Can You Really Start a Business in 27 Days?

It’s time for another 30-day business advice book.

Bill Curtis and Bryan Pace promise to help any willing entrepreneur go from a business newbie to a thriving business in under 30 days. Try 27 days.

In their book, aptly titled How to Start a Business in 27 Days: A Step-by-Step Guide That Anyone Can Use to Achieve Business Ownership, Curtis and Pace guide readers through an array of steps to plan and execute a business from plan to finish. They cover quite a bit of topics from finance to marketing to legal issues and taxation, with a little inspiration to boot.

If you subscribe to the philosophy that a business should be started quickly, How to Start a Business in 27 Days might be a book to consider. This book is designed to be used now with minimal investment with a focus on specific topics and recommendations, some of which are particularly helpful to solo-preneurs and small businesses.

The book starts off at a running pace, with more than five steps listed for the reader on the “first day”. These steps aren’t lightweight either. How to Start a Business in 27 Days advises readers to identify their company mission, mantra, and testing strategies and then walks readers through these steps. This process of steps continues to “Day 27”, when the business is ready to launch.

In deciding whether this book is right for you, readers focus on two questions:

1. What makes this book different from the others?
2. Is the book realistic and if so, how can I implement it NOW?

The Best Advice Is in the Details

In comparing this book to others in the “create a business in 30 days or less” category, How to Start a Business in 27 Days has the same content set-up: List a bunch of steps that should move a reader to better business success.

The difference is in the details. How to Start a Business in 27 Days focuses on issues that aren’t covered in similar books. Some of these issues include scalability, finance (including credit) and exit strategies. These issues are rarely touched by marketing books focused on launching a business quickly. These issues, however, are things critical to the continued operation of a business after 30 days. 

Another thing that sets How to Start a Business in 27 Days apart is the specificity in recommendations. If you are a reader who prefers to know the answer to questions like:

1. How many social media accounts should I set up?
2. How much money should I have to finance my business?
3. What should I do about the competition?

This book will provide specific answers to those questions as well as targeted questions to plan for other issues. 

One other aspect of the book is the focus. Most of the currently available business launch books focus on online businesses. This extreme focus on the Internet, while needed in some cases, leaves out many businesses.

Not every business wants to (or can afford to) be fully online. How to Start a Business in 27 Days offers strategies for both online and offline business. The key is the strategy, not the particular medium. In fact, Internet strategies are not mentioned in detail until the latter half of the book. 

Too Much of a Good Plan

That being said, the next relevant question is possibility. As most any business owner can attest, launching a business takes more than 27 days. How to Start a Business in 27 Days does a good attempt, but it is a very rushed attempt.

The book moves very quickly through steps that can take months to fully implement (testing, market research, website design). As mentioned above, there are a lot of steps given on the first day. These steps require someone who knows a bit about a business already, a business “newbie” will probably be overwhelmed by the steps. 

Another issue is the limited examples. For those readers who are able to keep up, there are only a few examples. There are no examples that take a business from “day one” to “day 27”, step by step, as the book’s title claims. This is a much needed element if the book is supposed to do what the title offers. 

Quick Read for Small Biz People That Need More Details

Overall, though, the book has merit has two particular audiences:

1. Future small business owners/solopreneurs who want a quick read on the various small details that are critical to small business
2. Small business owners/solopreneurs who want to review the steps after launching a small business

These two groups would best benefit from the book’s focus on specific details and questions that they may have overlooked in planning and strategy. 

About the Authors

Bill Curtis and Bryan Pace are consultants, entrepreneurs, and owners of a consulting company, OmniThrive. They can be found at their website. They can also be found on Twitter at @BillCurtis and @BryanLPace. How to Start a Business in 27 Days is available on Amazon. This review is based on an electronic copy of the book provided for reviewing purposes.

 

This article, "Can You Really Start a Business in 27 Days?" was first published on Small Business Trends