Question: Who is the intended audience?
Answer: Small Business Owners

Q: What is the book about?
A: As a business coach, after 3,000 live one-on-one sessions, I found many commonalities in the mistakes business owner’s make to limit their success. I spent the last 4 year formulating these lessons into The 51 Fatal Business Errors. Each error contains a detailed description of the error, a real-world example (after all, business owners learn from stories), and the recommended solution. Unlike many theory-filled books, 51 Errors focuses on meaningful action needed to take a business to the “next level.”

Q: Why are you the best person to write this book?
A: I have made every one of these errors myself because I too am a businessperson. Every day, I help clients improve their lives and their profitability from the lessons learned and explained in this book.

Q: How is this book different from other books on this topic?
A: Most business books are full of theories. Theories may be great cocktail party banter, but small business owners are action-oriented. They like the theory as much as anyone, but they want more. They want the “then what?” Each of the 51 errors contains an action step so the businessperson can easily but it into action.

Q: Is there anything else we should know about this book?
A: For over twenty-five years, I have seen entrepreneurs, including myself; learn the only way they knew how: from the School of Hard Knocks. Let’s face it, business is not learned in school or at an MBA course. Business is learned by doing, from the School of Hard Knocks. The frustrating part is that the School of Hard Knocks is expensive and slow. Entrepreneurial CEOs have no patience for either. I have written The 51 Fatal Business Errors to help you learn some of the lessons from the School of Hard Knocks the easy way instead of the hard way.

Most business books are like gym memberships, lots of initial enthusiasm and not much meaningful action. These books are great in theory, but useless unless put into practice. We all “know” we need to exercise. I do not want to be another business person selling you on the benefits of a health club membership. Done right, a business book should energize you AND leave you with tangible action items to make your business better. Done wrong, it is nothing more than theoretical generalities that get you “juiced up” but have no real impact on you or your business.

The purpose of this book is to debate whether or not to go to the health club, but what to DO when you walk in the door. I want to move past the temporary excitement of a new idea and into permanent gain created by making meaningful, lasting changes. My goal in this book is to give you specific tools for using “the gym equipment” thereby empowering you to get your business in good shape. I want to energize you about the boundless possibilities of your business while giving you practical action steps to move forward to the next level.

This book is designed to be used as a reference that you can come back to repeatedly as new issues arise in your business that need “toning.” The 51 Fatal Business Errors fall into four categories: Myth-Busters, Improving your personal effectiveness, Using best practices, and Mule-kicks.

As you can probably guess, with a name like Muehlhausen, my nickname as a kid was “Mule”. In my current career as a business coach and writer, I found myself giving clients a few kicks in the butt. Combine the two and you have a Mule-kick. I will give you many Mule-kicks in this book. I don’t give a Mule-kick out of mean-spiritedness, ego, or humor. I will give you a Mule-kick out of compassion, empathy (I have been-there-done that), and desire to see you succeed. To me, watching a CEO fall short of their full potential is far “meaner” than giving them a Mule-kick. A Mule-kick is designed to give you the little nudge you need to change your mode of operation, change your perspective, or simply do that uncomfortable task.

Each individual error is divided into sections highlighting each problem area beginning with a description of the “error,” followed by a real life example and concluding with a concrete solution. All of the stories in this book are real-life examples. Many of the errors contain a bonus. These bonuses are available for free on my website for download. The names and circumstances in the book have been changed for illustration purposes.

Question: Who is the intended audience?
Answer: Business owners, executives, managers, attorneys, and auditors.

Q: What is the book about?
A: In order to effectively fight fraud, it is important to understand who commits fraud, why they do it, how they do it, and how it affects the company as a whole. Essentials of Corporate Fraud is more than a primer on fraud detection and prevention. It is a real-world look at how fraud occurs from an expert who has investigated hundreds of internal frauds, including embezzlement, financial statement fraud, investment fraud, bribery, and corruption.

Q: Why are you the best person to write this book?
A: My depth of experience investigating fraud makes me uniquely qualified to write this book. I’ve taken the knowledge I’ve gathered from fraud schemes perpetrated by a variety of white collar criminals, and used it to give readers a practical look at how fraud occurs and what they can do about it. Who better to instruct them on detecting and preventing fraud than someone who digs into the details of corporate fraud daily?

Q: How is this book different from other books on this topic?
A: This book is much more practical than other fraud books on the market. It’s an easy read, enhanced with discussions of real-world fraud cases and sidebars highlighting key concepts. The information can be digested quickly so the reader can put the knowledge to use right away.

Q: Is there anything else we should know about this book?
A: A couple of comments from readers of the book:

“The only thing better than Tracy Coenen’s skills as a forensic accountant and fraud investigator is her ability to reduce her real life experiences to writing. Tracy stands out as the only one who has ever been able to make the boring, dry subject of accounting fraud both entertaining and informative. She actually provides the reader who may possess little knowledge of the subject with a literal “how to uncover” fraud methodology. In short, Tracy Coenen is ZZZZ Best fraud investigator.”

Barry Minkow
Co-Founder of Fraud Discovery Institute

“Essentials of Corporate Fraud is unique among fraud books in that it provides decision-makers who aren’t fraud experts with exactly the kind of “brass tacks” knowledge they need to meaningfully reduce their organizations’ vulnerability to such crimes as embezzlement, fraudulent financial reporting, bribery, corruption and collusion. No fancy financial or accounting language. No convoluted theorizing about why fraud happens. Just well-founded actionable insight and advice on how to detect, prevent and investigate fraud—from someone who’s been helping organizations protect themselves against white-collar crime for many years.”

Peter Goldmann
Editor and Publisher, White-Collar Crime Fighter newsletter