Millionaire Manager Journey

It's been quite a year. Several years really. Trying to get a publishing business started. It all started with a book, ended up with five books plus an e training course. Hard to keep up these days with demands from this new shrinking world that we live in.

Hi, my name is Joan Symonds. I am hoping that this blog will help many people. First, I would like to share with you the turmoil of being a publisher, what it takes, the people involved. Then I would like to share stories and articles with those of you who are currently division managers or small business owners struggling with financial statements. So let's begin.

I could not have come this far in our publishing today without the help of a whole lot of people. Printers, editors, indexers, e training experts, animators, web designers, sound studios...the list goes on and on.

It all seemed so simple when we first began to talk about publishing the work of my late husband, Curtis W. Symonds. Curt published four or five books with the American Management Association on the subject of finance, and was a featured speaker not only at AMA but around the world at universities and organizations during the l970's and early '80's.

Curt was one of those teachers who realized that the failure of our businesses today spoke directly to the fact that the financial reporting that was being done was outdated and had not been changed since the beginning of the industrial revolution. As one man, crying in the wilderness, Curt sought to change that thinking. His work was revolutionary, and through it he helped many businesses not only stay in business during sliding economic times, his simple techniques assisted many businesses in growing their profits up to 45% a year.

In discussing how we would approach the launch of these materials, my daughter, Carole Symonds, partner in one of the global financial consulting firms, picked up her pen and began a journey of her own, partnering a book with her late father.

When we saw what was happening in the economy, how corporations and small business owners were losing ground, it was a no-brainer that we needed to bring attention to Curt's Return on Invested Capital (ROIC) training begging to be published in a newer form. ROIC teachings are so needed today that I grabbed the reins and with the help of my family, I began with one book title, the Millionaire Manager. I could not, in my wildest imagination, envisioned what this business is becoming for us today.

Hard work? You bet.

We actually launched our first effort two years ago by way of an ad in a webzine. We were hoping to sell books to corporations to give to their managers to read. Immediately, with just a galley in our hands, we sold 200 copies to a Fortune 500 company for training their six sigma teams. They were excited about the book and so were we. We thought - well, this is easy. Managers love the book. We will sell these to companies to give to their managers to read on the plane, on the weekend, whatever.

Well, that was a big mistake. Quickly,we realized that HR trainers did not have time to read the book and corporations relied on e training to get the message through to their managers. So we brought everything to a screeching halt with the book(s) and turned our attention to e training.

We were very fortunate to elicit the assistance of two major Fortune 500 companies in test driving the training for us before we launched. We learned a lot. We are most grateful to the managers, both here stateside and overseas, who took the time to go through the course for us.

And now, we are ready to launch. Well, almost. We are working on a project that we will unveil to the world October lst. We hope you enjoy it. It was done just for all of you.

You should know that the profits earned from this venture are earmarked for a fund to feed hungry children around the world. We could think of no better way for children to be educated than to feed their bodies so their minds could follow.

More to come later on that. My phone is ringing. Time to go to work.