One of four new businesses fails in the first year, so entrepreneurs undertaking a start-up must know what they are doing. Bernhard Schroeder, the acclaimed director of the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center at San Diego State University, offers advice and wisdom gained from his entrepreneurial success. Schroeder was a senior partner at the marketing agency CKS | Partners, which sold for more than $300 million. His firm planned the business strategy for Amazon. Though perhaps somewhat optimistic about crowdfunding, his advice is useful and direct. It is accessible and almost always very comprehensible, though he occasionally offers impenetrable statements like, “Customers are not always right, but they are never wrong.” Seasoned salespeople will intuitively understand what he means, though beginners could be a bit baffled at first. getAbstract recommends Schroeder’s solid, wide-ranging and applicable advice to all aspiring entrepreneurs and to those leading entrepreneurial ventures within established firms.

In this summary, you will learn

• How the “LeanModel Framework” works
• Why you should create a business model instead of a business plan
• How to use crowdfunding
• How to assemble these elements for entrepreneurial success