Economics, finance, business and industry.

Create your own job security. A wealth of info for prospective entrepreneurs. With unemployment rates rising, many people are out of work and many more are either underemployed or in fear of losing their jobs. Many of these workers have long thought of owning their own businesses and are pondering whether self-employment is the right choice. This book will help them make the call, and go about the process of starting and running their own businesses by learning how to: ? Determine if it makes financial sense to leave the corporate world behind ? Assess whether they have what it takes to be self-employed ? Identify the market for their business and test whether it's viable ? Calculate start-up costs and revenue streams before making any investments ? Understand the strengths and weaknesses of the Competition ? Advertise and market the business

Many of us assume that our creative process is beyond our ability to influence, and pay attention to it only when it isn't working properly. For the most part, we go about our daily tasks and everything just "works." Until it doesn't. Adding to this lack of understanding is the rapidly accelerating pace of work. Each day we are face escalating expectations and a continual squeeze to do more with less. We are asked to produce an ever-increasing amount of brilliance in an ever-shrinking amount of time. There is an unspoken (or spoken!) expectation that we'll be accessible 24/7, and as a result we frequently feel like we're "always on." Now business creativity expert Todd Henry explains how to unleash your creative potential. Whether you're a creative by trade or an "accidental creative," this book will help you quickly and effectively integrate new ideas into your daily life.

•Do you tackle several different roles including sales manager? •Does managing the sales team feel awkward? •Do you want to achieve better sales results? If you answered YES then you face the same struggle as many other small business owners—you can successfully manage the rest of the company, but when it comes to the sales team, you feel like your efforts are coming up short. Suzanne Paling, sales management consultant, urges you to stop struggling, and teaches you what you need to know to start succeeding.

Computer manufacturing is--after cars, energy production and illegal drugs--the largest industry in the world, and it's one of the last great success stories in American business. Accidental Empires is the trenchant, vastly readable history of that industry, focusing as much on the astoundingly odd personalities at its core--Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mitch Kapor, etc. and the hacker culture they spawned as it does on the remarkable technology they created. Cringely reveals the manias and foibles of these men (they are always men) with deadpan hilarity and cogently demonstrates how their neuroses have shaped the computer business. But Cringely gives us much more than high-tech voyeurism and insider gossip. From the birth of the transistor to the mid-life crisis of the computer industry, he spins a sweeping, uniquely American saga of creativity and ego that is at once uproarious, shocking and inspiring.

Entrepreneurship, 5th Edition helps aspiring entrepreneurs understand the process of starting a new venture and appreciate the vital role of entrepreneurship in the economy. This accessible textbook explains the steps involved in starting a new company, and offers insights on engaging with startups as investors, bankers, accountants, lawyers, vendors, customers, and employees. Delving into the real-world trials and tribulations of entrepreneurship, the text covers every stage of the entrepreneurial process, from searching for an opportunity and molding it into an attractive product or service, to launching, growing, and eventually harvesting the new venture. The fully revised and updated fifth edition integrates core concepts of entrepreneurship and practical case studies—enabling students to develop an inclusive perspective on how businesses are born, grow, and succeed or fail. The authors explore the entrepreneurial competitiveness of nations throughout the world, describe the critical factors for starting a new enterprise and building it into a successful business, and demonstrate how to build a workable business model. Clear, straightforward chapters cover each essential area of entrepreneurship, including marketing, strategy, team building, financial projections, business planning, and more.

Entrepreneur and bestselling author of The Lean Startup, Eric Ries reveals how entrepreneurial principles can be used by businesses of all kinds, ranging from established companies to early-stage startups, to grow revenues, drive innovation, and transform themselves into truly modern organizations, poised to take advantage of the enormous opportunities of the twenty-first century. In The Lean Startup, Eric Ries laid out the practices of successful startups – building a minimal viable product, customer-focused and scientific testing based on a build-measure-learn method of continuous innovation, and deciding whether to persevere or pivot. In The Startup Way, he turns his attention to an entirely new group of organizations: established enterprises like iconic multinationals GE and Toyota, tech titans like Amazon and Facebook, and the next generation of Silicon Valley upstarts like Airbnb and Twilio. Drawing on his experiences over the past five years working with these organizations, as well as nonprofits, NGOs, and governments, Ries lays out a system of entrepreneurial management that leads organizations of all sizes and from every industry to sustainable growth and long-term impact. Filled with in-the-field stories, insights, and tools, The Startup Way is an essential road map for any organization navigating the uncertain waters of the century ahead.

The infrastructure-as-code revolution in IT is also affecting database administration. With this practical book, developers, system administrators, and junior to mid-level DBAs will learn how the modern practice of site reliability engineering applies to the craft of database architecture and operations. Authors Laine Campbell and Charity Majors provide a framework for professionals looking to join the ranks of today’s database reliability engineers (DBRE). You’ll begin by exploring core operational concepts that DBREs need to master. Then you’ll examine a wide range of database persistence options, including how to implement key technologies to provide resilient, scalable, and performant data storage and retrieval. With a firm foundation in database reliability engineering, you’ll be ready to dive into the architecture and operations of any modern database. This book covers: Service-level requirements and risk management Building and evolving an architecture for operational visibility Infrastructure engineering and infrastructure management How to facilitate the release management process Data storage, indexing, and replication Identifying datastore characteristics and best use cases Datastore architectural components and data-driven architectures

NATIONAL BESTSELLER “The Social Network, the much anticipated movie…adapted from Ben Mezrich’s book The Accidental Billionaires.” —The New York Times Best friends Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg had spent many lonely nights looking for a way to stand out among Harvard University’s elite, competitive, and accomplished student body. Then, in 2003, Zuckerberg hacked into Harvard’s computers, crashed the campus network, almost got himself expelled, and was inspired to create Facebook, the social networking site that has since revolutionized communication around the world. With Saverin’s funding their tiny start-up went from dorm room to Silicon Valley. But conflicting ideas about Facebook’s future transformed the friends into enemies. Soon, the undergraduate exuberance that marked their collaboration turned into out-and-out warfare as it fell prey to the adult world of venture capitalists, big money, and lawyers.