5 Insanely Impactful Books That Helped My Business
I feel like I’m getting this in just under the wire (as in, published in January), but the new year has a lot of folks thinking about their business and how they can improve, or they are thinking about starting a new business. While some of the best business knowledge comes with experience, I feel like there’s more advice out there than ever before. It’s hard to know what’s good and what’s bad.
With nearly 20 of freelancing under my belt at this point, there’s lots of things I learned the hard way (through experience), and lots of things I learned through books. To help you cut through the cruft, here are 5 of the most impactful books for my business.
1) Profit First
No book has impacted my business more than Profit First by Mike Michalowicz. I implemented the plan as soon as I read the book and bought into the philosophy that small plates make you eat less; as in, if you have less money for business expenses, you’ll find there are lots of things you don’t need to pay for.
Because of this book, I have excellent runway for my business to pay us, I’m well ahead of the game with my taxes, and each quarter I get to buy myself or my family something nice1. Soon I’ll start saving it again for a big trip to Disney World with a family of 4…you know. Once that whole thing™ is over.
2) Start with Why
Start with Why by Simon Sinek is another book that has basically impacted by everyday lift. Whenever I start a new project, or advise someone on starting a podcast/website/course I always ask them to “start with why.” As Sinek says in the book, if you don’t know why you do something, how do you know what to do?
Starting with Why keeps you on track and it tempers your expectations. It also helps you form a plan. When I first started making courses, I basically just did things I knew how to do. I guess my “why” was, “because I know how.” That’s a terrible reason to sell courses.
Now, I start with why everything I think about creating a course. And I compare that to the bigger “why” – the reason I started Creator Courses, my online course site, in the first place.
3) Building a Story Brand / Marketing Made Simple
I’m combining Building a Story Brand and Marketing Made Simple by Donald Miller into a 1-2-punch to help you hone your marketing message. These books have helped me more than any other when it comes to defining my audience for a particular product, then building the landing pages and messaging around it.
In fact, past me (from GoodReads) puts it perfectly. Here’s what I said about Building a Story Brand:
There is a ton of actionable advice: in-fact the book is built on it. I have my story brand filled out and a clear roadmap I’m going to start working on today, in conjunction with launching 2 new products this book has helped me define stories for. I strongly recommend it, not because it’s groundbreaking, Earth shattering make money today advice. But it’s clear, guiding questions every business owner should answer.
And here’s what I said about Marketing Made Simple:
This book is so insanely helpful. At first I was upset I didn’t read it sooner, but now I have much more clarity in my messaging and this book is helping me organize it.
I worked along with each chapter and fully reworked the sales funnel for my online course. I’m going to refine and assess in a month.
I would strongly recommend this for anyone selling something- especially if marketing isn’t your strong suite.
4) Essentialism
What I like best about Essentialism by Greg Mckeown is that it can hit differently for everyone and be just as effective. For me, it helped reinforce my philosophy of prioritizing at a time in my life where it seemed like I should have been prioritizing work above all else.
The power of prioritizing what’s important to you helps you say “no” a lot more often. It’s something I’m glad I’ve learned and developed as a habit, and it’s positively affected my life. It helped me realize self-employment is the right path for me, but it’s also helped me stay focused while being self-employed.
Essentialism, as noted by many other readers, is also something worth picking up again from time to time – especially during big life changed.
5) Contagious
Contagious by Jonah Berger is the first I read from the author, though I love all of his work. Perhaps it’s because this one set a good tone. On GoodReads, my review is one sentence: The most practical and actionable business book I’ve ever read.
Perhaps there are others I’ve read since I feel that way about (like the books on this list), but he gives you a very clear path to understanding why certain things are shared, and why others are not.
What I like most about it is the cross section of business and psychology, something I feel isn’t explored enough in business books. Contagious helps us understand how people thing, leading to why they share what they do. And then he tells us how we can use this information. Truth be told, I ready this before I became self-employed full time. It might be high time to read it again.
BONUS: The Richest Man in Babylon
My junior year high school history teacher, perhaps noticing the entrepreneurial spirit in me, approached me one day and recommended a I read a book that turned out to shape the way I look at money: The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason.
This book taught me what they don’t teach in a high school economics class. Perhaps that’s why so many people are wondering what in the world happened with Game Stop at the Stock Market last week2.
Through a set of parables, it teaches the reader about the importance of investing and other financial wisdom. I think this should be required reading for everyone 15 and up. Once you start making money, you should understand what you should do with that money. I’m reminded of my first “real” job out of college. The HR rep I met with was shocked that someone my age was interested in my 403B (I was working at The University of Scranton, but a 403B is like the non-profit version of a 401K). I credit that interest to The Richest Man in Babylon.
This is especially important as a small business owner. We don’t have employers setting up 401Ks for us, and matching 3%. We need to make sure we’re protecting our own financial futures.
I recently starting thinking about this book again and it’s back on my reaching list, a full 20 years after I read it the first time. We’ll see what new things I learn.
What business books are must-reads for you? Let me know in the comments!
