Don’t Forget – Just Ask Santa!
As business owners and entrepreneurs, one of the best things we can do is invest in ourselves. What do I mean?
As a business owner, arguably the most important asset in your business is YOU! It is therefore crucial that you invest both time and money on developing yourself both as an individual and also as a business owner.
That means keeping informed and up to date, learning new skills, developing existing ones, honing leadership skills, learning strategy.
So how to invest in yourself and develop your skills as a business owner?
There are of course many ways. A whole range of conferences, training courses, business exhibitions and shows, podcasts and business magazines exist to help you learn new skills around leadership, marketing, sales, strategic thinking, personal development and so on.
Reading books is another way.
Invest in yourself by reading great business books. These days that can, of course, be done electronically, but I have to say I still love the feel and smell of a good old-fashioned book!
So, this Christmas why not invest in developing your business skills and add a book or two to your Christmas list.
And if Santa doesn’t leave you one under the Christmas Tree, go out and buy it yourself!!
Of the books I’ve read this past year, here’s three I highly recommend.
- Purple Cow by Seth Godin
My advice? Read anything by Seth Godin. His books, his blog, his articles. He is not only a business and marketing guru but a highly original thinker.
I’ve read several of Seth Godin’s books over the years but chose Purple Cow as my recommendation as I have re-read it this year.
If you want your business and in particular your marketing to stand out in a busy marketplace, this book is for you. It talks about the why, what and how of being a remarkable business.
As Seth states at the beginning of the book: “Something remarkable is worth talking about. Worth noticing. It’s a Purple Cow. Boring stuff is invisible. It’s a brown cow”.
Enjoy!
- Entrepreneur Revolution by Daniel Priestley
Daniel Priestley is a successful entrepreneur who’s the premise for this book is that the world is entering a new age, the age of the agile, small business owner – the age of the entrepreneur.
He rightly argues that the dinosaurs of the industrial age are being outpaced by fast-moving start-ups, technological innovators and smart, ambitious small business owners.
There has never been a better or arguably easier time to start a business and in the book, Daniel gives great insights into developing your entrepreneurial mindset and shows you how to change the way you think, the way you operate and the way you run your business.
Daniel believes the 2020’s will be a great decade to be an entrepreneur and this book will give you both great insights and also a head start as the 2020’s approach.
- Good to Great by Jim Collins
This is a classic book that was first published back in 2001. I read it for the first time this year and wished I read it years ago!
If you are a business owner serious about growing your business, then ‘Good to Great’ is definitely worth a read. For decades, Jim has studied companies and what makes them great.
As a result, the book is based on empirical data derived from the measurement and observation of huge numbers of companies over many years.
The book provides many great insights: Level 5 Leadership, The Hedgehog Concept, The Flywheel and the Doom Loop to name a few.
As a business owner, you could take these and any of the other great concepts in the book and apply them very successfully into your business.
Taking the time to read great business books is an excellent way of investing in both yourself and your business. And any of these three books will provide great ideas and strategies which will help you do exactly that.
So, create your Christmas list with the book(s) you want, write your letter to Santa and get it in the post! But remember, you haven’t got long!
In the meantime, we at Funding Track wish you a very happy and peaceful Christmas and a prosperous New Year.
