Career Press was kind enough to supply me with a review copy of Ebong Eka’s new book, Start Me Up! The No-Business-Plan Business Plan, a book that I can highly recommend to anybody about to enter the exciting but challenging world of owning a business. The author is a CPA who has built a successful small-business consulting and technology toolkit over the last 12 years after working with several of the world’s largest professional services firms. His book is full of solid advice that comes with many examples that bring to life the situations you are apt to find yourself in when starting a new business venture.

Eka identifies four major pitfalls that are the cause of most new business failures: a complicated business model, a poor revenue model, poor marketing and branding, and a lack of customer acquisition. He encourages you to master what he calls the Four S’s: structure, strategy, systems, and sales. All of this is written in a clear, jargon-free style that even the most inexperienced entrepreneur can easily comprehend and benefit from.

It is very clear from the numerous stories that Eka shares that he has been there/done that with his small business clients. So instead of some airy academic treatise, this is a book that is very grounded in the actual experiences – both good and bad – of real small business owners. I especially liked his advice on how to evaluate business ideas. Far too many would-be small business owners jump into the deep end of the pool without thoroughly researching and refining their business concept. The inevitable results is failure.

The book ends with chapters devoted to helping you get off the ground with the key social media sites that are such an important part of marketing a small business these days. These chapters alone will be worth the price of admission to many readers.

Start Me Up! is available through Amazon.com or through BarnesandNoble.com.