By Sahar & Bobby Hashemi

Reviewed by Abbie Martin

‘Anyone Can Do It’ is an inspirational book for ‘anyone’ who dreams of starting their own business but don’t think they fit into the entrepreneurial mould.

I started reading ‘Anyone Can Do It’ from a youth hostel in Ireland and I was immediately inspired. I had been toying with the idea of starting my own business and was even at the stage of having pages of scribbled notes and ideas of my concept. But it wasn’t until I read ‘Anyone Can Do It’ that I really started to believe that my idea could become a reality.

Sahar and Bobby Hashemi are a brother and sister team who literally built ‘Coffee Republic’, the UK’s answer to Starbucks, from their kitchen table to a business with over 100 outlets in the UK.

Sahar and Bobby are real people who were willing to risk their careers to follow their dreams. They detail the steps they too, from the initial idea, coming up with a name and ordering their first espresso machine, to how they wrote their business plan and found investors willing to believe in them.

The book is dotted with real life examples, samples of their business plan and 57 ‘laws’ for starting and growing your own business. As Sahar and Bobby describe it, this book is ‘a real life case study’. It is a step-by-step account of how they did it and an approach that you can adopt to increase your success as an entrepreneur.

They go into the little details that are often missed in traditional small business guides. One example tells of Sahar’s adventures in New York as she secretly photographs coffee shops for ideas, consuming a record number of coffees and often being thrown out by suspicious staff.

Forget all the stories about Richard Branson and his crazy promotional stunts, or the criteria for being a ‘successful entrepreneur’ that is so often touted in the media. If you have an idea and are willing to take a risk, this book will show you that ‘Anyone Can Do It’ and give you bucket loads of inspiration to get you started!

About the Authors
Sahar and Bobby Hashemi are a brother and sister team from the UK who established Coffee Republic. Eight years later they are two of the UK's most successful and high-profile entrepreneurs. www.wileyeurope.com

Abbie Martin is the Director and Founder of Lifestyle Elements, a Personal Concierge and Lifestyle Management service based in Adelaide, Australia. Lifestyle Elements is for anyone who needs more time and provides professional, personal assistance to complete all those items on your ‘to do’ list. www.lifestyleelements.com.au. Contact Abbie at abbie@lifestyleelements.com.au