A book by Bruce Judson, from 2004, freely available on the web ( http://www.brucejudson.com ), that talks about how to start small companies that are not necessarily small in revenues.
When talking and thinking about start-ups (especially in high-tech) it is quite common to assume that large venture capital investments into the company and fast increase in the number of employees are very positive indicators of company's success. However, this book describes an inverted alternative:
- The business is started with a minimal investment, and the founder or founders retain full ownership and control of the enterprise.
- The business is run entirely by a small number of people, generally from one to six.
- The founder does not set out to create a small business. He or she is working from the premise that the business has unlimited revenue potential.
The third point is what distinguishes this approach the most from the common abundant solo entrepreneurs and tiny companies -- in modern world a company that is small by employee count can nevertheless be large by market share (in its specific niche) and cash flow. The main method of achieving it is extreme outsourcing (not to be confused with offshoring) where the majority of company's business activities are conducted externally. This allows the entrepreneur to concentrate on those key areas s/he can do best (and enjoys most) while all the rest is handled cost efficiently by various service providers, preferably using customizable off-the-shelf solutions instead of special orders.
Over time I have skimmed quite a few writings about creating (tech) start-ups (for example, I keep an eye on Paul Graham's essays http://paulgraham.com/articles.html that, at least from the perspective of a computer programmer, are quite a fun reading), but so far it is the "Go It Alone!" that seems to have had the strongest effect on lowering my psychological threshold of starting a company.
The book is available at http://www.brucejudson.com .