If you’re an entrepreneur, you’re probably an optimist. Otherwise, why would you start a business knowing that most small companies fail in their first few years? Yet many small business owners choke when it comes to growing their companies.

In his book Be the Elephant, author Steve Kaplan offers useful, practical advice to help businesses become "big enough to make a difference, healthy enough to withstand strong financial winds, and strong enough to influence their market whatever that market might be." In other words, elephants.

For example, most business owners understand that paper profits are meaningless without healthy cash flow, yet many struggle to achieve the latter. Be the Elephant may help, as the author provides a set of tools to analyze, predict and optimize cash flow. Kaplan also provides free tools on his Web site, www.differencemaker.com.

A positive cash flow is only part of a healthy business poised to grow. Kaplan offers advice on other critical aspects of business as well, from sales to human resources to risk analysis.
He writes in an enjoyable style that makes it easy to absorb the many business lessons he teaches—including the Five Killer Mistakes that could bring a company down. If you apply his lessons and his tools, you may find yourself optimistic not just about your business, but also about its growth potential.

—Newt Barrett is CEO of Succeeding Today.
Contact him at newt@succeedingtoday.com

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