Leszek Czarnecki - Simply Business

Simply Business is an excellent read both for those who want to give business a try and those already running small businesses and looking for ideas to grow them. It is also meant for entrepreneurs who have already achieved success and are now trying to maintain their leading positions.This is a unique book on the market, written by an author who describes the modest beginnings of his business career as convincingly as he does his experiences of managing one of the largest private-sector groups of companies in Poland. When reading this book, one gets the impression that it contains not a single reflection or piece of advice that does not stem from the author's own experiences, good as well as bad. Leszek Czarnecki gives an interesting introduction to the arcana of entrepreneurship. The reader receives practical business education illustrated with numerous concrete examples. The author does not provide definitive answers or ready-made recipes for how to resolve problems. Instead, he gets readers involved, forces them to think and draw conclusions themselves. He instils an interest in economics and respect for entrepreneurial individuals. He inspires.The book's unquestionable strengths include the author's personal tone, honesty, and examples drawn from his own biography. Leszek Czarnecki does not shy away from admitting mistakes he has made. He also provides impressive accounts of some extraordinary entrepreneurial and managerial success stories of people he knows personally, some of whom he counts among his friends. The lives and careers of the protagonists can be role models for many a businessperson. What is a great feature of the book  is the absence of jargon typical of academic or consultant-written texts of this type. At the same time, the author does not omit any of the important aspects of carrying on business. It is very likely that in twenty years' time many wealthy entrepreneurs will say that they owe their initial inspiration and subsequent business success to this very book. Over the years, Leszek Czarnecki has been getting ever more strongly involved in the mission of spreading the spirit of enterprise among young Poles. His idea for this book grew out of his meetings with students in 2008–2010. The lectures and panel discussions featuring eminent representatives of the Polish business scene revealed the scale of demand for what would seem to be the ABC of starting and running a business.The book consists of three parts. The first part is addressed to all those who would like to start their very first own business and do not know where to begin. The author focuses exclusively on practical matters making an effort to simplify the theory as much as possible. The primary target audience for the second part are people who already have their own businesses and are faced with various day-to-day problems of business management: from routine personnel issues to business financing and ways to relieve stress. This part also discusses the most common business errors and ways to avoid them. An overview of most of the available business financing techniques is also given, enabling the entrepreneur to form an opinion about which one will be the most appropriate for their business. At the end of the second part, the author discusses issues relating to business growth through mergers and acquisitions and draws attention to the principal risks involved. The last, third part discusses the question of how to manage success The final section of the book recounts the stories of 20 extraordinary careers of entrepreneurs and business managers in Poland. Leszek Czarnecki analyses the sources of their inspirations, the roots of their success, and describes how they developed their powerful businesses. Simply Business is also interesting in that it shows a slightly different aspect of being an entrepreneur: entrepreneurs are normal people, who have anxieties, make mistakes and endure intense chronic stress. Stress and crisis management is indeed an important, inseparable part of the daily reality of being an entrepreneur.