This excellent book is among my personal collection of selected books written by Jeffry Timmons, who is internationally renowned and respected in the field of entrepreneurship education and research. It follows Timmons' earlier book, The Entrepreneurial Mind, which I had already reviewed. In some way, it is linked to also Timmons' earlier (now revised/expanded for the 21st Century) pioneering book, New Venture Creation.

What I like about this book is that it helps you to understand the critical difference between 'idea' and 'opportunity', and also how to evaluate each and pursue them. It has a focus on execution as opposed to just having ideas.

For an entrepreneur wannabe, a clear understanding of the distinctions between an 'idea' and an 'opportunity' can make or break the business or project success. As the saying goes, Clarity is Power!

In a nutshell, it helps you to answer many crucial questions at the onset, prior to embarking on your venture, for example:

- what is a good opportunity?
- why do a selected few opportunities inherently have much greater upside potential than all the rest?
- why and how do winning entrepreneurs often find the best opportunities?
- how can you find such opportunities? or create one?
- would you recognise an opportunity when you see it?
- how can you determine whether the opportunity will last?
- is it the right opportunity for you?
- can you determine to what extent it will add or create value, and thereby actually fill a customer need?

All the chapters in the book are well organised and systematically structured for easy follow-up reading.

The core chapters, which I find very useful, are as follows:

Chapter 1: what is an idea?
Chapter 2: enhancing creativity (tickles your brain!);
Chapter 3: sources of new business ideas:
Chapter 4: recognising opportunities (wow!);
Chapter 5: sources for opportunity screening (wow!);
Chapter 7: opportunity screening guide ( a real gem!);
Chapter 8: using other peoples resources or OPR (very interesting insight!);

The opportunity screening guide illustrated in the book is a real gem. It can really help you to determine whether you want to continue your initial pursuit and develop a complete business plan.

The remaining chapters, chapter 13, 14, 15 16 and 17 show how the three essentials of venture creation: opportunities, people and resources come together to face the many difficulties, which arise for entrepreneurs. With these enlightening chapters covering entrepreneurs in action, this book is deeply rooted in real-world applications plus 20 years of classroom refinement by the author as an entrepreneurship educator/academic.

Best of all and on the whole, the book is very easy to read and follow. Timmons writes very concisely and succinctly.

I strongly recommend this book to all entrepreneur wannabes to read - and reflect - before you embark on your pursuit.

New Venture Creation is insightful, well-crafted, and content-rich. It's no surprise that MBAs swear by this hugely popular business school classic.

However, as a serial entrepreneur, I have mixed feelings about the actual utility of Timmon's textbook. On one hand, it presents a fairly accurate description of the entrepreneurial process. Timmon's commentary covers: recognizing an opportunity... to sizing the market... to securing risk capital... to ultimately harvesting the venture. Timmon's also addresses the critical risks and challenges that entrepreneurs face along the way.

So to be clear, New Venture Creation is definitely more useful than all those "How to Write a Business Plan" books.

On the other hand, none of Timmon's text was particularly meaningful to me until I had started my _second_ venture. Put another way, New Venture Creation (by itself) is not instructional. It lacks sufficient case study, testimonial, and all those great "war stories."

Therefore, New Venture Creation is a helpful resource but not a practical guidebook.

This is *the* book for entrepreneurs, covering everything from evaluating new business ideas to writing complete business plans. This book is well-written and informative, and it combines solid examples with detailed exercises. I was first exposed to this book in an Entrepreneurship class at the University of Maryland, and I've used it several times since. (Thank you, Dr. Bob Baum.)

Absolutely imperative for any entrepreneur looking to start a high potential business. Buy this book.

If you are an entrepreneur, don't buy this 1998 edition, buy the 1995 version. This new edition is basically just a text book with cases and questions. It would be great for an MBA class but not someone who wanted to start their own business. The 1995 version of this book, also sold on Amazon, is fantastic for entrepreneurs. It has over 700 pages of information, worksheets and examples. Do yourself a favor, buy the older version.

Like the previous reviewer, I too purchased the 4th Edition of this text (paperback), and was extremely pleased. Before starting my current business, I consulted extensively with this text, and was pleased with its comprehensive, practical nature - covering everything from a personality assessment of one's readiness for self-employment, to exhaustive preparation information for a business plan. The book also extensively covers financing an entrepreneurial venture, comparing both debt and equity (including Venture Capital) methodologies.

On a practical note, I also like the fact that all the pages are perforated...there have been several that I have taken out and used hands-on!

I cannot comment on the relative worth of this version vs. the newer version, as I only have the 4th edition.

Very quick delivery. Book had some marks, but excellent condition. Would recommend strongly if you want the book right away.

In the course of designing and developing an entrepreneurship program for kids, and also expanding further my working knowledge on opportunity creation, I surfed through several online bookstores, including www.amazon.com to scout and pursue good books on entrepreneurship and new venture creation. I perused practically every book review in this genre, and I managed to narrow down my selections to a handful of highly respected authors. Jeffry Timmons is one of them, and I bought practically all the books that have been written by him.

In the case of Jeffrey Timmons, who is internationally renowned for his pioneering research work in new ventures, venture capital, venture financing and entrepreneurship, he is also a well respected academic.

This is my first entrepreneurship book by the author.

This book addresses what makes winning entrepreneurs strategise -think, plan and act - in the marketplace. Although it was written in the late 1980s, it still offers a tremendous wealth of information. It also addresses what they do and avoid doing to get the odds of success in their favour. It also focuses on the founders of new ventures as well as entrepreneurial managers, and provides many interesting answers that help to unlock the mystery - and mythology - of entrepreneurship.

Stretched over 187 pages, this book is really an insightful study of entrepreneurs, be they budding or mature, particularly from the standpoint of opportunity/new venture creation.

I rate this book with only four stars because when I compare it with Rita Gunther McGrath & Ian MacMillan's 'The Entrepreneurial Mindset,' the latter enjoys a much greater edge, in terms of the depth and breadth of coverage. The latter is quite a scholarly work and is also stretched over 380 pages.

In some way, because of its size, I feel this book can be excellent preamble to 'The Entrepreneurial Mindset.' If you seriously want to know how winning entrepreneurs strategise, read both books - and start with this one first!

O.K. Standard HBS fare, many pages of text and charts devoted to simple concept

Dense read. Definitely not a book you can "skip" through. However, after having read many books on VC, I can easily say this is the best historical overview (up to 1991) of the US VC industry I know. A must-read if you're serious about understanding the VC industry, its past mistakes, and where it's going.