Business Development For Dummies Paperback – April 20, 2015

I proudly consider myself a "Dummy" so it's natural for me to be attracted to a book for me! I'm not however a proud business person and the idea of reading about Business Development is about as far from my desires as learning to play ice hockey.All that said, I am a first time author's coach for my living AND my clients often need me to be at least conversant in a topic, like, er, Business Development. Enter Business Development for Dummies to the rescue!!!Anna Kennedy has not only managed to write Business Development for Dummies skillfully and thoroughly, she managed to excite my business development side into, "Hey, I COULD be good at this development stuff, myself!" That is quite an accomplishment.My background as a writer is journalism. My best editor ever, gave me a tip: "If you ever need to get up to speed with a topic you are clueless about, go to the children's section and see what they have." I followed that advice for years; Nuclear fission? No problem. The kids have a book that explains it simply and succinctly! The kids section did not have a Business Development Primer, but the Dummies series did!I am grateful for it. Kudos to Ms. Kennedy for making me understand and not only that, feel smart about her topic when I finished.

The book itself is great however, it was shipped in a padded envelope and the corners are damaged and bent which is a little frustrating on Amazon's part.

As an entrepreneur, having this book to use as a reference for my business, has proven to be a big help for its success. It is essentially an encyclopedia, no matter where you are in your business it gives you step by step instructions on how to plan for, and achieve your goals. The relationship between marketing and sales and how the cohesive effort of these departments are crucial to any business success has been especially eye opening and very helpful. It is something that I use as I go in my business and refer to the key elements throughout that I especially need help in. At first I thought I would need to read the whole book cover to cover right away and have found in going through each chapter as I have needed in the process has been even more helpful for me. It is a very easy read. You should see my book now with many post it tabs on my referenced pages and highlighted through out. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to see their business grow.

used this reference to get employees to stop mis-using terms & concepts that was otherwise confusing coworkers & business partners. very effective for correcting novices who get enamored of novel vocabulary. 'Dummies' books are often best references for newbies to business functions & concepts.

Great book and very well written

Just from reading chapter 2 I've already started thinking of how I am chasing customers that aren't a fit and being a "generalist" rather than a "specialist"This book is essential for any principal led professional services firm looking to grow. the basic concepts in this book of "being proactive vs reactive" combined with the practical tools to take steps to prioritize biz Dev activities into your daily habits and big picture ideas of how to think about biz dev make the concepts easy to understand and apply

Big fan of the Dummies series, however I found this book a little scrambled. Def., there are decent tidbits here, but overall, the flow wasn't very good and the sections lacked depth. Where is the sales plan? Where is a business plan template?

Good information