Jumpstart Your Business Brain

Jumpstart Your Business Brain has two main parts. The real stuff, the core, of this book is in the first part which is a detailed, interactive exploration of what the author calls the Three Laws of Marketing Physics. These laws, according to the author, govern the success - and failure - of a product, service or business in the marketplace, just like the Laws of Physics that govern the motion of objects.

I have implemented these laws in my own business and helped many dozens of small businesses implement theirs. I can say with certainty that they can "work" for almost all businesses. The trick, however, is in getting them to work for a specific business. That's why, I think these laws are not a perfect science, as suggested by Mr. Hall, but an imperfect science, like medicine and statistical analysis. I want to emphasize, however, that I have seen many businesses struggle unnecessarily for the simple reason that their owners are not aware of these laws at work.

The second part, Laws of Capitalist Creativity, provides strategies and techniques to effectively implement the three laws outlined in the first part. It's meant to loosen up the creative side of the brain and help apply the Laws to a particular business, product or idea. However, I found that this section fell short of achieving that objective. Please refer to section The Missing Element for my reasons for this conclusion.

The first part of this book is ground-breaking enough, however, that I think every business owner would benefit from reading and, more importantly, digesting the core principles in this book.

3.5 stars out of 5.

While a terrific read with great ideas, Jumpstart Your Business Brain is a theoretical model, an intellectual framework that remains just that until a business customizes it for its use. There are many challenges that present themselves as a business begins to implement the ideas presented in this book.

The first is that it's an inside-out model of marketing development, as opposed to the outside-in model taught in MBA schools and marketing degrees. In the outside-in model, a business would carry out a research or a study in the market, find a problem to solve or a need to fill and then develop a product or a service to solve that problem or serve that need.

In the inside-out model presented in this book, the first task is for the business owner and her team to find out what their strengths and weaknesses are, both collectively and individually, and then develop their marketing approach, including the target market. For most people I have worked with, this does not come naturally as it goes against everything that they have been taught and have been practicing for years. That's why, further tools, processes and help are needed before a business owner can practically implement all the ideas presented in this work.

The second part of this book is an attempt to provide methods and tools to loosen up creativity and handle the fears that come up as we try to come up with ideas in working with the three laws of marketing physics. In my experience, these tools are not adequate for most business owners.

What is required instead is a safe, interactive place where the business owner can work through, sometimes talk through, the Laws of Marketing Physics, and deal with the emotional blockages that come up. While such "business brain workout sessions" don't have to be a therapy, they do need to adequately handle these blockages, which often become roadblocks and can derail the marketing efforts of the business.

Additionally, in my experience, most businesses and their owners need something crucial that the book does not adequately address. Most businesses need to find an answer to a very basic question that they seem to take for granted. This question is: What business am I in? The longer they have been in business, the more they think they know the answer and the more they resist answering it for a simple reason: they have forgotten the answer. This exploration needs to be addressed before implementing the Laws of Marketing Physics.