Best Marketing for Small Businesses
New York Times bestselling author and social media expert Gary Vaynerchuk shares hard-won advice on how to connect with customers and beat the competition. Even companies committed to jabbing—patiently engaging with customers to build the relationships crucial to successful social media campaigns—want to land the punch that will take down their opponent or their customer’s resistance in one blow. Even companies committed to "jabbing"—creating content for consumers and engaging with customers to build relationships—still desperately want to land the powerful, bruising swing that will knock out their opponents or their customers' resistance in one tooth-shattering, killer blow. Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook is a blueprint to social media marketing strategies that really work.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Kinda basic in some parts if you already have some experience in Social Media."
"Gary is a hero."
"JJJRH is the next and final installment with lessons learned in between, real-world examples, and a basic patterned blueprint for success to give brands and businesses, big and small, a fighting chance in this social frenzy."
"I have now read all 4 of Gary Vaynerchuk's books and highly recommend these for professionals who are determined to stay aware, and relevant, in this rapidly changing business climate."
"I was STOKED when I found out that Gary chose my SM campaign, garnering me the "win" as his JJRHBook/Skillshare class challenge contest winner - winning me a 1-on1 Skype with Gary. I'm a firm believer in "speaking those things that are not, as if they were"."
"One of the features I especially loved about this book was the numerous examples of content marketing posts made in a variety of industries, by businesses of many different sizes."
"The phenomenal popularity of social media coupled with the market penetration of smartphones and mobile devices, has very recently and quite remarkably changed human behavior."
A marketing and business genius, Gary had the foresight to go beyond traditional methods and use social media tools such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to reach an untapped audience that continues to grow. A marketing and business genius, Gary had the foresight to go beyond traditional methods and use social media tools such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to build a millions-strong fan base that continues to grow. #AskGaryVee showcases the most useful, surprising, and thought-provoking questions Gary has addressed on his popular show.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"However, Gary smacked my face in July 2014 with a paradox: Here is this guy that runs a REAL business with something like 400+ employees in Manhattan, and HE STARTED TO GIVE HIS ADVISE AWAY. In this book, you get actual steps to take your work with those you serve to exciting new places: But that's all possible because Gary gives us the core pieces of himself that allow him to do these other tactics. Tactics are great -- and he gives lots of those -- but it's the heart and head stuff that made the difference. What changed my life is that you showed me how to have the self awareness to figure out who I really am and have the authenticity to DARE to communicate that real me to the world."
"Gary does a great job of combining good content with his killer audio skills."
"This book is best used as a "Use as needed" resource."
"I passed the book along to my 17 year old daughter to better understand how fortunate she is to be growing up at such a facinating time."
"This is my third book purchase and I was not at all disappointed.The first chapter in the book is called Clouds and Dirt."
"I bought the book because my daughter who has three businesses had botten one of his books highly recommended buying this book."
"I loved the guest speakers throughout the book and especially the areas where Gary spoke about culture and developing the people within your business."
"I love that a lot of things he talks about are great for all parts of your life, not just business."
Drawing on more than a decade of new work, Kim and Mauborgne show you how to move beyond competing, inspire your people's confidence, and seize new growth, guiding you step-by-step through how to take your organization from a red ocean crowded with competition to a blue ocean of uncontested market space. By combining the insights of human psychology with practical market-creating tools and real-world guidance, Kim and Mauborgne deliver the definitive guide to shift yourself, your team, or your organization to new heights of confidence, market creation, and growth. " An exciting new book that synthesizes their experience in assisting with the implementation of Blue Ocean strategy.... BLUE OCEAN SHIFT provides us with a comprehensive guide to enable any organization with the right mindset to launch and implement a Blue Ocean initiative. In BLUE OCEAN SHIFT , you will find all of that and more as Kim and Mauborgne guide you on a journey that will open your eyes to the untapped growth opportunities in your business, whether you are a startup, small business, or Fortune 500 company." Starred Review : "While [ Blue Ocean Strategy ] helped to identify new avenues for strategic success, it fell short on providing the actual steps needed to jump from a crowded marketplace into the fabled blue ocean of the title. [ BLUE OCEAN SHIFT ], however, provides a clear process for business identifying opportunities and developing plans for change...This tide provides a course of action for readers of the authors' previous books and should find a large readership among all organizational levels.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Blue Ocean Strategy and Blue Ocean shift is a must for somebody that wants to exceed results and find new frontiers."
"Very good perspective on the future of competition."
"As a serious business reader I'm reluctant to spend reading time on a book positing a premise that salaried professors have a financial stake in. Considerable narrative revolves around 'grant' type projects ranging from the Iraq youth symphony creation to the Malaysian prison system expanding real estate on unused military acreage. The business enterprise Blue Ocean implementers discussed are, on further investigation, not world beaters by any stretch and represent miniscule demand/market disruption in the bigger scheme."
"I also like how they now provide a step-by-step guide, called the five-step process, to developing a blue ocean strategy, that makes it so much easier to implement blue ocean strategy in reality. This book will get you there."
"The sequel to Blue Ocean Strategy, Blue Ocean Shift outlines a methodology to identify blue ocean opportunities. 6) Apply the Four Action Framework, deciding which key factors of the as-is offering to eliminate, reduce, raise, and create. For each phase there is more in-depth analysis about how to use the various tools and many case studies, many from businesses that used Blue Ocean Strategy to create a new offering."
Best Mail Order Small Businesses
Giant Product Source + Right Product + Large Daily Sales = $5 - $10,000 Plus/Month! Chatter abounded for years on the internet how this Chinese source (Alibaba) and others like it, could not be trusted: stories of resellers getting stuck with cheap and inferior products, not receiving products, not getting what they ordered, not being able to return bad products and the list goes on, were everywhere. Safely source products from Alibaba and AliExpress What products to buy and what not to buy How to identify trustworthy suppliers How to brand yourself so you get higher search rankings How to go inside eBay and Amazon to determine the most searched and best selling products so you can zero in on what works The only way to safely pay for products What products to sell and not to sell and why How to find good products How to evaluate products How to buy samples What price range to stay in and why How to prevent excessive freight charges How to find trending and new products and why these are key to your success.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I’m glad that I picked this book."
"This book offered me a great opportunity to find and source products from alibaba with more confidence."
"Thank you for this super item and quick service!"
"great book a ton of interesting details explained thank you author of this book."
"This was a fast and easy ready; however, the author dropped some helpful tips and tricks!!"
"Learn something new. After reading this ebook I will try alibaba again. Thanks for the info."
"Plenty of helpful tips for beginner users of Alibaba."
"Simple and easy to understand book with photos on how to make $ on alibaba by buying wholesale and reselling items in eBay or Amazon."
Best Home Based Small Businesses
Nonfiction Authors Association GOLD AWARD Winner. Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Finalist Romi Neustadt is passionate about helping others build lucrative direct sales and network marketing businesses that help create lives with more freedom and flexibility, greater purpose and a lot more fun. Romi Neustadt is a former corporate chick (first a lawyer, then a PR executive) who traded in the billable hour for more time and financial freedom through network marketing.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I read this book in two sittings completely raptured by what's inside. Thank you, Romi Neustadt, for pouring into the people you love and the people that will soon be in love with you for you changing their lives one "real and raw" chapter at a time in a book that should be in everyone's lap and the top of every team's reading list."
"I bought this for my daughter and she loves it!!"
"I chose the printed book simply because I wanted to use her book as a reference when specific prospects - I've got notes, highlights and post-its throughout the entire book!"
"I found it motivating for me in my direct selling business."
"I liked the honesty that Romi has inspired for us to get out of our own way!"
"This is a MUST READ for anyone interested in starting their own Network Marketing business."
"As a first time network marketing boss I found this book helpful in so many ways."
"Romi is very inspiring, but she is also quite frank and speaks plainly, even if it involves a curse word or two."
Best Small Business Franchise
This comprehensively researched and deftly written franchise guide brings together experience and fact to give you the tools you need to understand which franchise is right for you. His insights and knowledge are sought after by industry veterans and prospective franchise owners.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Nick does an outstanding job of going through the process of discovery and helping prospects understand what should be done to successfully find the right franchise for them."
"That's where The Franchise MBA comes in -- this book provides a clear roadmap for properly uncovering "right fit" franchise options and then conducting a thorough and productive investigation."
"The best part of this book is that it starts with asking you to know yourself better."
"i'm sure if you know nothing about franchises then this would be helpful."
"This book was a good read and does set the priorities for what to look for when shopping for a franchise."
"Well written, informative book."
"The Franchise MBA is an excellent primer for anybody looking to understand the franchise environment, whether it be as an aspiring franchisor or franchisee."
"Very good introduction for anyone who is considering franchise ownership."
Best New Business Enterprises
In Zero to One , legendary entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel shows how we can find singular ways to create those new things. Thiel begins with the contrarian premise that we live in an age of technological stagnation, even if we’re too distracted by shiny mobile devices to notice. Zero to One presents at once an optimistic view of the future of progress in America and a new way of thinking about innovation: it starts by learning to ask the questions that lead you to find value in unexpected places. What Thiel is after is the revitalization of imagination and invention writ large…" – The New Republic "Might be the best business book I've read...Barely 200 pages long and well lit by clear prose and pithy aphorisms, Thiel has written a perfectly tweetable treatise and a relentlessly thought-provoking handbook." This is a classic.” - Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of Fooled by Randomness and The Black Swan “Thiel has drawn upon his wide-ranging and idiosyncratic readings in philosophy, history, economics, anthropology, and culture to become perhaps America’s leading public intellectual today” - Fortune "Peter Thiel, in addition to being an accomplished entrepreneur and investor, is also one of the leading public intellectuals of our time. "The first and last business book anyone needs to read; a one in a world of zeroes."
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"For example "we never invest in entrepreneurs who turn up for the interview in a suit" or "four of the founders of PayPal had built bombs as children." Memo to Peter Thiel: you are successful despite your prejudice against people who don't share your sartorial taste, and your partners made it to adulthood despite having been poorly supervised as children. He was not beaten by a better provider of software, he was superseded by a shift in technology toward powerful mobile devices, tablets and the cloud, all of which, in turn, were motivated by other entrepreneurs' desire to obtain monopoly profits. So Steve Jobs dominated many of these arenas for long enough to enjoy monopoly profits and other people will some day take this all further. Even the government is in on the act, Peter Thiel claims, or else it would not be granting patents to inventors or freedom from competition from generic drugs to the pharmaceutical companies that first develop new medications. My mom taught me that "necessity is the mother of invention:" GM did not develop the Volt till it was up against the wall, Archimedes discovered how to screw water upwards during the Roman siege of Syracuse, the Germans developed jet propulsion, the swept wing and the rocket we later sent to the moon when they had pretty much already lost WWII. And then we have the cases where, as the author says, it's clear that you need to incentivize people to innovate (drugs spring to mind, where the US has a lead) and that's where patents come in. And it was crystal clear to everybody with a modicum of common sense that both Intel and Microsoft were not helping the world along when they used dirty tricks to hurt AMD and Netscape. The author takes us on a (rather gratuitous) trip from Plato and Aristotle to Nozick and Rawls via Epicurus, Lucretius, Hegel and Marx to discuss when optimism is and isn't warranted and the bottom line is that you're only allowed to be an optimist if you have "definite optimism" based on a specific Design (my capital D) for a business. Peter Thiel takes a massive swipe at the Malcolm Gladwells of the world who overemphasize chance, serendipity and fate with facile arguments about the similarity in Steve Jobs' and Bill Gates' birthdates. It's the Nassim Nicholas Taleb idea, and he duly appears on the back cover to endorse the book. For the best book on the subject I'd swerve around NNT's work and turn to Benoit Mandelbrot's masterpiece, "The (Mis)behaviour of Markets." The fourth idea is no more original, but Thiel puts it well: "there are many more secrets left to find, but they will yield only to relentless searchers." The fifth idea is you need to pick your partners i.e. your investors, your fellow managers and your (ideally 3) directors very carefully in order to make sure you all want the same thing out of the company (and it had better not be immediate rewards). But once they have their first billion and don't need to run their ideas by anyone else to get them funded they very often go do something stupid (dunno, like go mine asteroids) with exactly the same fervour they previously applied to the sensible endeavour that made them rich. The more grounded ones keep their further investments close to home and direct their creativity toward giving lectures and writing books."
"Along with business strategy, Thiel outlines how successful innovation shapes society and shares an intriguing vision. Rather than offer scripts or formulas, Thiel discusses the logic of starting a company that will make a truly meaningful and unique impact on the world. Blake did a great job of adapting and presenting the contents, many of which were delivered when Thiel taught at Stanford. Keeping in mind that companies growing 1000x often carry entire portfolios, Peter gives a good argument for successful moonshots and grand visions. He also highlights the dangers of trying to disrupt entrenched competitors and avoid extra resistance and burn rates on marketing. Rather, Tesla began by making powertrains, then started with high end luxury models to which no solid alternative existed. His strong argument for monopolies are both for novelty and to develop early market dominance should competitors arise later. I found a Monopoly Index by Forbes that showed these types of companies outperforming the Dow and S&P by 33%, which was a pleasant result of some due diligence. Even if you make a product that’s a 3x improvement over a market leader, you aren’t creating anything truly new, and well funded competitors are likely to catch up. It looks at economics, globalization, artificial intelligence, and historical trends along with founder characteristics and the qualities of great salespeople. If you like diving really deep into the mind of a founder across many life experiences, check out Tony Hseih’s Delivering Happiness."
Best Business Consulting
In Case Interview Secrets, you'll discover step-by-step instructions on how to dominate what many consider to be the most complex, most difficult, and most intimidating corporate job interview in the world—the infamous case interview. "Victor gave me a clear understanding of how to structure a case interview using a highly logical approach. This helped me get offers from BCG and a boutique firm and make it to McKinsey's final round before opting out." "In my first attempt to break into consulting, I failed every one of my interviews with McKinsey, Bain, BCG, Oliver Wyman, Monitor, Booz and probably a few others. On my second attempt two years later, I followed everything Victor Cheng suggested and took advantage of every resource he provided ... and received an offer from McKinsey!" "After following Victor's guidance, I had a complete breakthrough in my case interview performance and got an offer from Monitor." "As a PhD candidate in engineering, I had an academic background that left me completely unprepared for the case interview process. "Victor taught me how to prepare both technically and mentally, and this is what makes the difference between him and the competitors. "Victor is effective because he focuses on behaviors and habits that make you successful and not just on frameworks.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Valuable resource for anyone wanting to know more about successfully passing case interviews."
"Before you even begin to read - the author offers bonus tools that will assist the reader with achieving their objectives. Additionally, current informative feedback from former readers of the book are inspirational for the consultant job hunter. The author states that " the interview is essentially over even before it has begun"; this reveals how critical it is to answer case questions."
"It seems like a trend now to treat a book sales as side revenue and the real money is made elsewhere from the leads generated by the book. Nevertheless, there is enough content to justify the book price."
"It is such a great tool to help you build essential business skills and confidence as well."
"I found that going through Case in Point first was useful to go through more specific case examples and frameworks."
"Excellent Book which helped myself successfully to secure interviews and corresponding job-offer."
"Being a good consultant is all about discipline, keeping it simple, straight forward and repeatable."
"Ideally, you would want concrete advice, with a lot of concrete case study examples and answers...within ONE book."
Best Nonprofit Organizations & Charities
These approaches have been honed from over three decades of advising tens of thousands of CEOs and executives and helping them navigate the increasing complexities (and weight) that come with scaling up a venture. The goal of this book is to help you turn what feels like an anchor into wind at your back -- creating a company where the team is engaged; the customers are doing your marketing; and everyone is making money. Scaling Up shows business leaders how to get their organizations moving in sync to create something significant and enjoy the ride. “Verne’s tools and techniques have been key to scaling up Benetton to become the #1 international fashion brand in India. Scaling Up is that business book. Verne’s tools and techniques have been critical to helping us drive and manage this growth during my 20 years as CEO ― and ultimately to freeing me up as the founder to pursue other interests.” -- Scott Tannas, founder and Vice Chairman, Western Financial Group; senator, Canadian Parliament. “Scaling up a significant business requires precisely the kind of discipline and focus detailed in Verne’s practical and ‘how-to’ driven book.” -- Scott Farquhar, co-founder and CEO, Atlassian. “Verne Harnish’s Scaling Up is one of the finest business books you'll ever read. Whether you're an entrepreneur who wants to scale up, a CEO who wants to take his business to the next level, or a non-profit executive who wants to leave a legacy, this book will be life-changing.” -- Tan Yinglan, Author of Way of the VC – Top Venture Capitalists on Your Board, Chinnovation – How Chinese Innovators are Changing the World and New Venture Creation - Entrepreneurship For The 21st Century - An Asian Perspective.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The idea of focusing on People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash is especially meaningful to me as an entrepreneur who founded a business that has been growing for 18+ years and now has over 100 employees."
"It has given me a number of good ideas for changes I can make to how I run my own business, which has been a 1-man band for the last 16 years."
"This book was great for our organization."
"Verne's insight is superb, fresh view, clear direction, a lot of new books, you are in good hands!"
"I have read a lot of business books, literally thousands, and I would put this book in my top 10 for sure."
"Most businesses in the world turnover less than $1 million and if you want to make it to the 4% this book has solid advice from an experienced entrepreneur on how to become part of the 4%."
"A textbook for how to run and grow a thriving enterprise, it gives you the philosophies, actions, tools, and even the forms to implement it all."
"Excelente teory, dificult to achieve in practice."
Best Entrepreneurship
“Hal Elrod is a genius and his book The Miracle Morning has been magical in my life. What if you could wake up tomorrow and any—or EVERY—area of your life was beginning to transform? After enduring the most difficult year of his life, battling cancer, Hal is now in remission and furthering his mission as the founder of The Miracle Morning book series, host of the "Achieve Your Goals" podcast, creator of the Best Year Ever [Blueprint] LIVE event, and Executive Producer of The Miracle Morning MOVIE - a documentary that reveals the morning rituals of some of the world's most successful people.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I almost didn't get the book because I read the 1 star reviews and they said it was a simplistic redo of the same messages many others had done. I heard Hal Elrod on a webinar and was excited to read the book based upon his presentation, there were a lot of 5 star reviews and I decided to get it. To exercise has been on my goals list for five years and I just couldn't get back to it until I read Miracle Morning."
"A few weeks ago I was exhausted in tears thinking I didn't have "me time". What time alone I had at the end of the day I just wasted watching tv."
""Whether you want to make significant improvements in just a few key areas, or you are ready for a major overhaul that will radically transform your entire life--so your current circumstances will soon become only a memory of what was--you've picked up the right book. You are about to begin a miraculous journey, using a simple, but revolutionary process that is guaranteed to transform any area of your life... all before 8:00 am." After 6 minutes of that (near-)death experience, he spent several days in a coma and awoke to discover he had suffered brain damage and was told that he may never walk again. He defied the odds and proved we're all capable of overcoming obstacles while creating the life of our dreams. If you've been looking to jump start your life--or just take it to the next level--there's no better place to start than by dialing in your morning routine and Hal is the perfect guide to help us discover the "not-so-obvious secrets" to rockin' it before 8:00 am! good job of helping us architect our miracle mornings--whether that's a 6-minute plan to start or 60."
"First off, there are a lot of good ideas outlined in the book that I'm looking forward to implementing to improve my mornings and be as productive as I can possibly be. "Thousands of people have reached their potential after utilizing The Miracle Morning." There was so much fluff and shameless self-promotion that had the book not been downloaded on my iPad I would've thrown the physical copy away after ripping out the pages that were actually useful."
"Once on the website, you need to register and get sucked into more commercial advertising and never get the information that was said to be there."