Street Smarts: An All-Purpose Tool Kit for Entrepreneurs Paperback – February 23, 2010

This book is an invaluable resource for start-ups and small businesses who want to get wise on how to avoid pitfalls and common mistakes in running/growing a business. I've been an avid reader of Inc. Magazine, where I've followed Norm's Street Smarts column for years. It's great to have all of that wisdom distilled into a book.The book is also an enjoyable read, with small anecdotes sprinkled throughout the already prose-like format. The book is filled with Norm's no-nonsense, down-to-earth style. This is the next-best thing to having your own personal business mentor guiding you for less than 20 bucks.Norm is a numbers sort of guy (which he is fond of pointing out), and that is what many small business owners are most inexperience with. Plenty of his solid and practical numbers-oriented advice grounds this book. The only thing I'd love more of (or maybe this would be more appropriate in a follow-up book) are more details on business formulas and accompanying examples to help figure out your own numbers (like COGS, gross margins, etc.)All in all, this book is an engaging read and gives you a steady stream of good tips you can actually apply to your business today.

Great book

It is an easy read, plain and simple he wrote it in layman's terms so you don't need a college degree to understand the book. Bo is very insightful and lays a lot of the groundwork for the average Joe who wants to become their own boss. One is example he used was how he started a bike messenger company in the late 1980s, sounds like a simple concept right. Wrong he said the cost of acquire customers was much higher than he expected because the services he provided were new to the market. Bo said up until that point the firms would just send a secretary out in a cab for a few hours to make any crosstown deliveries. The secretaries liked this they got to leave the office and get a change of scenery. The other thing was the firms were set in their ways. Eventually Bo prevailed and had a large cap company with 9 figure working capital. Ironic to is the title of the book because he has a knack for breaking down complex problems to their simplest form then he works from the ground up. Bo also takes on about ten new people each year to mentor. The man should be a professor, lastly the man also has a column in INC magazine that has been published for the last 20 years. This is a quintessential book for anybody thinking about becoming their own boss.

I've been a consistent reader of Norm Brodsky's articles in Inc. for the past five years. I always turn to his column when my new issue arrives in the mail. So, when I heard about his book, I pre-ordered it.It doesn't disappoint. Though some of the anecdotes come straight from his Street-Smarts column, this book is very worthwhile for entrepreneurs, small business owners, and those who want to start a business someday.The book is not an academic work; rather it was written by someone who has been in the trenches and has seen his share of successes and failures. Therefore, I found this to be a very practical book with lots of examples I could relate to in my business.Special kudos to co-author, Bo Burlingame. He's on his game.

Amazing read for any entrepreneur at any stage.

This is a great book that reads like a very practical, informative, and sometimes entertaining business reference guide. The book contains the accumulation of knowledge, experiences, and advice given in the authors' column in Inc. magazine. It is a great book for: (1) new or aspiring entrepreneurs, (2) executives in establshed small/medium sized companies, (3) 2nd tier executives in small/medium companies, (4) 2nd generation family business leaders, (5) bankers who lend to small and medium sized businesses, and (6) government officials who deal with small and medium businesses as part of their job. All will benefit from understanding the mindset, the thinking, and the energy that goes into succesfully managing a small or medium sized business.

There are many tips on this book I can implement. I particularly liked four ideas:a) Letting people know it is ok if they don't want to do business when they are not calling back.b) Working on the customer culture inside and outside the company.c) Walking visitors to their car.d) Walking away from a bad negotiation a little unhappy. It is akin to "a bad compromise is always better than a good fight".This is the first book I've read that has recognized there are some parties with whom you can hardly negotiate at all, and suggests having both parties walk away a little unhappy.Very good book, where the main message is "make your life-plan first, and your business-plan second".

This book is a thoroughly engaging collection of anecdotes and lessons from the front lines. The authors are clearly business people with a lot of experience and their didactic stories can guide us all.The only reason I didn't give this book five stars is that I really didn't love the way the chapters were organized. At least in the kindle version, there wasn't a readily-accessible way to figure out which points went with which anecdotes and which points and anecdotes were in which chapters. It's not a major issue, but I like to reserve the 5 star reviews for the all-time classics.GREAT book, though...I'd highly recommend it--especially to early-stage businesses. Might be OK for start-up entrepreneurs, as well, but I think it would be a little better to be in business for 6-12 months, as this is graduate-level stuff.