their business ventures started and moving toward profitability as quickly as possible. Masterson feels that too many people are distracted when they're starting their business and stop by focusing on the obstacles. The book will start with the most important moves that an entrepreneur needs including: not spending too much time planning, not spending too much money, getting operational fast, getting quick cash and not looking for a team but focusing on what the founder can do on his or her own. Then, the book discusses in detail the other necessary steps to success from effective communication, selling, hiring a team, expanding one's business, being a mentor, etc.
Synopsis
Masterson walks readers through a focused strategy designed to get their business ventures started and moving toward profitability as quickly as possible--without being distracted by the inevitable obstacles.
Synopsis
Whether you’re thinking about starting a new business or growing an existing one, Ready, Fire, Aim has what you need to succeed in your entrepreneurial endeavors. In it, self-made multimillionaire and bestselling author Masterson shares the knowledge he has gained from creating and expanding numerous businesses and outlines a focused strategy for guiding a small business through the four stages of entrepreneurial growth. Along the way, Masterson teaches you the different skills needed in order to excel in this dynamic environment.
Synopsis
If you had the opportunity to work where, when, and with whom you wantedall while getting paid very wellwould you take it? Self-made multimillionaire and bestselling author Michael Masterson did, and with Ready, Fire, Aim he'll show you how to do the same.
Whether you're thinking about starting a new business or growing an existing one, Ready, Fire, Aim has what you need to succeed in your entrepreneurial endeavors. In it, Masterson shares the knowledge he has gained from creating and expanding numerous businesses and outlines a focused strategy for guiding a small business through the four stages of entrepreneurial growth. Along the way, Masterson teaches you the different skills needed in order to excel in this dynamic environment.
While some of the concepts covered may seem novel, all of them have been proven to work time and again. Among other things, you'll discover:
Why selling is your first business priority and the one thing you should never stop doing
The handful of numbers that are critical to every business
When to cut your losses short and when to let your winners run
The front-end/back-end method of doubling profits easily
Why having a Plan B is as important as Plan A, and when and how to create it
The difference between pushers, thinkers, organizers, and sellers, and how to attract the ones you need for your business
Over the course of his remarkably successful career, Michael Masterson has helped start and develop dozens of multimillion-dollar businesses, including one whose revenues exceeded $135 million and another still growing at $300 million. Now, with Ready, Fire, Aim, he'll show you how to make your way to the top by designing powerful marketing campaigns that will regularly outsell your competitors; implementing innovative operational procedures that will reduce costs and hassles; and using the revolutionary power of the Internet to reduce customer complaints and increase profits.
To start and grow multimillion-dollar businesses over and over again you have to master certain skills. Ready, Fire, Aim reveals what those skills are and shows you how to quickly master them. Filled with in-depth insights and expert advice, this remarkable guide for entrepreneurs gives you a blueprint for business and financial success that will allow you to enjoy life to its fullest.
About the Author
Michael Masterson has developed a loyal following of more than 250,000 subscribers with Early to Rise (www.EarlyToRise.com), an e-newsletter published by Agora, Inc. Throughout his remarkably successful business career, Masterson has been a partner in two businesses that grew beyond $100 million, two more that exceeded $50 million, and at least a dozen that surpassed the $10 million mark. He is also the author of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Amazon.com bestsellers Seven Years to Seven Figures, Automatic Wealth, and Automatic Wealth for Grads . . . and Anyone Else Just Starting Out (all from Wiley), and Confessions of a Self-Made Multimillionaire. Subscribe to Michael Masterson's daily e-zine at www.EarlyToRise.com.
Table of Contents
Foreword xi
Acknowledgments xiii
About the Author xv
PART ONE Being All That You Can Be 1
INTRODUCTION The Very Best Job in the World 3
CHAPTER 1 Getting to the Next Level 13
CHAPTER 2 Why Employee Size Matters: A Different Way of Measuring the Four Stages 23
CHAPTER 3 Becoming a Five-Star Business Genius 31
PART TWO Stage One: Infancy 41
CHAPTER 4 The Supremacy of Selling 43
CHAPTER 5 Your Optimum Selling Strategy and the Four Fundamental Secrets of Selling Your First Product 67
CHAPTER 6 Mastering the Copy Side of Selling 91
CHAPTER 7 Secondary—Yet Important—Priorities for Stage One Businesses 109
CHAPTER 8 A Quick Review of the Problems, Challenges, and Opportunities Faced by the Stage One Entrepreneur 121
PART THREE Stage Two: Childhood 129
CHAPTER 9 From $1 Million to $10 Million and Beyond: How to Break through the One-Product-Company Syndrome 131
CHAPTER 10 Innovation—the Key to Second-Stage Growth 147
CHAPTER 11 Speed: Putting Ready, Fire, Aim into Your Business 167
CHAPTER 12 Getting Ready 181
CHAPTER 13 What Are You Waiting For? Start Firing Already! 195
CHAPTER 14 Aiming the Product 205
CHAPTER 15 Aiming the Marketing, Part 1: A Quick Crash Course 219
CHAPTER 16 Aiming the Marketing, Part 2: Understanding the Buying Frenzy 239
CHAPTER 17 Ready, Fire, Aim in Action 259
CHAPTER 18 A Quick Review of the Problems, Challenges, and Opportunities Faced by the Stage Two Entrepreneur 271
PART FOUR Stage Three: Adolescence 279
CHAPTER 19 Making the Stage Three Transformation 281
CHAPTER 20 Changing into a Corporate Leader 295
CHAPTER 21 Filling Your Stage Three Business with Stars and Superstars 307
CHAPTER 22 Bottlenecks, Bureaucracy, and Politics 321
CHAPTER 23 A Quick Review of the Problems, Challenges, and Opportunities Faced by the Stage Three Entrepreneur 333
PART FIVE Stage Four: Adulthood 339
CHAPTER 24 The Last Big Change 341
CHAPTER 25 Acting as Your Company's Main Investor 349
Afterword 357
Notes 361
Index 365