Never stop learning. I think I’m going to turn that into my motto for 2018.
I remember thinking, back in my student days, that there was an end point. I’d graduate and suddenly I’d be able to say, ‘job done, I’m now fluent in Italian’. Let’s just chalk that one up to the foolishness of youth!
The truth is, we’re never done. If you want to be the best (and we all want to be the best, right?), we have to keep studying, learning, and improving. And you’ll know you’re in the right business if you don’t want to stop learning.
Investing in education is one of the best things you can do for your growing business but there’s no such thing as a quick browse through Amazon’s stock of business-related books. You could get lost in there for days, reading reviews and trying to figure out the best way to spend your cash.
So, I’m going to save you some time and give you the top 4 business books I enjoyed in 2017. I thoroughly recommend getting your hands on a copy of each one of these.
Read my post on other top ways to invest in your growing business here.
Business Book Round-up 2017
Given that I’m a copywriter and content creator, it’s no surprise that most of my recommendations are marketing and content related but, unless you outsource every aspect of your business marketing, you’ll find loads of little wisdom nuggets in each one of them, whatever business you’re in.
‘They Ask, You Answer: A Revolutionary Approach to Inbound Sales, Content Marketing, and Today’s Digital Consumer’ by Marcus Sheridan.
Marcus Sheridan was running a pool installation company when the housing crisis hit and brought him to the brink of bankruptcy. In his book he outlines the principles he used to completely transform his company. He discusses how to deal with customer objections and turn them to your advantage, whether you should put pricing on your website, and he offers loads of ideas on how to come up with the type of content that your customers actually want to read. It’s always nice to see how theories work in practice and Sheridan has included several case studies that show how different businesses have employed these tactics, with great results.
I’m the first to admit that my own blog is sometimes the last thing on my mind (I’m too busy writing posts for other people; a lame excuse but true nonetheless) but, while reading ‘They Ask, You Answer’, I had to keep reaching for my notebook to write down blog post ideas, inspired by Sheridan’s theories. This one is definitely my top pick for anyone struggling with content creation.
‘KNOWN: The Handbook for Building and Unleashing Your Personal Brand in the Digital Age’ by Mark Schaefer.
Hands up if you’re sick of scrabbling around trying to find potential clients and convince them of your brilliance? You’re not alone! Wouldn’t it be wonderful if people came looking for you? That’s the premise of ‘KNOWN’. If you are known in your field, people will seek you out. Before they even meet you, customers will have faith in your ability to get the job done.
Schaefer knows that finding your passion isn’t enough — you also need a plan. The book looks at how to identify your niche, find your audience and connect with them, and identifies the strategies you need to help you stand out from the crowd. I’m as happy as the next entrepreneur to visualise my success and define my passion, but I like a good, solid plan, so this book was right up my street.
I’m also terminally impatient: I want success and I want it now. Schaefer is a realist. He knows that establishing expertise, developing authority, and becoming ‘known’ all take time. If you’re like me and struggle with the notion that patience and perseverance are the keys to long-term business success, ‘KNOWN’ is the dose of common sense that you’ve been looking for.
‘The Hippo Campus: A step by step guide to get your business noticed, remembered and talked about with Stand Out Marketing’ by Andrew and Pete.
If you spend any time on Twitter, in the marketing sphere, you’ll have come across these guys. They pride themselves on being different, being memorable, and they like a good laugh. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take them seriously though.
Their book offers a fresh take on traditional marketing and along the way there are several easy assignments that will help you define your brand values and unleash your inner creativity. The book is backed up by a website, which includes video content and templates for the assignments in the book. And they have an accompanying membership site, Atomic, which is totally amazeballs. Join here.
If you think that we’re all taking ourselves far too seriously, and we need to liven things up, you’ll like the boys’ writing style and you’ll love their advice.
‘She Means Business: Turn Your Ideas into Reality and Become a Wildly Successful Entrepreneur’ by Carrie Green.
I’m always heartened to learn how many women are starting their own businesses and a little sad when I realise that so many of us are battling the same issues: impostor syndrome, comparisonitis, and overwhelm.
These are the kinds of issues that Carrie tackles in ‘She Means Business’. I confess that I’m not one for manifesting, vision boards, and talking to the universe but my level-headed, business-minded sister recommended this book so I thought I’d give it a go. I laid my scepticism to one side, put my feet up and spent an entire evening with this book.
And, damn, I was a wee dynamo by the end of it!
I think I must have slept a total of two hours a night for a week afterwards, I was so full of ambition, enthusiasm, and a burning need to get things started. Within a month, I’d written myself a business plan, built a new website and reached out to all of my old contacts. There was no stopping me. Obviously, that’s not a sustainable way to run a business and I’ve gone back to the slow and steady approach now, but I guarantee that any time I feel my motivation waning, rereading ‘She Means Business’ will be number one on my to-do list.
So that’s 2017 out of the way, now it’s time to get 2018’s reading list sorted. If you have any recommendations for me, leave a comment. I’d love to know what your favourite business books are!
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