Make your first million is aimed at anyone thinking of starting a business. It addresses all the usual issues; business plans, raising finance, financial planning, working capital, growth, premises, staff and preparing for an exit. All within the context of Martin Webb’s experience setting up and running a chain of bars, with a few examples from more recent experiences advising start-ups.

Marin Webb is the serial entrepreneur who present Channel 4’s Risking It All. Prior to that he setup and sold a chain of bars and is now setting up a new chain of pubs that give all their profit to local charities. His approach makes a nice change to today’s celebrity entrepreneurs. It’s modest, he shares the lessons he learned from his early mistakes and he admits when he’s been wrong in advising the businesses on Risking It All.

The book provides sensible, practical advice on how to start up a business in a nice easy to read style. It does have a slight bent towards the authors own areas of expertise, but that’s perfectly reasonable and the advice is good enough that it’s worth reading no matter what business opportunity you intend to pursue.

What really made the book stand out for me was the inclusion of a section on risk assessment. Far too many books and experts on entrepreneurs give the impression that being an entrepreneur means taking big ballsy risks, which is misleading. Yes entrepreneurs take risks, but they’ve normally done everything possible to mitigate the downside. Webb’s chapter on risk assessment helps new entrepreneurs consider the risks they are going to take and to plan accordingly.

Overall a great book, experienced business people might not get a lot from it, but novice entrepreneurs will find the advice well worth reading.

You can buy it from Amazon UK or Amazon USA.

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