NEW REVIEW! "International entrepreneurship is a tough and nasty game! You learn it by getting kicked in the teeth, by failing, by jumping back in, building on your goofs, and winning in the end!!!!!!!!! This is a great book, written in an unorthodox, fascinating style that will give the novice beginner to the game a real insight into how the game is played - like it or not!!!!! Read it! Seek out, contemplate, then massage the lessons taught, in your mind! Bury your mind in this book and you will find tons of action oriented take-away learning points that will save you tons of grief, money and time!!!!!!!!!!! The truth about the game is in this book!!! Part of the fun of the book is the reading and discovering the lessons!!!" Dr. Fred Kiesner Professor LMU Entrepreneurship Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles JAPAN.co.jp is meant to evoke emotion and discussion by readers. The path and decisions of Bradley Bartz have been studied, trashed, praised and are now a part of Japanese business history. JAPAN.co.jp is an introspective piece into my years starting many businesses in Japan. The stories have many bright and strong characters that I hope to expand on in this and future works. I raised over 10 million dollars from New York Hedge funds for my businesses in Japan. This work documents how I founded and grew our venture business to that funding table. You will also learn to ask for the order. The reader is also blessed with some trade secrets that I have refused to teach others. Until now. For salespeople and leaders Chapter 2 has enough power that you will change peoples lives. I know some of you will try my tools and I encourage that. I do ask that everyone be careful with the tools and sales tricks that I expose. Practice makes perfect. If you get caught using my secrets your client will excommunicate you. I digress. This book chronicles landing in Japan in 1989 and the immediate efforts to establish a venture business in Japan. The historical press record of my adventures is also featured so the reader can have reference points to the story that is told. Three Universities have done multiple case studies on Brad Bartz and my business creations. That includes Keio University Graduate School of Business, University of Georgia at Auburn and my alma mater of Loyola Marymount University. These are the ones that I know of. I also know that many former employees wrote thesis papers. JAPAN.co.jp has been a personal hell to write. The many stops and starts of the drafts litter my hard drives and paper notebooks. The anger expressed in those early notes were just too much to allow to be printed. I just celebrated my 25th anniversary of landing in japan. This has mellowed my views and memories considerably. I hope that the story told remains faithful and that you as the reader can hold on for the roller coaster ride. Japan is my mistress, my muse. The streets of Tokyo are my hometown and I can wander with complete safety and freedom of care. This wonderful city is filled with many people, but as a gaijin it is the smallest city in the world. I hope Tokyo old timers will relish the old years as I tell of a time when Gaijins were still special in Japan. For example, from 1989 to 1992 any direction that I would walk in I had a space bubble. The Japanese would literally part like the red sea so I could pass by untouched. Sushi bars offered free drink and eats just by sitting down and not speaking Japanese. Funny thing happened. 99% of the Japanese consumer do not get to see the gold and pearls of the Japanese village. I joined hands with them and forgot that big companies even existed. My love of Japan is the most strong for my customers. I have always been treated great and I do consider many Japanese customers my patrons. These customers just continue to support our activities in Japan and their spirit is what makes it so special for me.
About the Author: Bradley Bartz is a veteran entrepreneur who has founded many companies over the past 30 years. Mr. Bartz is the Founder & CEO of ABC Solar Inc, one of California's leading DG solar businesses. Founded in 2000, ABC Solar focuses on residential and commercial grid-tied solar systems (www.ABCsolar.com). Prior to ABC Solar, Mr Bartz lived in Japan from 1989 to 2000, where he founded the Internet Access Center K.K. (IAC) in Tokyo in 1991. IAC started and sold several businesses including an Internet service provider business, Japan Auto Abstracts, Tokyo Journal Magazine, Japan Press Network and the almost one-million users at JMail, a free email provider across a set of vanity .co.jp domain names. The first corporate venture of Mr. Bartz was Telemarketing Visions Institute, Inc., a 501(c)(3) not-for- profit that he founded in 1986 to teach blind people how to sell on the telephone. Mr. Bartz successfully placed his blind students in companies like IBM. IBM donated talking computers to TVI in 1986 which gave Mr. Bartz the foundation for his Japanese Internet ventures. Mr. Bartz also taught blind people in Japan these telemarketing skills. In 2012, in the wake of the Fukushima energy disaster, Mr. Bartz moved back to Japan to establish ABC Solar Japan KK. Mr. Bartz's intimate knowledge of building businesses in Japan combined with solar industry expertise has allowed ABC Solar Japan KK to effectively access the fast growing renewable energy market; network of quality solar suppliers, EPC construction companies and projects. Mr. Bartz's know-how have enabled him to excel at finding, screening and securing Japanese Megasolar land sites with a focus on the solar resource, grid access, fatal flaws, and quality of the stakeholders. Mr. Bartz is married to a Japanese national and has two children, Bradley Jr. 21 and Marie 19. He spends most of the time between Tokyo and solar sites across Japan. He is graduate of Loyola Marymount University and is an active member of the local community via various school and community organizations. This is Mr. Bartz's second book. The third book is dramatic and stunning. I am writing that next. The first can be seen at http: //startup.japan.co.jp. Please feel free to contact Brad at anytime for any reason. My best email is Brad@Bartz.com. My business mind is not done yet. In fact, I feel like I am just getting started.