Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Now in paperback - Start It Up by Luke Johnson, 2012's most inspiring guide to running your own business.
Running your own business is nowhere near as tough as you might think. So what are you waiting for?
Luke Johnson is Britain's busiest tycoon, with a personal fortune estimated at e120 million. From Pizza Express and Channel 4 to his incisive Financial Times column, Johnson has spent two decades on the business frontline.
In Start It Up , Johnson sets out to inspire - and guide - every budding entrepreneur. He tackles the issues that really matter- finding the right idea, sourcing funds, and getting the best from the people you meet on the way - chiefly yourself.
'A must-read for inspiring entrepreneurs, probably the best book available on the subject' John McLaren , Management Today
'Part rant, part outpouring of useful knowledge gleaned from 20 very successful years in business. There is a great deal here that is good' Richard Reed, co-founder of Innocent Drinks, Financial Times
'For the budding entrepreneur, this clear, thoughtful and passionate how-to guide will be an excellent first investment' Economist
Luke Johnson is one of Britain's most successful entrepreneurs with an estimated personal fortune of e120 million. He is Chairman of Risk Capital Partners and The Royal Society of Arts, and a former Chairman of Channel 4 Television. He writes columns for the Financial Times and Management Today . In the 1990s he was Chairman of PizzaExpress, which he grew from 12 restaurants to over 250; he also founded the Strada pizzeria chain and owns Giraffe and Patisserie Valerie. He lives in London and is married with three children.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Preface (p. xiii)
• Part 1 Beginnings
• A few failures first (p. 3)
• Ambition - the stuff of life (p. 9)
• Stop making excuses and get started (p. 12)
• Start-ups with a dash of going concern (p. 14)
• The correct use of optimism (p. 19)
• The true value of ideas (p. 22)
• Saying it v. doing it (p. 26)
• What's in a name? (p. 27)
• Is this a good time to start a business? (p. 31)
• To the recent graduate (p. 34)
• Part 2 People
• Age and the founder (p. 41)
• Time, energy and ideas (p. 45)
• Poor children of the rich and successful (p. 49)
• Joys and perils of a partnership (p. 52)
• Networking (p. 57)
• Cliques and clubs - the ties that bind (p. 58)
• Mentoring (p. 60)
• The founder's passion (p. 62)
• Bottom-up management (p. 65)
• An end to pygmy bosses and grey leaders (p. 68)
• Coping with talent (p. 72)
• Trouble within (p. 74)
• Private-life drama (p. 77)
• The necessary evil of HR (p. 79)
• Part 3 Points of Style
• Bring back the Renaissance men (p. 85)
• There always will be blood (p. 87)
• Fatherhood and the entrepreneur (p. 90)
• Some day my prince will come (home early) (p. 92)
• The delights of the portfolio career (p. 95)
• The mythical entrepreneur (p. 98)
• Ritualism in business (p. 101)
• Made not born (p. 103)
• The brogue element (p. 107)
• Part 4 The Capital Pursuit
• Tales of the Money Riverbank (p. 113)
• Moonlighting: the best launch for a start-up (p. 114)
• Summoning an angel (p. 119)
• Venture capitalists: on another wavelength (p. 125)
• Banks (p. 126)
• Secondary sources of money (p. 127)
• A word about dumb money (p. 129)
• Part 5 Formulas
• The trouble with trying to spot a winner (p. 135)
• Five questions I ask myself before investing (p. 138)
• Business plans (p. 142)
• A list of don'ts (p. 145)
• A spell in service (p. 149)
• By the staff, for the staff (p. 154)
• Independents will always have their day (p. 157)
• Franchises - the worst of all worlds (p. 160)
• Part 6 The Cycle
• Turnaround and creative destruction (p. 165)
• The cycle as told by restaurants (p. 168)
• Managing in a downturn (p. 172)
• Faustian pact of a guarantee (p. 177)
• A sense of dread ails the opinion-makers (p. 180)
• The consumer's new mantra is value (p. 183)
• X & Y in a downturn (p. 187)
• Dishonest dealings (p. 190)
• Watch out for an epidemic of petty fraud (p. 193)
• Time to go on the offensive (p. 194)
• Hard times reveal the true opportunists (p. 196)
• Losing your reputation (p. 199)
• Getting fired (p. 202)
• Part 7 The Entrepreneur at Large
• Inventors are heroes (p. 213)
• Women inventors (p. 216)
• Innovation and reality (p. 218)
• All part of a good education (p. 227)
• The reputation of business (p. 229)
• What's so terrible about making money? (p. 232)
• Stress and risk: the secrets of happiness (p. 234)
• A parlour game for the highly motivated (p. 236)
• Satisfying the soul (p. 239)
• Afterword to the paperback edition (p. 242)
• Acknowledgements (p. 245)
• Index (p. 247)