Scaling Up

It's good – but mostly for large companies

It's a good book. Dense and full of wisdom. Highly practical too – lots of worksheets to fill out.

It's mostly for companies 7-10 employees and up though. I can't help but wonder why there aren't more books written, targeting the solopreneurial startup phase: from 1 (you) to those 2-3 employees and up to the 8-12 employees where books like this one can take over, offering helpful advice for those stages.

Yes, there are plenty startup books with advice on how to select the best team members – but few that talk about the dangers of taking in/on those initial few employees: cashflow-wise, it can be a huge killer to any little business.

When should one hire the first employee – and what signs and pitfalls should one look for, in times of distress (bad cashflow for example)... And should one even hire ANY employees at all? Or rather find a solid business partner and a mentor, essentially making it a small company of three?What are the pros and cons of such a constellation?

Again: very few books seem to target this market and those vital questions. Without first finding the answers to them, and the challenges they represent; there's little need for a book like Scaling Up – many of us just aren't there yet.

9 of 10 people found this review helpful

Just what the doctor ordered

Would you listen to Scaling Up again? Why?

I will have to listen again but this time with a pen and paper ready to take notes.

Any additional comments?

This is the perfect book for business owners that have gotten over the "start-up" hurdle and are beginning to enjoy some success. It really gets specific on how to carefully grow your company as to avoid some common pitfalls...mainly running out of CASH!!! I have seen our company sales growing rapidly but could not figure out where all the cash was going. This book hit me right in the face! My problem was not sales it was cash flow!!! I now have several specific action items I went to work on immediately.

8 of 9 people found this review helpful

Good advice but too much advertising for Gazelles

It has very practical, actionable advice but there are way too many plugs for his business. At the end one is left wondering if the intent was really to help entrepreneurs or to generate opportunities for his consulting group.

14 of 17 people found this review helpful

Confusing narration but great content

The overall content was great. Narration style was difficult to follow due to too frequent accentuation.

6 of 7 people found this review helpful

Starts The Juices Flowing

This book is good to get your brain thinking about the right way to do things/change things.

Not super in-depth about any one particular item; but covers a lot of different aspects that will now require further study and implementation.

9 of 11 people found this review helpful

Mind blown

Well, I thought my business was doing well. Now I have my work cutout for me. Desire to learn and a bias for action.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Literally Useless | No Way 5 Star Reviews are real

What disappointed you about Scaling Up?

This book is literally Useless. It has no meat. No real advice. It's filled with a string of unconnected thoughts, thin metaphors and anecdotal stories that barely scratch the surface of any real business issue. It's filled with useless phrases like "the first rule of money management is don't run out of money" and then it moves on to a completely separate thought like "business is like climbing everest...". It feels like it was written by a high school student. It's SOOO Bad.

What could Verne Harnish have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

I wish he had done some first hand research, and/or had some first hand experience in business. It sounds like he's just regurgitating things he's heard from amateur entrepreneurs.

What aspect of Spencer Cannon’s performance would you have changed?

Performance was fine, content was mind-numbingly awful

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The first 3 chapters were literally Useless. The rest of the book was maybe 90% useless (if I'm totally honest)

Any additional comments?

Normally the reviews you find on audible are fairly reliable, but there is literally no possible way that the 5 Star Reviews on this book are real. They have to be faked becuase this book is seriously useless. The only way those 5 Star Reviews could be real is if they all came from people who have zero actual experience running a business and instead they thrive on pep-talks and spend their days dreaming about "one day I'll start a business..." but if you want real help scaling up a business, stay away from this book, you'll find nothing useful here.

50 of 68 people found this review helpful

Might be good, can't get past naration

Would you try another book from Verne Harnish and/or Spencer Cannon?

Sure, as long as there is a different narator

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

Couldn't get past the naration

How could the performance have been better?

Hiring a human to narrate the book.

Did Scaling Up inspire you to do anything?

Write this review

Any additional comments?

The narrator has this weird cadence, he starts low, goes high, then goes low again, long pause at each period, than starts again on the next sentence. The whole thing feels like he is reading a bullet point list, it is very taxing to listen to.

16 of 24 people found this review helpful

The information is good, but it's wrapped with so

It's wrapped with so much sales pitch that almost every two minutes you feel like stopping.
Good intention, awful execution, this book could have been so much better had they not made into a huge sales pitch.

8 of 12 people found this review helpful

great but fast.

The subject info and stories are amazing yet the narrator too fast and is telling the story like a robot

6 of 9 people found this review helpful