Thinking about reading Choose: The Single Most Importance Decision Before Starting Your Business by Ryan Levesque but want to know a bit more about the book before buying a copy for yourself?

If so, you are in the right place as I’ll be sharing a bit about what you can expect to find inside and sharing some of my own thoughts to help you decide whether it is the right book for you.

 

This page includes affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I may earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you.

 

People are starting new businesses every day and even more people want to start their own business. Everyone starts a business dreaming of success, but that isn’t the reality for everyone. With that in mind, Ryan wants to help you to make the right decisions for your business from the very beginning. Ryan believes that “if you choose the wrong market, your business is destined to fail before you even begin” and through Choose he wants to show you how to choose the right market.

 

Choose is broken down into 3 stages and there are 9 steps altogether.

STAGE 1: BRAINSTORM

Step 1: Model Brainstorm
Step 2: Market Brainstorm
Step 3: Business Idea Brainstorm

STAGE 2: TEST

Step 4: Bullseye Keyword
Step 5: Market Size Sweet Spot
Step 6: Market Competition Sweet Spot
Step 7: Market Must-Haves

STAGE 3: CHOOSE

Step 8: Choose Your Market
Step 9: The Final Step to Launch

 

STAGE 1: BRAINSTORM

In Stage 1 the focus in coming up with ideas through brainstorming. Ryan walks you through the different things you should be thinking about: model, market and business idea. Ryan makes it very clear that he believes “there is one business model that rises above all others, and it’s this: education and expertise”. His love of businesses that revolve around education and expertise sets the context for the rest of the book. However, even within the business model of education and expertise there are so many products and services you could offer. To help you narrow down your offering even further Ryan has created a Product Grid, which helps to group offerings and then work out what is best for you whilst considering your personality.

 

Ryan is really keen on having you concentrate on you and after deciding what to sell he also encourages you to work out what type of entrepreneur you are. According to Ryan there are 4 types of entrepreneur:

• Mission based
• Passion based
• Opportunity based
• Undecided

Finally, towards the end of Stage 1, it is time to start brainstorming exactly what topics your business should focus on.

 

STAGE 2: TEST

Now that you have some business ideas it is time to start checking the viability of those ideas. Ryan is a big believer in trying to find out quickly what will and won’t work. Over years of building his own businesses, he believes he has found ways to be able to quickly analyse, by using a few online resources, whether the market size is the right size and whether there is the right amount of competition in the space. Through following the steps outlined in the book you can quickly be able to refine your list of options and feel confident. Then at the end of this stage, Ryan presents you with five Market Must-Haves which “are the key attributes that your market must have in order for you to be confident that your potential business idea can truly be profitable”.

 

STAGE 3: CHOOSE

By now you should have come up with lots of ideas and then been able to refine that list to have maybe one, or maybe more, potentially profitable business ideas. Now it is time to choose. There will always be an element of risk in business, but hopefully having gone through the brainstorm and test stage you should be confident when you are choosing the idea to go forward with that not only is it something you can do, but it is something that can actually work.

Then once you have chosen you are ready to launch. This part of the book connects to his ASK Method, which is written about in great detail in Ryan’s first book ASK. However, for the purpose of this book, he quickly goes over the concept in order to help you get moving.  

FINAL THOUGHTS FROM CHARELLE

Overall I really enjoyed this book. Firstly this book is written for people who have businesses in the education and expertise space so it was made for someone like me. However, what I really loved was how practical Ryan was. In STAGE 2: TEST I absolutely loved how he showed you step by step how to gauge online whether your idea was specific enough and if the market size was right to ensure you could start a business in that space specifically. I also absolutely loved Ryan’s quadrants. The product quadrant instantly summed up so many conversations I have with other business owners and clients.

I loved this book so much that I ordered ASK and can’t wait to read that too.

(Update: I ordered ASK, read the book and then reviewed it here)

WHO WOULD I RECOMMEND READS CHOOSE BY RYAN LEVESQUE

If you currently have, or would like, a business that sits in the education and / or expertise realm then this would be a good book for you. Ryan makes it clear that his favourite business model is business that are based on education and expertise and therefore the book is best suited to those who have that type of model. I think if you already have a business that isn’t performing to the level you would like this book might help you to pivot successfully.

 

If you like the sound of you Choose: The Single Most Important Decision When Starting Your Business you can buy a copy for yourself by clicking here.

     

CHECK OUT MORE BUSINESS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP BOOK REVIEWS