Adducent

Over three decades of experience the author has seen, heard from and spoken with hundreds of entrepreneurs and business owners to help them with their business. Often it is hard to get them to see that if they are going to get their business or expansion funded they have to take the time to fully understand what investors and/or financial partners want to know about their venture or business. It’s not what you (the entrepreneur/business owner) knows… it’s about what the investors/funding sources want (and need to know) about your business. And just as important: the entrepreneur/business owner must know how to present their idea and venture in the right way to cover those things that an investor and/or funding source is going to want to know. Only then does the entrepreneur/business owner have a true shot at getting the capital they need.

This quick and easy to understand guide will help prepare the entrepreneur/business owner to do just that. Improve their shot.

Business Plans Explained: The Things You Need to Know About Business Plans–that most people don’t

Here is something that is very important to understand about business plans that entrepreneurs and business owners often never think to ask and rarely explained to people starting their first business. Very often entrepreneurs that write their own business plan to save money, or have someone inexperienced write their plan; end up with the very type of plan that won’t get the job done for them. This is the single most important reason why you should learn more than just “how to write a business plan” or have just any “writer” do your business plan.

If you follow what’s in this guide, you will be able to create a more compelling and powerful business plan. If you are having someone write your plan for you, then use this guide as a means to check their work to make sure they write a plan for you that has all the elements that make it stand out from all the other plans that investors and funding sources receive.

When people don’t employ personal talent management in the way of owning their own succession plan; when companies and organizations don’t build and sustain an integrated talent management strategy; they remain stuck in the middle; somewhere between who they are and who they want to be. How to get unstuck, how to break free from the middle is what individuals and organizations often don’t understand.

That critical understanding (and ability to take action on it to improve your situation) is what you’ll find in this book as told through the eyes of a member of Generation X.

Stuck in the Middle | A Generation X View of Talent Management by Dr. Curtis L. Odom is a “Must Read” for business executives looking to help their organization and for professionals who want to improve the trajectory of their careers!

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ISBN: 978-1-937592-05-9 (hardcover with dust-jacket)
Page Count: 188

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Our latest business and career educational title 

Part of making things happen as an individual, in your career, or as a company is taking a hard look at things and saying, “These are my flaws. These are my shortcomings. These are the self-defeating actions where I’ve shot my success in the foot.” Any person or company who says they’ve never done those things is hindering their success, ruining their achievement, and unwittingly keeping themselves stuck in the middle. The unwillingness to do a hard current state assessment is a barrier between getting what you want and continuing to lack what you need. Finding that progress gap is the secret ingredient in the magic formula for understanding what it is that you need (not necessarily what you want) and then taking the steps to get that result (which leads to what you want). Talent management is indeed a business imperative to build and grow a successful organization … but more importantly it is also a personal imperative for professionals to build successful careers.

When people don’t employ personal talent management in the way of owning their own succession plan; when companies and organizations don’t build and sustain an integrated talent management strategy; they remain stuck in the middle; somewhere between who they are and who they want to be. How to get unstuck, how to break free from the middle is what individuals and organizations often don’t understand.  That critical understanding (and ability to take action on it to improve your situation) is what you’ll find in this book as told through the eyes of a member of Generation X.

From the author:

I think the best way to teach is to provide examples… preferably real and not hypothetical ones constructed purely for the sake of answering a question. Real experience. Real events. Real decisions… with real outcomes. ‘What I did, why I did it, and what happened next’ kind of examples. That is how I’ve approached this book you have in your hands. There will be some , what I feel are astute, Generation X observations on life and certainly on career at it relates to talent management but these are only part of what I want to share with you. I meet a lot of people who, like me, are Gen Xers who are trying to figure out “How do I make it in corporate America?” I have had career success and reached fairly senior positions for ‘someone of my age’ with more than one Fortune 100 company. So people come to me and ask, “What does it take to get to where you are?” How did I do it? Did I have to sell my soul, strike a deal with the devil, or some different compromising scenario that was traded in an effort for quick success?

And then I tell them my career story, which you will find in this book. It is a story steeped in my passion to help organizations solve the dilemma of how and when to buy, build, or borrow the talent they need, while not losing focus on running their business today. This story and the same passion will speak to individuals as well and give them insights and actionable advice on applying proven talent management principles to improve the trajectory of their own careers.

This book is not about abstinence. It’s not about being Pro-Life or Pro-Choice. It’s not about finger pointing or blame. It’s about facing a situation (the situation) head on and making decisions about it and what happens to you and your child in the future.

It’s about you. First, let me share something about me. I’m the girl that got pregnant in high school.

Sixteen, pregnant, lonely and depressed and having to look constantly at yourself in the mirror (and inside your head) for nine months. That was beyond hard. You have all the regular emotions a teenage girl has and then throw on top of that the emotion of a pregnant woman. It was unreal, and not fun.

It took me a while but I learned that the negative looks and comments; the negative stereotypes used to categorize pregnant teenage girls did not define me, as a person, and it sure didn’t stop me from creating a life of beauty and promise. But feeling and going through all these things is normal. I went through it and many other young girls have. The important thing is to not let it paralyze you and keep you from making good decisions about yourself and your baby.

It is not the end of the world, and in fact, can be the beginning of a new one for you.

This book will help you discover that for yourself!