The Cottage Smallholder

It’s not every day that someone introduces a brand new word into the English language.

‘Entrepreneur’ is French and the earliest records of it being used in the English language date from the early 1700s but there is not one single agreed definition of what it means exactly.

This is the 300 year old issue that businessman Harry J Mitchell set out to resolve for once and for all. He proposes a logical formula that measures somebody’s Time learning the ropes, their Experience at a specific activity that is relevant to a new business, the level of Risk the may (or have) taken and the amount of Capital they commit. That’s where the TERC comes from.

It’s a new approach to measuring risk in business start-ups.

So while you and I might refer to the famous names of business like Bill Gates (Microsoft) and Steve Jobs (Apple) as entrepreneurs, we could argue for hours as to which was the better at some point in their careers.

Harry’s formula comes up with rating numbers for an individual, either now or at any point in their business past from their very first venture. That means we can compare them and also we can rate ourselves before we jump into a new venture and invest our savings on maybe the wrong business when a far better fit might be just around the corner.

The whole thing makes perfect sense when you read it.

In fact, Harry started thinking about it when he saw how some good and capable people lost all their money when they attempted to start up a business. That’s how he came up with his solution.

Harry’s own beginnings as a young TERCster at age 12 make great reading. As do the analyses of seven famous TERCsters from the world of the Internet and Technology. They are not your standard biographies. Rather they assess each one under the headings of Time, Experience, Risk and Capital and follow their progress, how they leveraged their experience, took risks, invested their money and learned some lessons along the way. Lessons that anybody with a mind for starting their own business would do well to heed.

At only $4.95 it’s good value and a good read. It comes in three formats – mobi (for Kindle), PDF and epub

For a limited period starting on November 5 2014, Harry is offering to refund the cover price to readers who submit a decent review that may be published on Amazon or on Harry’s website TERCster.com