The Stop Doing List

FOREWORD BY SIIMON REYNOLDS

Every year, millions of people decide to take a giant leap toward their dreams and open a business.

At first it's exciting. But for too many entrepreneurs, the feelings of euphoria soon get replaced with frustration, as they get overloaded with hundreds of tasks they feel they must do just to keep their business afloat.

It's not unusual for the entrepreneurial dream to then become a logistical nightmare. The To Do List becomes bigger, the hours become longer and the happiness becomes smaller and smaller until, in many cases, it gets snuffed out entirely.

That leads to a phenomenon that is all too common — the Zombie Business.

A company is a Zombie Business when it is barely alive and is being run by an exhausted, unmotivated entrepreneur who no longer even likes their business, yet is forced to stay in it, out of financial necessity or just because of a dogged determination not to give up on it. It's the corporate equivalent of the walking dead.

The tragedy of the Zombie Business is not just that there are thousands of them, it's the fact that it never had to be this way.

If their owners had known the right things to do and correct ways to think, they could have built a vibrantly thriving business that delivered on the promise and hope of its original founding: to provide a wonderful, growing income while affording the business owner a balanced, joy-filled lifestyle.

But all is not lost. You have in your hands a tactical sword that can slay the Zombie ...