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Productive Flourishing

The Small Business Life Cycle Now Has a Second Edition

By on 20 Comments

About a year ago, I released a self-published ebook (at first accidentally) called The Small Business Lifecycle. It was evident immediately that small business owners and creative entrepreneurs were in need of this information. The reviews were positive, the book sold, and it became a #1 Amazon bestseller in its categories. That was fun.

Since then, I’ve continually expanded upon the 5 stages of small business growth and written more on the PF blog about what it takes to get from one stage to the next. I’ve also continued to learn about the stages through personal experience in my own business.

This led me to write a 3-part blog series on what I call Founder’s Mojo – all the things a founder does to stifle the growth of his or her business, most of the time unconsciously.

I see Founder’s Mojo in my consulting work every day, and it’s an important obstacle to overcome for founders moving from Stage 3 to Stage 4 in the business life cycle.

This, plus the realization that from an SEO standpoint, people search for “life cycle” and not “lifecycle,” led to the decision to release a second edition of The Small Business Life Cycle. Alas, we can’t release perfect products the first time around; otherwise, they would never get published.

What’s in the New Version

In the new version, we’ve included more information about what a founder needs to do to step out of his or her own way to grow the business; it’s in the new appendix on Founder’s Mojo. We’ve also added a suggested reading list. And you might have noticed that there’s a new subtitle, which more accurately explains what the book is about.

As many of our reviewers on Amazon commented for the first edition, this is a very short book. Our new subtitle celebrates that as well – this really is a no-fluff guide. While you won’t get pages and pages worth of highly technical concepts deconstructed here, you will get a very simple overview with enough detail to allow you to make decisions and take action. We pride ourselves on creating products that can help you do just that. Learning is great, but action can produce even more valuable learning. Even with the additions we’ve made, this second edition still very much sticks to the basics.

Along with any re-release comes another “launch,” although here at PF we know we’re much better at the launch-and-build strategy — we’ll keep referencing our second edition of The Small Business Life Cycle for months to come rather than barrage you with a million emails in the next 2 weeks. Nonetheless, we’ve created a new page on the site with tons of resources for small business owners, a compilation and curation of all the best work we’ve got on the topic of small business.

We really believe in the power of understanding the stages of The Small Business Life Cycle. While it’s nice to codify things for the purposes of understanding, the foundation underneath the life cycle is productivity. It’s my hope that by applying what you learn about each stage to your own situation in your own business, you can become a more productive small business owner. Doing the right things at the right time saves you a lot of headaches and wasted time down the road, not to mention money.

This Is No “One-Read Wonder”

The other great thing about writing a short book is that you can reference it over and over again. The small business life cycle is fluid, and a small business is constantly flowing back and forth between different stages. Don’t be afraid to write all over your copy, take notes, and return to the stage you need to whenever you feel stuck or unsure about the best way forward. The best part about reading something over again is that you’ll always find a different meaning based on your experiences in the moment. This is never more valuable than in the case of running a business, when your daily reality will be changing day in and day out.

We still think The Small Business Life Cycle is a great gift for a business friend. It’s a no-brainer buy full of actionable insights to help you move your business forward. What better gift for the aspiring, or even struggling, entrepreneur in your life?

The last thing I want to say about the book is how much we appreciate your help in creating this. If it weren’t for your sharing your stories of small business growth with us, we’d never get to see how this all plays out in the real world, and I’d never get the opportunity to write about it. Keep looking forward, keep working on the stuff that matters most, and stand tall!

Pick up the Digital Edition for Free

The digital version of the second edition of The Small Business Life Cycle will be free until 6/27/2014 at midnight Pacific Time. We’re doing this to make it easy for prior customers to get the updated version and so that it’s easy to share with your friends and people who you know need some help in navigating the small business life cycle.

Go ahead and grab your copy, and I’d really appreciate it if you share it with your friends. Remember, you don’t have to have a Kindle to read the digital version – there are free Kindle apps for most operating systems, tablets, and phones.

Head over to Amazon and pick it up this week! (Click to tweet – thanks!)

If you bought the digital version of the first edition in the past, it may show that you’ve already purchased the book. I apologize for the confusion if that tripped you up.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Bruce Brodeen says

    I’ll post this here as there may be others with the same question below.

    First, thanks for the update for previous purchaser of the book(which I am…) and the upgrade for them.

    Second, I think there may be a problem with how Amazon works for previous buyers.

    They have gotten(sic) pretty good at figuring out if you’re about to re-buy something you already have picked up from them and when I tried to get the new, updated version just now….Amazon knew I had bought this book before.

    And would not let me buy and gave me this message:
    “Instant Order Update
    Our records show that you already purchased The Small Business Life Cycle: A Guide for Taking the Right Steps at the Right Time on August 15, 2013.”

    Soooo…not sure what the best way to address this might be but figured you’d like to know and update this post, possibly, w/ that in mind. 🙂

    Reply

    • Jenn says

      I’m having the same issue.

      Is it possible to have the title changed (on Amazon) to reflect that it’s a “2nd Edition”? That might fix things…

      For example, include at the end of the title, in brackets [2nd Edition], or something similar?

      Thank you for making this second edition available for free for a bit, though! Much appreciated!

      Reply

  2. Michelle Gower says

    Just when I bookmark this in my kindle to read again, you go and release an updated version. Kismet! Looking forward to it.

    Reply

  3. Amy says

    I’m having the same issue and I have the paid version of the 1st edition. There is a way to update a prior purchase. I’m not sure how it works for the author, but on the “Manage Your Content” page I’ve had a “update available” button show up on the right side.

    Thanks for the update, Charlie. Looking forward to reading it as soon as I can get ahold of of it. Cheers!

    Reply

  5. Chris Horner says

    Hmmmmm. Having the same problem as others. I even deleted it from my library, and it re downloaded the first edition, even saving my place from before. Not sure how to work around that…..

    Reply

  6. Abu says

    Do we have a solution for updating the first edition with the latest version? Would love to see the changes.

    Reply

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