cover image Selling Sunshine: 75 Tips, Tools, and Tactics for Becoming a Wildly Successful Entrepreneur

Selling Sunshine: 75 Tips, Tools, and Tactics for Becoming a Wildly Successful Entrepreneur

Tony Hartl, Greenleaf (Greenleaf, dist.), $23.95 (219p) ISBN 978-1-60832-059-2

Going from poor Midwestern boy to sole owner of a highly successful tanning salon business, Hartl has lived a modern-day rags-to-riches story and is happy to share the secrets of his success in this well-organized, zippy book. Chapters begin by identifying what readers will learn and end by reminding them what they just learned; like any good motivational product, easy-to-remember tricks are employed to great effect. Chapters carry one-word titles beginning with P: People, Passion, Positivity, etc. Hartl often employs alliteration ("beware of clock-watchers, cave-dwellers, can-kickers") which, while occasionally corny, makes his points easy to grasp and remember. His liberal use of inspiring quotes from all walks of life is also effective, but it's his honest, straightforward approach to teaching that makes this book, his first, so appealing. Where many leaders offer platitudes like "Share what you know," leaving readers nodding vaguely, Hartl uses his own company, Planet Tan, as an illustrative example that will make readers want to actually implement something. The author is a big fan of mentors—both virtual and real—and is unabashedly proud to emphasize the "old-fashioned values" that helped him build his brand. He may be boastful but he's hard not to like. (Jan.)