This is not a dry, step-by-step business text. This is a conversation, crafted to enhance your abilities and empower you to use them.

When entrepreneur Jim Lewis set out to write a reference guide on start-ups, he approached it with the same innovative thinking that helped him start, build, and sell two successful high-tech companies. Rather than simply regurgitating the lessons he's learned over the years, he creatively illustrates the challenges a small-business founder experiences through an enlightening, and often humorous, fictional case study. In depicting the lifecycle of a start-up-from the entrepreneur's initial self-review, when the business is still merely an idea, to the exit strategy and its execution, once the business is prosperous-Lewis reveals not only the business side of things, but also the emotional and financial impacts on the family.

Insightful as well as entertaining, you'll learn how to:

- Avoid major mistakes

- Shift from a big business mind-set to a small business mentality

- Think creatively

- Be more successful sooner

Being an entrepreneur is risky, and there are no sure-fire solutions to eliminate the risk. But with STARTUP , you can develop a new way of thinking that helps you tolerate the risk and embrace the possibilities.