When I reviewed the book
“Turn Around Your Business by 5 PM“
by Maurice Stein, I gave it a four stars rating. This means I consider it to be in the range of good to very good.
Here is a copy of my review on Amazon.co.uk.
The title of this book gives the wrong impression but it is good for business owners who feel stuck
I’m reading and reviewing quite a few turnaround management books at the moment which describe how to rescue a business at risk of failure.
Before starting to read this one, I thought I was going to criticise the 5 pm part of the title. Turnarounds are tough, and while they need urgent action, you can’t do everything in a day, or as many business owners will think, three quarters of a day.
Instead this book fits much better into another category of books I’m reading. These are books about business owners and businesses that are stuck and want to get unstuck. This is where there is a period of disappointing performance which comes some time before a turnaround is necessary, and the main idea is to take action before the gut-wrenching changes of a turnaround are necessary.
After saying all that, this book was a nice surprise. The focus in the first half is on the business owner. About moving from feeling bad about the business to getting clear what the problems are by putting them in writing. This takes away the bad emotions that comes with them. It then looks at getting clear on a future vision that inspires your creativity. It’s an obvious point, but if you don’t know what you want, you can’t expect your subconscious to guide you. In your car, a sat nav is no good without a target address, but with it, the sat nav will automatically keep revising its guidance and that’s how your subconscious works as well.
The book then looks at what’s stopping you. The author talks about the Will of God and this will put some people off. It’s a small section that originally makes it look as if everything is pre-ordained but then makes the point that God gives you opportunities but you have free will whether to take them or not. There are several well known jokes about this point. What we are is mainly the result of past decisions and what we can become depends on the decisions and actions we make up to that point in the future. Things can be changed. The book then goes on to talk about limiting beliefs and how to turn them around.
The second half of the book looks at the business. How you can build a brand, how to improve your processes, how to build a team and how to improve your sales and marketing.
Are you put off by the contents in the first half? When I first started working with business owners, I ignored many of the issues raised in part 1. It felt a bit too intangible, too touchy-feely for my tastes. Experience has taught me that these problems can be deeply routed. I came to think of these matters as the inner game of the owner where a “can do, will do” attitude is essential. Without it, good ideas don’t get turned into effective actions and results don’t improve much.
I suspect some business owners start to read expecting practical ideas on how to get more customers and sales and then give up. This would be a shame because it’s a good book and along with the sound business building theories, it has some interesting business stories.very good book. I will respond to any comment you make about my review.
It is available to buy from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com. It is also available to borrow under the Kindle Unlimited subscription at Amazon.co.uk.
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