Before you launch your start-up, begin with Gerber.

All too often, entrepreneurs begin a small business to create a sense of security. They become sole proprietors or perhaps employ only one or two people. The business becomes a perpetual existence, like a mechanic, a doctor, a therapist, or a retailer who does the same thing over and over again to generate a stream of income. The small businessperson fails to grow, marking time by repeating the same service in a perpetual cycle throughout the life of the business.

Gerber's ten principles will help you to break out of this vicious cycle before it starts in your new business. He'll help you to embrace the energy of exploration with a road map for taking your vision beyond the obvious. Only then can you build a company that provides continuous fulfillment and personal growth and can expand its income, services, and positive contributions to your employees and community.

Gerber's ten principles will help you:

–Identify your company's essential "system"—its highly differentiated way of doing business that will be the cornerstone of your success

–Build a business of great imagination; a self-reliant "reach" that will create economic certainty in any climate

–Create a center of growth and learning for your employees, that will in turn develop your business beyond any standard that formerly existed

–Instill a higher purpose that can move yourself, your business, and your customers to greater levels of fulfillment and growth

From identifying opportunities to viable business design to field-testing your ideas, Gerber offers a dynamic message for creating the most successful small business in the world—not only providing you with economic certainty, for which he believes all persons are capable, but empowering you to achieve your fullest potential.