No Man's Land: What to Do When Your Company Is Too Big to Be Small but TooSmall to Be Big

About this book

“I travel the country speaking about No Man’s Land to entrepreneurs and business leaders. Wherever I go, I get the same response. Listeners approach me with sadness in their eyes and say, ‘Doug, if only I had known about No Man’s Land when I was running my company, we might still be in business.’”—Doug Tatum If starting a company is difficult, leading a company once the business has caught fire is infinitely more so. Thousands each year approach the dangerous transition that Doug Tatum calls No Man’s Land—when they are too big to be considered small but still too small to be considered big. Rapid growth is every entrepreneur’s dream, but it never comes easily and is usually rife with dilemmas. During No Man’s Land, as in human adolescence, such growth should spark self- discovery, acquired discipline, and positive but difficult transition. Unfortunately, it often becomes an agonizing battle between the natural tendencies of a lonely entrepreneur and certain immutable laws of growth. The result is confusion, frustration, stagnation, loss of employee morale, and, at worst, financial failure. Sounds pretty bleak. The good news is that Doug Tatum knows exactly what it takes to get through No Man’s Land: a map, a high place from which to orient yourself, and navigational rules to help you track your progress. And these tools are here in this book. Through case studies and stories of successes and failures, No Man’s Land will help you learn how to: * Align your growing company with its market. * Execute the necessary changes in your management. * Confirm that your financial model is scalable. * Attract money and make smart decisions about financing your business. If you’re an entrepreneur, this book will help you make your company all it can be and all you want it to be. It will prepare you for a ride that just might be wilder than you ever imagined.