Q: Good morning Steve: My book, The Success Effect: Uncommon Conversations with America's Business Trailblazers, offers insights from billionaires and small company founders alike but this book is different from most because it is mostly in their own words - not mine. I thought that perhaps … a column about the book would have great appeal to small business owners in America.

Best wishes,

John Eckberg

(Part 2 of 2)

In my last column , I suggested that a good holiday present for the entrepreneur in your life might be one of several good business books that have been published recently. This week I would like to share some insights from Chicken Soup for the Entrepreneur’s Soul, by, well, a host of people, but most notably Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, and Dahlynn McKowen.

I have to first admit to a certain bias here. Like you, I had seen the many different incarnations of the venerable Chicken Soup books for ages and really didn’t give them much thought. That is, until my youngest daughter got hooked, and I mean hooked! We must own at least 15 different Chicken Soup books now, and she reads them again and again.

When I asked her what it is she loved so much about these books, I think she spoke for many people when she said, “It is just so interesting to hear about other people’s experiences.” Well said Mara!

I must admit also that I have long been a sucker for entrepreneurial stories: Where people get their ideas for their businesses, and then (the hard part) how they implement that vision typically makes for a great tale. Chicken Soup for the Entrepreneur’s Soul bears that out.

The books contains more than 50 small business, rags-to-riches (more or less) stories, covering everything from trusting your intuition, to money, perseverance, starting up, and more. As the point of this series is to inspire by storytelling, let me model what works and share a couple of favorites from the book:

Like many entrepreneurs, a big reason that Cookie Lee went into business for herself was so that she could create a schedule that included plenty of time with her children. It was after this working mom (director of marketing for Mattel) attended a jewelry beading class for fun that she decided to start a small entrepreneurial venture: Selling the jewelry she made.

First at work, then at a friend’s home, and then through a series of “home shows,” Ms. Lee slowly grew her business. Then she had her insight: “The only way I can continue to grow my business is to teach other women how to sell my jewelry.” Today? Today Cookie Lee has 70,000 consultants selling her designs with annual sales topping $120 million.

Herman Rowland tells how he started work at his family’s candy factory in California when he was only 13 years old, becoming the 4th generation to work in the business. Rowland explains that as he grew up and grew into the business in the early 1960s, a few smart decisions made all of the difference:

• First, Rowland’s family teamed up with one of my favorite organizations, SCORE. A SCORE counselor “worked every Saturday with my parents and me for two years and educated us on running our business more efficiently.” His pay? A tuna fish sandwich every week. SCORE is amazing.
• That experience led to the decision to expand capacity, and to get an SBA-guaranteed loan in order to do so. Smart move #2.
• Finally, as one of the family’s candies was jelly beans, and after Rowland heard that then-Governor Ronald Reagan was trying to give up pipe smoking by switching to jelly beans, Rowland began to send the new governor some of the family’s jelly bean product, called Jelly Bellys. Anyone who lived through the Reagan presidency knows how that move turned out.

The book is full of similar fun stories. If you know and entrepreneur, or an entrepreneur-to-be, this Chicken Soup book might be just what their soul needs.

Today’s tip: If these books don’t strike your fancy (or even if they do) you might also want to consider The Small Business Bible: Everything You Need to Know to Succeed in Your Small Business. The author, a guy by the name of Steve Strauss, is apparently one heck of a small business writer!