The Beermat Entrepreneurbecame an instant bestseller on publication in 2002. In 5 years the first and second editions have sold over 50,000 copies and it has helped tens of thousands of people thinking about starting a business to understand how to turn a good idea into a great business. First edition sold 34,774 copies in 3 years, the second edition has sold 15,318 copies in 2.5 years. Mike Southon is a professional speaker, with hundreds of speaking gigs around the Beermat theme every year. In the three years since The Beermat Entrepreneurwas originally published, Mike Southon and Chris West have met literally thousands of people at every stage of starting up, from thinking about it through to growing businesses. The experiences and feedback of these people have overwhelming supported the Beermat methodology. The business start up market was worth 2.3m in 2007 and it's still growing - statistics show that between 1 in 3 and 1 in 4 of us are thinking about a business idea and every year in the UK alone more than 400,000 people actually start a business. Benchmarks: Starting a Business for Dummies9780764570186 ranked 3rd with 7,886 units sold, Start Your Business week by week 9780273694472 ranked 5th with 5,602 units sold, Teach Yourself Setting Up a Small Business9780340928776 ranked 8th with 3,754 units sold (Small Business market, TCM Bookscan Full Year 2007).