Small Business for Dummies

Eric Tyson, MBA: Eric Tyson is a personal financial writer, lecturer, and counselor. For most of the past two-plus decades, he has been his own boss. He works with and teaches people from a myriad of income levels and backgrounds, so he knows the small business ownership concerns and questions of real folks just like you. After toiling away for too many years as a management consultant to behemoth financial-service firms, Eric decided to take his knowledge of the industry and commit himself to making personal financial management accessible to everyone. Despite being handicapped by a joint B.S. in Economics and Biology from Yale and an M.B.A. from Stanford, Eric remains a master at "keeping it simple." An accomplished freelance personal-finance writer, Eric is the author or co-author of numerous other For Dummies national bestsellers on personal finance, taxes, investing, and home buying, and is a syndicated columnist. His work has been critically acclaimed in hundreds of publications and programs, including Newsweek, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Bottom Line Personal, as well as NBC's Today show, ABC, CNBC, PBS's Nightly Business Report, CNN, FOX-TV, CBS national radio, Bloomberg Business Radio, and Business Radio Network. His radio commentaries can be heard on the nationally syndicated public radio Sound Money program. Jim Schell: Contrary to what some people may think, Jim has not always been a grizzled veteran of the small-business wars. Raised in Des Moines, Iowa, and earning a B.A. in Economics (1958), Jim served in the U.S. Air Force in Klammath Falls, Oregon, and then spent six unhappy years underperforming for a variety of businesses in Moline, Illinois, and Minneapolis, Minnesota. Finally, Jim's entrepreneurial genes were allowed to surface. In 1968, when Jim was 34, he and three Minneapolis friends started The Kings Court, at the time the nation's first racquetball club. Two years later, Jim bought General Sports, Inc. After another two years, he started National Screenprint, and, finally, in 1974, he partnered with an ex-employee in Fitness and Weight Training Corp. Each of the start-ups was bootstrapped, and each was privately held. For several years, Jim involved himself in the management of all four businesses at the same time. His third business, National Screenprint, ultimately grew to $25 million in sales and 200 employees. Relocating to San Diego, Jim began a long-simmering writing career, authoring four books (The Brass Tacks Entrepreneur, Small Business Management Guide, The Small Business Answer Book, and Winning Together) and numerous columns for business and trade magazines. Citing culture shock, Jim and his wife, Mary, a sales trainer and longtime business partner, relocated to Bend, Oregon, where he continued his writing career. He also kicked off his fifth start-up, The Advisory Board (TAB), a business that uses volunteers to organize, administrate, and facilitate the formation of small-business owners into teams that will serve as a member's board of directors. Jim has three grown sons, Jim, Todd, and Mike, and five grandchildren. He and Mary have been spotted frequently in the summer strolling any one of a number of Central Oregon's fine golf courses.Tyson, Eric is the author of 'Small Business for Dummies', published 2003 under ISBN 9780764554810 and ISBN 0764554816.