“Are you ready to build your million dollar business? I realize this can be scary. Of course it is not a sure thing… but what really is? Before deciding on a project, I think through the worst that can happen… then I think about the best. If I can handle the worst, then I do it…
I would love to see you bring your business idea to reality. AND know for sure that it is or is not a great business… If the answer is yes, it is a success – GREAT!!! If it is no, then we can move on to a new project.”
Excerpted from the Final Word (pages 243-244)
Like the black answer to Donny Deutsch, host of The Big Idea on CNBC, Richelle Shaw wants to help aspiring millionaires achieve their dreams. And she speaks from experience, having built, not one, but two very successful companies.
Ms. Shaw, the only African-American female public utility owner in the U.S., moved to Nevada in 1993 after graduating from UCLA. In Las Vegas, she purchased a telephone company called Colorado River Communications, building its revenues from $300,000 to $36,000,000.
Unfortunately, complications caused by the events of the 9/11 terrorist attacks led to her having to declare bankruptcy. However, the story has a happy ending, since she was able to rebuild the business in less than a year.
How to Build a Million Dollar Business in Las Vegas – Without the Casinos is part memoir, part how-to book, for it recounts Richelle’s amazing feat before laying out an approach that any budding entrepreneur can apply to his or her own start-up. The author’s key principles are what she refers to as the Three R’s: Reactivate, Retain and Referrals, concepts which she breaks down in some detail.
Later, in a chapter entitled “Getting New Customers,” she comes up with suggestions ranging from “Get on the radio” to “Send out direct mail” to “Use the news” to ” Be different.” In the very next chapter, she delineates the most common reasons why business fail. These include “Lack of focus in critical areas,” “Taking any and all customers,” and “Forgetting to properly thank clients.”
Overall, Ms. Shaw’s fervent belief is that anyone can repeat her financial achievements provided they are willing to do their homework before assuming a minimized risk of failure. But she doesn’t expect you to rely on her advice alone, since the book also features telling one-on-one interviews with a half-dozen other self-made millionaires. Plenty of pearls of wisdom for the innovator eager to bring a novel product or service to market.
To order a copy of How to Build a Million Dollar Business, visit: freshstart.infusionsoft.com/saleform/nifrhnat
How to Build a Million Dollar Business in Las Vegas –
Without the Casinos
by Richelle Shaw
Open the Flood Gates Marketing
Paperback
254 pages, illustrated
ISBN: 978-0-6152-1767-3
