Studying is an important first step of anything you do. All the topics you can imagine are covered in a great number of publications. Business is not an exception. In this article, we would like to advise several great books to start with. Most of them are legendary best-sellers. We, at our company, return to these books regularly to find inspiration and to evaluate our previous steps in the business.
The Startup Owner's Manual: The Step-By-Step Guide for Building a Great Company
An amazing book covering startups and first stages of business. It offers explanations for possible scenarios of your new business and provides step by step outline how to proceed towards success. One of the main idea of the book is, that a startup company is a group of untested hypotheses. You cannot be certain until you try. Writing business plans and formulate all kinds of expectations might be a waste of time. Until you test, you never know. Anothervery important idea of the book is, that a startup company is not a well established corporation. If corporate business model is applied to a startup, it will likely fail. Many teachers of business do not emphasize this to students and new entrepreneurs.
The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It
Michael Gerber tells stories about entrepreneurs who started their business with a vision of better life and freedom. However, they stuck in their work not moving further, and even worse, they hate not only the work they used to love, but also all the other small tasks that needs to be done. The books explains why so many companies fail within a few years and what mistakes people do over and over. This book is written in a story-style and can be read all at once. Reading the book is really an adventure and can provide a lot of great tips and insights. This book is a must-read publication.
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't
Good to great is a legendary best-seller. It describe the results of long-term extensive research on why some companies were exceedigly successful and others did not. Authors comparred many factors influencing the business. They emphasize several important key points which were made by CEOs in the transitional times. The book compares outstanding (the great ones) companies to the comparison ones (thegood ones). Both types of the companies started with very similar conditions, the same market and similar products. However, the great companies managed to make an extraordinary step forward, while the comparison did not.
Even though this books discusses big companies with a long history, the knowledge will certainly be useful for the leaders of small and mid-sized companies.
The 8 Traits Successful People Have in Common: 8 to Be Great
The author of this book, Richard St. John, spent several years interviewing successful people working in many different industries. Businessmen, sportsman, scientists, sales representatives, doctors, artists and so on. Richard John was once asked a question what leads to the success. This books summarizes core traits of successful people regardless of their industry or working area. Successful sportsmen, businessmen and others who have achieved outstanding results were not only hardworking, they also maintain their focus on what they were doing and most importantly they have not given up. This book is a great inspiration for your personal growth.
The 8 Traits Successful People Have in Common: 8 to Be Great
If you have been a leader or a boss for a long time, or if you have just started up in a new leading possition, this book is a must read for you. Autor Robert I. Sutton highlights many aspects of leadership, how to be a good leader and how to avoid disrespects of your employees. You will learn about common mistakes that team leaders or CEOs do and how to avoid them. If you are in a high position, your acting in the leading possition affects the whole company and people working for you. You can gain your employee's performance, improve their attitude to work and their loyality. However, bad leadership may easily lead to a disaster - terrible atmoshphere and poor working results. We recommend this book for all new leaders - it is easier to learn from a book, than to do the mistakes on your own and learn from them.