A Conversation with Zulfiqar Deo,
Author of "MBA for Startups"
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| Featured Author, Zulfiqar Deo MBA for Startups |
Why did you feel you had to write MBA for Startups?
I first started supporting SME’s as a consultant about 8 years ago and found the same concerns over and over again. These concerns were also present in pre-starts, startup and micro businesses. So I decided to make some time to highlight how Entrepreneurs could understand better how to manage their own businesses more successfully. Basically, I was tired of seeing Entrepreneurs lose their living when they didn’t need to.
Business Management of the venture is one of the biggest reasons why businesses fail – please remember over 80% of new businesses fail in their first year. How to manage a business is one of the biggest problems they have. I suppose now a days you could say it help you work on the business as opposed to in the business.
Where do you get your ideas?
I have been supporting New and Small Businesses via a Meet Up Group in London. The Business Mentoring Meet Up - http://www.meetup.com/BusinessMentoring/ has supported over 250 New and Small Businesses over the last 12 months. These free sessions I offered Businesses highlighted the kind of areas that I should include in the book.
Do you ever experience writer’s block and how do you overcome it?
Yes. The first page was the hardest LOL I really wasn’t sure where to start, how to start and what approach to take.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers on the writing and publishing process?
I would say that just because you haven’t written anything before doesn’t mean you can’t write. Taking the first step is tough, but once you make it through it there is nothing that can stop you doing well. In terms of the publishing process. You have a host of choices today from traditional publishing to print on demand. Do your research and find out which suits you best and have the confidence of following what you think is right.
How do you market your work? Have you found some avenues to be more successful than others?
I tend to use my book as supporting material for "MBA for Start Up" workshops I offer. However, feel now it’s time to broaden the readership. I found using the internet and social media allowed me to lower the cost of production, gain access to a better support base globally and ensured the overall quality of the content is more sophisticated.
If your book was made into a movie, who do you picture playing each part?
Emm. It's a fact-based book so not sure how actors could add value unless you have Anglina Jolie do the narrative, Samuel L Jackson focusing on the Financials, Tom Cruise focusing on How Maverick would use Project Management, etc.
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Synopsis:
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About the Author:
Zulfiqar Deo has over 15 year’s experiences working with SME’s. His work on SME’s and Business Strategy has been published by an Academic Journal. Here he successfully interpreted Clausewitz’s “On War” for SME’s and custom designed a framework for Senior Managers to help them make effective use of their Tacit Knowledge for the Business. He is founder of www.bizstuff.co and works with Business Support Networks to ensure SME’s can gain successfully make optimal use of Business Management. "MBA for Startups" is now available in 5 languages.
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FOR MORE INFO:
Website: www.bizstuff.co
Blog - Free biz Knowledge base: http://www.meetup.com/BusinessMentoring/messages/archive/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ZulfiqarDeo
LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/zulfiqardeo
BUY THE BOOK:
Lulu: http://bit.ly/14X1Pjg