Sunday 11 May 2008

A Big Thank You...


...to all who came along to the official 'Business Nightmares' book launch party and signing at Borders Oxford Street on Thursday evening.

It was a wonderful, memorable night for me with lots of friends and contacts making a big effort to attend from afar - including some of you who regularly leave comments on my Blog!

I am pictured here with various guests including my brothers Mark and Joel, two of my sons MJ and Paul, and my mother-in-law Pam.

For those of you who couldn't make it but who live in the Essex area I am doing a signing at Waterstone's in Chelmsford High Street at 12.30pm this Tuesday 13 May.

Hope to see you there!

Rachel

3 comments:

Anne Herbert said...

Hi Rachel,

I thoroughly enjoyed the book!! I did not get home 'til gone midnight on Thursday evening and had already began reading it at the launch. I reluctantly had to put it down to get some sleep and was up early on Friday morning. I took the book to work and am not ashamed to say I did not put it down til around 5pm that evening when I finished reading it. I had to put up with the day's distractions and considered taking the rest of the day off to finish it!
I realise now that I was in 'input' mode so did not feel too guilty about neglecting my daily duties as MD, my company functions well enough without me looking over shoulders every five minutes.
The book is an easy read and I love 'easy reads'. Any book that draws me in so I feel like a 'fly on the wall' ends up on my favourites list and this one is no exception.
I think it was Disraeli who said 'There is no education like adversity'... I'm sure this is no surprise to you and all the others who kindly gave their account so you could use it in your book. You've been able to draw parallels with your own account and at the end of each chapter you offer a series of tip to help us avoid certain pitfalls. I have to say my business is much smaller and younger but already I've fallen into some of these 'holes'.
Hopefully by reading this book others may not be as unfortunate and should some be facing tough times at the moment, I hope they will draw comfort in the knowledge that they are not alone.
"He gains wisdom in a happy way, who gains it by another's experience" -
Thanks for telling the story so we too can gain wisdom.

Anne

Mr Robot said...

I haven't read the book yet, because i cannot tear it away from my mate.

But there is one thing i'd like to share regarding the definition of Entrepreneur.

It seems to me that there is another way to classify entrepreneurs.

Those that pioneer entire markets and those who jump on the back of them.

I think Rachel falls into the former category which puts her in a very exclusive club indeed.

So when people talk about Business Failure, they should consider whether that person was pioneering an entire market when it happened - or was simply running a business.

It would not be easy to write a book on how to innovate a market. It is however very easy to explain how to run a business.

Stephen

Dan Martin said...

Rachel, I have my copy of your book and plan on reading it very soon!

The subject of bouncing back after the collapse of a business is an interesting one and something I recently blogged about myself.

The stigma associated with 'failure' in the UK must be removed. In the US, many investors won't so much as look at you if you haven't failed at least once in the past.

A little reported detail in the government's new enterprise strategy is a proposal to give authorities the discretion to decide whether or not to place an advertisement in the local press about an insolvency. If it happens, it would be a welcome step and hopefully the first of many.