My new book, Ready Fire, Aim: Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat! is my sixth or seventh book. But it's still exciting - seeing it on the shelves. I hope it sells well. It is a good book, I think. In many ways my best book.

Ready, Fire, Aim contains just about everything I have learned about starting and growing entrepreneurial businesses. It exposes the biggest myths about business, such as:

• That successful businesspeople are careful planners


• That you need a lot of money to start a multimillion dollar business


• That luck is a big factor in success


• That having confidence or connections is necessary

There is so much "good" advice out there from business writers and teachers who have never had their own business. There are so many platitudes you hear about business that sound good but don't actually change anything.

Ready, Fire, Aim doesn't have all the answers - no one book could - but it has dozens of proven strategies for going from zero to millions in no time flat. That sounds like marketing copy. Well, it is marketing copy. But it's true.

The book is based on a business retreat I ran last year, in 2007. Thirty successful entrepreneurs, the ETR staff and I got together at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Manalapan, Florida and talked about how they succeeded, how they failed, what things they would repeat, what things they would do differently. We studied the success of a half-dozen business I had been involved in and compared them to the 30 that were assembled.

What emerged was a new way of looking at entrepreneurial growth: that there are four stages (infancy, childhood, adolescence and adulthood) and that every stage had its own unique problems, challenges, and opportunities.

We figured out what those problems, challenges and opportunities were. And then we tested our new theory against the reality of their actual experience. What we discovered was very exciting: no matter what stage of business you find yourself now, you can propel yourself to the next level by focusing on your biggest problem, dealing with your biggest challenge and seizing your biggest opportunity.

Ready, Fire, Aim explains what those problems, challenges and opportunities are and exactly how you can deal with them.

At the end of the symposium, we received the following comments:

• After two and a half days I can tell you I would have paid twice as much to come here. It's really transformed our business.
  -Diego Saenz, president of PetPlace.com, a resource for pet health and wellness


• I think within the first couple of hours or by the middle of the first day I would say I absolutely got answers to problems that I was dealing with right then and there.
  -Hans Johnson, partner in DaniJohnson.com, which provides success and business coaching, as well as seminars


• We learned many exciting and profitable methods for contacting and growing our customer base as well as organizing and executing our business plans. It's been a great experience that I would certainly recommend it to anyone who has a business that they want to build beyond their wildest imaginations.
  -Richard Frost, founder RE3W.com, an online commercial real estate tool


• It was phenomenal. And not just a lot of snobby, intellectuals but people who had heart, people who really shared everything they had. It was just this whole spirit of giving and of sharing your knowledge, your expertise.
  -Victoria Taylor, restaurant owner

That was gratifying. But what was much more exciting was when we began hearing back from some of the attendees who were telling us about the progress they were making

Most impressive of all, the ETR team used these secrets to jet stream their progress. In less than nine months, MaryEllen Tribby and her team brought up revenues 300 percent, from $8 million to more than $24 million!

And then we tested out these ideas again, in September at a boot camp in France for Agora Inc's top publishers. Again, the reaction was extremely positive. And since then attendees have reported startling growth...even from businesses that had stalled or were in decline.

Last month the ETR team sent out pre-publication copies of the manuscripts for comments. The response was heartwarming:

• Ready, Fire, Aim asks the questions that every entrepreneur should consider prior to starting his or her own company.
  -Robert Cox, author of The Billionaire Way


• I have read so many "ivory tower" books that really don't give any practical knowledge, they're just rehashed theory. I can honestly and enthusiastically say this book doesn't fall into this category. It is full of practical step-by-step advice that just makes sense.
  -Brent Jones, president of Affinity Lifestyles


• I just finished reading Ready, Fire, Aim and I'm putting the strategies to work in my business immediately!
  -Scott Martineau, founder and CEO of ConsciousOne.com


• This is the Michael Masterson I've been waiting for. It will be read by business people 50 years from now.
  -Porter Stansberry, founder of Stansberry and Associates


• I read it cover to cover without stopping. I am buying a copy for every one of my employees.
  -Julia Guth, executive director of The Oxford Club

There will be some people who will object to Ready, Fire, Aim because they find the writing too "enthusiastic" and/or "self-aggrandizing." There will be some who will write reviews saying they know all its secrets. "Tell me something I don't know."

My only response to them is that I hope they are enjoying lots of success in their ventures and I'm happy for them that they don't need my help. I have plenty of budding entrepreneurs who are interested in hearing my ideas and suggestions - people who want to learn what these 30 successful entrepreneurs were happy to pay $10,000 each to learn. And to implement the suggested strategies immediately, if not sooner!

Ready, Fire, Aim is written for them. For people who are already motivated and goal oriented and need only a few good, proven and powerful ideas to get them to the next level.

© 2007 Michael Masterson's Blog
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