Built, Not Born: A Self-Made Billionaire's No-Nonsense Guide for Entrepreneurs

Get tested and proven advice on how to navigate risk and succeed in all phases of business ownership from a successful entrepreneur who turned a small startup into a billion-dollar company.

Self-made billionaire and Paychex founder Tom Golisano understands the fears, risks, and challenges small-business owners face every day. He has launched and grown his own highly successful business and mentored dozens of entrepreneurs, helping them build their own fruitful companies.

Golisano knows how nervous aspiring business owners are about the risks of entrepreneurship. Now, he's sharing the startup-to-exit secrets to success and how he turned $3,000 into $28 billion dollars.

Built, Not Born shows you:

• How going against the grain can be a great strategy for finding business opportunities and why it pays to question conventional wisdom.
• Why the pregnant pause can be an effective weapon in negotiations and when interviewing potential employees.
• Why a prenuptial or even a postnuptial agreement is critical to any business owner.
• What potential buyers and funding sources look for, and the best way to present a business plan.
• And finally, the key growth and leadership strategies that have helped Paychex sustain its incredible level of growth and profitability.

Built, Not Born provides a direct and practical approach on how to overcome everyday challenges. This essential handbook is a key resource for current and aspiring entrepreneurs on how to start, grow, and operate a successful business.

Mike Wicks is an award-winning author, collaborator, and senior writer at Kevin Anderson & Associates. He has managed several multimillion-dollar government programs, rebranded towns and regions, written economic development and tourism strategies, and created sponsorship programs for major not-for-profits. Wicks is also a well-regarded trainer, facilitator, and speaker whose clients have included national banks and multinational insurance corporations. Wicks has written and collaborated on over twenty books, e-books, and training manuals. Fire from the Sky: A Diary Over Japan won a silver medal for best military memoir of 2005, awarded by the Military Writers Society of America. He's a foodie, so when he's not writing he can be found in his kitchen preparing a gourmet meal.

Tom Golisano founded what is now Paychex with $3000 and built it to the current worth of $24 billion. Paychex now has more than 600,000 customers, and more than 12,000 employees working out of 100 locations. In fact, 1 in every 12 private-sector employees in America receives their paycheck from Paychex. Golisano has been challenging the status quo for a long time--and not only in the world of business. In 1991, he co-founded a political party called the Independence Party, and ran three times for Governor of New York. Tens of millions of people know of him because of this, many of whom have no special interest in business but who appreciate his championing getting things done more intelligently and effectively. He bought the bankrupt and losing Buffalo Sabres hockey team in 2003 and turned around the franchise, both in terms of financial health and by transforming them into a winning team. He is a frequent guest on Fox, CNN, and other news channel broadcasts.