A Story with a Purpose: Starting, Sustaining, and Surviving as a Successful Business Owner Without Selling Your Soul

By Ken Arrowood

A must read for anyone thinking about starting a small business or currently in the prelaunch or launching phase or an owner who is struggling with fear, doubt, or unsatisfactory results. A practical, experience-based, how to start, sustain, and survive book in the tough world of small business written in an Ive been there done that style based on successes and failures of the author, not a bunch of theoretical bromides. Learn the keys to increasing your chances of success by first evaluating your risk exposure based on our human nature to be delusional or unreasonably optimistic in our expectations of wealth and success. Chapter 1: Don't be a Sucker and your Entrepreneurial Right Stuff are based on a profile of success-identified characteristics. Both areas represent baselines for potential success or failure. Proprietary questionnaires and optional evaluations for both aspects are provided free of charge. The book then takes you on a fast track of essential management and business tools and proverbs garnered from years of experience, not from books, but from the trenches. For example, planning, research, marketing, sales, budgeting, funding, misplaced pride, needed advisors and professionals, hiring, product fatigue, relaunch signs, and soul preservation. This is followed by the autobiographical journey of the authors business successes and failures with proverbial lessons learned and not learned, spanning decades, sectors, and both domestic and international arenas.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Feb 18, 2016
• ISBN: 9781512730197

Ken Arrowood

Ken’s business experiences and successes and failures have spanned the globe and the United States. His credentials include a 67 percent small business (4/6) success rate versus the national average of 25 percent. Ken has managed large international companies and owned and operated six small- to medium-sized companies. He has failed twice, which he shares with his readers so that they may learn from his mistakes. He has consulted scores of organizations both small and large. He has written this book in an effort to “give back” in recognition of his having been blessed with good fortune and the ability and chance to survive with his soul battered but not beaten by the world around him. Additionally, he is deeply concerned about the escalating failure rates of small businesses in the United States, resulting in an estimated 8 million jobs being lost every year. He wishes to do whatever he can do by reaching out to all who seek help.

Book preview

A

STORY

with a

PURPOSE

Starting, Sustaining, and Surviving as a successful business owner without selling your soul

KEN ARROWOOD

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Copyright © 2016 Ken Arrowood.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

1 [phone]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-5127-3020-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-3021-0 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-3019-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016902014

WestBow Press rev. date: 02/18/2016

Contents

Acknowledgement

Our Mission Statement

Prologue A Word to the Reader

Introduction

Chapter 1 First Lesson Don’t be a Sucker!

Chapter 2 Funding- Skin in the Game!

Chapter 3 Aspiring Entrepreneurs –Do you really have the right stuff?

Chapter 4 Pride is still man’s major downfall

Chapter 5 If you are still here-this is important

Chapter 6 Planning and Budgeting- Painful Keys to Success

Chapter 7 Budgeting

Chapter 8 Sales Budget

Chapter 9 Marketing

Chapter 10 My Story and Experiences

Chapter 11 Manila, Philippines First Stopover 1966 -1967

Chapter 12 The China Syndrome Hong Kong 1967-1968

Chapter 13 Head Shed Tour New York City—Brussels 1969-1970

Chapter 14 Africa The Continent of contrasts Escape to Reality 1970-1973

Chapter 15 Moral and Lessons Learned and Not Learned

Chapter 16 A Bump in the Road Monte Carlo 1973 to 1974

Chapter 17 Return of the Prodigal - Diamonds are not forever!

Chapter 18 The Return to South Africa—Can you go back? March 1974 to 1981

Chapter 19 Back to the red white and blue January 1981 to May 1988

Chapter 20 The Market shapes the product

Chapter 21 Change can be Good and maybe bad!

Chapter 22 Does team work really work?

Chapter 23 From the Ashes into the Fire

Chapter 24 A Waste Land of Humble Pie July 2001 to October 2003

Chapter 25 The Comeback Kid (never say never) October 2002 to December 31, 2010

Chapter 26 Retirement-Really?

Chapter 27 The Light at the end of the tunnel

Chapter 28 Reverse Mission Field-Chinese Student Host Family

Chapter 29 Finale-Business Mentoring/Coaching/Discipleship present to future

About the Author

Acknowledgement

Words cannot express my appreciation of my wife Vivi, who tolerated my long hours locked away like a hibernating bear and for often acting like one! She encouraged me when I lost focus and assured me that she was always there for me. Her love and devotion made this project possible.

I cannot express enough gratitude for the kind and gentle editing of our friend Joanne Radcliffe. She handled my fragile ego with deftness and persistence throughout the entire process. She at times, I am sure, wondered how she was talked into being the enforcer of bad syntax, improper hyperbole and of over the top use of archaic words. Her Doctorate of Education was certainly called upon by my flagrant disregard for the proper use of colons, semi colons, periods and commas.

Lastly, I would like to thank all of the unnamed individuals that have been a part of my business life, painting the canvass of life, with often dramatic and lush strokes which they allowed me to witness and learn from. My walk through out the globe was greatly enriched by the array of cultures, people and beliefs that I was blessed to have worked with over these many years.

I thank my heavenly Father for delivering me safely through the worldly conflicts and dangers that I encountered over the years and allowing me to have walked on all of the seven continents and to swim in all of the seven seas of His created world.

It is with gratitude and awe that I acknowledge His sovereign will and grace being in my life.

Our Mission Statement

We are here to remind you that a blind man, in a dark room chasing a black cat that isn’t there is a waste of time and dangerous

We are here to share and offer guidance, not dogmatic directions

We are here to encourage you to utilize proven business tools.

We are here to hear and share your business fears, concerns and questions

We are here to offer our suggestions based on our experiences and beliefs

We are here to serve your goals and fears, not ours

We are here to share our mistakes

We are here to try to be the teacher in a distant land for you

We are here to attempt to make a beneficial impact and difference in the life of others.

We are here to serve God and His plans

We are here to help you with your journey of successful, independent employment.

We are here to not tell you the journey is going to be easy, but we are here to tell you it can be worth it!

Remember why are you are here?

Where are you going?

Why?

How are you going to get there?

You’re not alone- You don’t have to go solo- we are here - let’s do it together.

Ken Arrowood

Don’t let your happiness depend on something you may lose C.S.Lewis

Connect with Ken Arrowood

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Prologue

A Word to the Reader

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My beneficial impact on the business life of others and their life events is what some would consider the basis of my potential value as a Business Coach and Life Event mentor for the small to medium sized business owners and for those thinking about launching their own business.

My credentials are the sub total of my successes and failures on the business playing field over the past (55) years which I want to share with you in the hope of helping you succeed and handle failure in a positive manner…..

I have experience as an employee and owner with my skin in the game, in both the product and service sectors, both domestic and international arenas, both big and small, from startup to expansion to rescue missions. I had my failures, but fortunately I had more successes than failures which allowed me to retire in 2010.

Most of the lessons I have learned from my life and business experiences aren’t new and I submit are timeless in terms of human behavior, nature and motivation.

This coupled with my desire to help others by sharing my experiences in order to hopefully enhance your probability of success and to avoid pitfalls is the basis for my conviction that I wish represent value to my