Life’s tough. It’s tougher if you’re stupid.” – John Wayne, Western film icon

The opening line of Josh Kaufman’s latest book, The Personal MBA, says it all, and it’s entirely relevant to entrepreneurship: creating your own business is very difficult, but trying to do it without the right tools is nigh impossible.

Yet Kaufman argues that you shouldn’t spend thousands and thousands on going to grad school. Forget that MBA, just focus on what you actually need to know. 

The good news is that most of the fundamentals are covered in Kaufman’s The Personal MBA, which will only set you back £12.99 (or a bargain-priced £7.24 on Amazon.co.uk… wow!).

He promises that The Personal MBA will leave you knowing how businesses actually work; how to start a new business; how to improve an existing business; and how to use business-related skills to accomplish your personal goals.

The book is split into 12 chapters, which are then divided into smaller, easy-to-read sections. 

Kaufman starts by covering the basics of marketing, sales and finance, and then continues with some more MBA-type material, such as using systems to improve your business. An extra advantage: each section is easily sharable with others, via the Personal MBA website.

The Personal MBA has received some strong buy-in from the likes of Seth Godin (Purple Cow) and David Allen (Getting Things Done) amongst others, and is well on its way of becoming a business classic. You’re pretty much guaranteed to get your money’s worth – if not much, much more.

But don’t take our word for it: the book’s publisher, Portfolio Penguin, has made an extract available for free here.

And if you’re extra eager to get your hands on it, we’ve got three copies of the book to give away to Real Business readers. Just email us with your details and we’ll enter you into the draw next week.

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