Archive for the 'Books' Category
Entrepreneur: File this under products we didn’t know existed: camouflage Bibles. But for the religious outdoorsman, this is apparently a hot product. Camouflage Bibles and Bible covers are bestsellers at Arkansas-based online retailer Christian Outdoorsman. And a U.S. survey of licensed hunters and anglers last year commissioned by the National Wildlife Federation found half of [...]
Forbes: Cory Doctorow: “I’ve been giving away my books ever since my first novel came out, and boy has it ever made me a bunch of money. When my first novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, was published by Tor Books in January 2003, I also put the entire electronic text of the [...]
Winners of The Two Free Copies of The Engine of America
From our giveaway last week, the two free copies of The Engine of America by Hector V. Barreto are going to readers Joseph Powder and Dave Davis. Congratulations, guys! If you haven’t already, please send me your mailing address.
Giveaway: Two Free Copies of The Engine of America
Update: The two free copies are going to Joseph Powder and Dave Davis. Want one of two free copies of The Engine of America by Hector V. Barreto? To enter the contest, answer this question in the comments below: What is something that conventional wisdom dictates is true, but is really wrong? It doesn’t have [...]
Challenge the Conventional Wisdom
The following is an excerpt from the book The Engine of America by Hector V. Barreto. Conventional wisdom is a term coined by the economist John Kenneth Galbraith in his 1958 book The Affluent Society, second edition (New York: Houghton & Mifflin, 1958). It is used to describe certain ideas or explanations that have become [...]
Giveaway: Signed Copy of The 4-Hour Workweek
Update: Because of Labor Day, the winner will be chosen and notified on 9/4/07. So keep entering. Would you like to win a autographed hardcover copy of The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss? To enter the contest, answer this question in the comments below: What would do if you only had a four hour workweek? [...]
Entrepreneur: Of the thousands of business books published in the last 30 years, only a handful have withstood the assaults of changing times and changing objectives to remain as relevant today as when they first came out. This week we present five books worthy of space on any entrepreneur’s shelf–now and in the future. Our [...]
Great Biz Read: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
Entrepreneur: Of the thousands of business books published in the last 30 years, only a handful have withstood the assaults of changing times and changing objectives to remain as relevant today as when they first came out. This week we present five books worthy of space on any entrepreneur’s shelf–now and in the future. Today’s [...]
Entrepreneur: Of the thousands of business books published in the last 30 years, only a handful have withstood the assaults of changing times and changing objectives to remain as relevant today as when they first came out. This week we present five books worthy of space on any entrepreneur’s shelf–now and in the future. Today’s [...]
Great Biz Read: Guerrilla Marketing
Entrepreneur: Of the thousands of business books published in the last 30 years, only a handful have withstood the assaults of changing times and changing objectives to remain as relevant today as when they first came out. This week we present five books worthy of space on any entrepreneur’s shelf–now and in the future. Next [...]
Great Biz Read: Out of the Crisis
Entrepreneur: Business authors and experts have proclaimed enough revolutions to fill a long shelf. Most of these turn out more like ripples than tidal waves, as a check of any bookstore’s markdown shelves will show. Of the thousands of business books published in the last 30 years, only a handful have withstood the assaults of [...]
Jessica Livingston, a founding partner of Y Combinator, a seed-stage venture firm, has just published a book of interviews with 32 high tech company founders called Founders at Work: Founders at Work is a collection of interviews with founders of famous technology companies about whathappened in the very earliest days. These people are celebrities now. [...]
Small Business Failure – Wal-Mart… or a lack of planning?
Are the chain stores really shutting out the smaller businesses? Sam’s Club and many of the other large discount stores started out as small mom and pop businesses. But with proper planning, the right niche, and great timing, they have excelled into the status of “chain store,� leaving behind other mom’s and pop’s. Since 1986, [...]
Play Money: or, How I Quit My Day Job and Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot
Kottke: During the depths of the dot com bust, Julian Dibbell looked online for a job and found one as a commodities trader in the Ultima Online virtual world. During one particularly productive month, he made almost US$4000. Dibbell has a book coming out about the experience, Play Money: Or, How I Quit My Day [...]
Is It Worth Your Time to Write a Business Book?
800-CEO-READ: A group of researchers from RainToday.com explored the question: Is it worth the blood, sweat and tears required to write a business book? They found that ultimately while writing a book is a long and strenuous process, if you have something worthwhile to say, it can have a tremendous positive impact on your business [...]
The Joy of Self Employment: Entrepreneurship and Education in a Changing World
Amazon: Business writer and consultant Todd Leigh Mayo’s The Joy of Self Employment: Entrepreneurship and Education in a Changing World is designed to show readers how satisfying it can be to work for oneself and to help those interested in giving it a try. Written in an unabashedly proselytizing style, it is divided into four [...]
The Ugly Truth about Small Business
Sarah Bosch continues her reviews this week with Ruth King’s The Ugly Truth about Small Business. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, more than 50 percent of small businesses fail in the first year and 95 percent fail within the first five years. Crucial decisions will come at every angle and making the wrong [...]
This week’s Brain Brew Radio episode is online: This week on Schooltime, Doug explains how to be Bold and Brave to increase your odds of success in the marketplace… Brain Brew guest, David, has a delivery service to people in The Hamptons – asks Doug and David how to get the word out about his [...]
The Ice Cream Maker: An Inspiring Tale about Making Quality the Key Ingredient in Everything You Do
Sarah Bosch continues her reviews this week with Subir Chowdhury’s The Ice Cream Maker: An Inspiring Tale about Making Quality the Key Ingredient in Everything You Do. This little book offers up a big serving of business education. Having read numerous books on achieving quality customer service, I can tell you the Ice Cream Maker [...]
Sarah Bosch continues her reviews this week with Don Soderquist’s The Wal-Mart Way. Wal-Mart is one of the most notorious companies today. Loved or hated, admired or feared, the Wal-Mart Way is an interesting look at Sam Walton (the man who started it all) and the basic principles and determination of one of the world’s [...]
New from Tradepub: Growing Your Business 1,2,3
TradePub: The editors at Entrepreneur magazine illustrate tips and techniques required to grow your business. This e-book will enlighten readers on business topics, such as how to effectively seek out expansion capital, cost effective ways to reward employees, clever shortcuts to help run your business more effectively, and getting the most from business trips.
Career Intensity: Business Strategy for Workplace Warriors and Entrepreneurs
Sarah Bosch continues her reviews this week with David Lorenzo’s Career Intensity: Business Strategy for Workplace Warriors and Entrepreneurs. What is it that separates the best from the rest? More importantly, how can you become the best? In his new book, David Lorenzo challenges readers to turn their passion and drive into a competitive career [...]
Sarah Bosch turned in another great short review this week. This time it’s of Michael Lechter’s OPM: Other People’s Money, part of the Rich Dad series. We all know that cash flow is the basis of every successful business but most people do not have enough start up funds to forge their personal goals. OPM: [...]
David Lorenzo has posted an excerpt from Chapter One of Career Intensity: Business Strategy for Workplace Warriors and Entrepreneurs: There are two types of heroes in this world: Those who die nobly for a cause and those who live humbly for a cause. My father is the second kind of hero. He worked for IBM [...]
This week’s Carnival of the Capiitalists is up at Free Money Finance.
The Business Impact Of Writing A Book
RainToday: A newly released research study from RainToday.com titled The Business Impact of Writing A Book: Data, Analysis, And Advice From Professional Service Providers Who Have Done It, provides the first ever available hard data on the effects publishing a business book has on the authors’ revenue, brand, ability to generate publicity and marketplace buzz, [...]
Wow! Go It Alone, the book by Bruce Judson, that I mentioned earlier today is available online for free: From the introduction: The numbers are staggering. Over half (56%) of all Americans dream of starting their own business. The United States is the land of opportunity, but so few of us ever make the leap [...]
Avoiding the Pitfalls Common to Startups
Bruce Judson, author of Go It Alone was recently intereviewed in the Wall Street Journal: The Wall Street Journal: What is the biggest mistake people make when starting a small business? Mr. Judson: This might seem trite, but the most common mistake I see is that people think they have a great idea without testing [...]
Business Lessons From “The Entrepreneurial Mindset”
Peter Hupalo: New entrepreneurs can learn much from habitual entrepreneurs. That’s the premise of Rita Gunther McGrath and Ian MacMillan, authors of The Entrepreneurial Mindset: Strategies for Continuously Creating Opportunity in an Age of Uncertainty. McGrath and MacMillan define “habitual entrepreneurs” as those who have made a career out of starting new businesses and launching [...]
David Hardy: Glenn Reynold’s book, An Army of Davids: How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government, and Other Goliaths, was up to #38 on Amazon for a time (even tho it won’t be released for another few weeks), and has been getting excellent reviews. The theme is essentially that [...]
NFIB: Susan Bixler, author of Professional Presence, advises that you wait until everyone at the table has placed their order before bringing up business. She also recommends saving the most important issues until after the main course. Letitia Baldridge, author of Letitia Baldridge’s New Complete Guide to Executive Manners, says that if significant others are [...]
Mary Sullivan: Maybe you didn’t start a business with a burning desire to do it your way? Susan Urquhart-Brown, founder of Career Steps Consulting, wrote a useful book, “The Accidental Entrepreneur”, for those who never expected to be self-employed. This easy-to-read book is packed with good information for new intentional entrepreneurs, too, especially for “solopreneurs”.
Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman
Sarah Bosch concludes her reviews this week, with a look at Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman. I’ve been a businessman for almost fifty years. It’s as difficult for me to say those words as it is for someone to admit being an alcoholic or a lawyer. I’ve never respected [...]
Gifts That are Better Than Money
Free Money Finance has come out with their list of suggested Black Friday gifts: Emigrant Direct has a 4.0% yield — a great place to store your emergency cash. Open up an account for yourself or someone you love. You Need a Budget is a powerful, easy-to-use budgeting system that offers $65 in free offers [...]
Six Disciplines’ CEO on Small Business Trends Radio
Be Excellent: Gary Harpst, Founder and CEO of Six Disciplines Corporation, was interviewed today by Anita Campbell, host of Small Business Trends Radio, as heard on VoiceAmerica Internet Radio. Harpst, himself a successful entrepreneur (having been CEO and founder of Solomon Software,) discusses what small businesses need to do to build organizations that learn, lead [...]
The 7 Irrefutable Rules of Small Business Growth
Sarah Bosch continues her reviews this week, with a look at Steven S. Little’s The 7 Irrefutable Rules of Small Business Growth. For years, I’ve immersed myself in the study of business growth. Who does it? Why do they do it? Why does this owner make it work and not that one? What do the [...]
Six Disciplines for Excellence
Sarah Bosch brings us a second review this week with a look at Gary Harpst’s Six Disciplines for Excellence: I recently read Six Disciplines for Excellence: Building Small Businesses That Learn, Lead and Last by Gary Harpst. Within the book, Harpst has created a business-building methodology utilizing six fundamental business disciplines that are specifically designed [...]
Sarah Bosch continues her reviews this week, with a look at Guy Kawasaki’s The Art of the Start : The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything. Meaning is not about money, power, or prestige. It’s not even about creating a fun place to work. Among the meanings of “meaning” are to Make the world [...]
You Need to Be a Little Crazy : The Truth about Starting and Growing Your Business
Sarah Bosch continues her reviews this week, with a look at Barry Moltz’s You Need to be a Little Crazy: The Truth About Starting and Growing Your Business. A lunatic is defined in the dictionary as someone who is insane or eccentric. Additionally, a lunatic is often described as wildly and giddily foolish. That’s right. [...]
The 7 Essential Steps to Successful eBay Marketing
R. F. Parker, a reviewer on Amazon: The title of this book makes it sound like a white-paper or a report, but it is really 200+ pages of conceptual, well-written marketing advice. Each “step” is actually a high-level concept and each forms a different section of the book. Each “step” is then broken down into [...]
Then We Set His Hair on Fire: Insights and Accidents from a Hall of Fame Career in Advertising
My new reviewer, Sarah Bosch, starts her series of profiles today with a look at Phil Dusenberry’s Then We Set His Hair on Fire: Insights and Accidents from a Hall of Fame Career in Advertising: According to ad industry veteran Phil Dusenberry, one big insight is worth a thousand good ideas. In his new book [...]
Everyone’s an Expert (about something).
Seth Godin’s new free ebook, Everyone’s an Expert (about something), is out. I’m reading it right now. Nothing groundbreaking, yet — but Seth is a great rearranger.
How to be a Home-Based Travel Agent
Amazon: Turn your love for travel into your livelihood with this award-winning guide to setting up a bona-fide travel business from the comfort of your own home. Learn how to research trips, make bookings, find and keep customers, maximize earnings, and qualify for agent-only benefits. This user-friendly manual includes a mini sales training program, sizable [...]
Starting Your First Business: Gain Independence and Love Your Work
Amazon: Here’s a business start-up book that truly “tells it like it is.” Even though it’s part of The American Dream Series, author Jim Sapp “gets real” right away, urging new business starter-uppers to do some heavy soul-searching and personality assessment. Following your dreams is one thing, but owning and operating your own business certainly [...]
The Young Entrepreneur’s Guide to Starting and Running a Business
Amazon: Becoming an entrepreneur offers individuals the potential for financial success and independence. Two new guides explore effective strategies for starting and operating a small business. Mariotti, who founded the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) and provides entrepreneurial training for inner-city youth, has written his book “for any young person who wants to start [...]
Amazon: It seems like these days, whenever you look at a newsstand, at least one major business magazine has a cover story about a wildly successful entrepreneur in his or her 20s or 30s. That’s not surprising when one considers that one out of every five small-business owners in America is under 35, and that [...]
Fortune Small Business has a great excerpt from Paul Orfalea’s, the founder of Kinkos, new book, Copy This!: In the fall of 1970 I rented a small storefront near the university, only 100 square feet. I was still a student at USC, but I couldn’t put off this brainstorm. The rent was $100 a month. [...]
Amazon: After a brief career in professional bodybuilding, Jake Steinfeld found his calling in helping others pump themselves up. Beginning as a personal trainer to Hollywood celebrities, he soon started his remarkably successful Body by Jake brand of health and fitness programs. Now he hopes to motivate readers to start their own businesses. His experience [...]
Starting Something : An Entrepreneurs Tale of Control, Confrontation Corporate Culture
Amazon: In 1996, when architect/designer/visionary hipster Wayne McVicker and a partner launched the healthcare website, Neoforma.com, he just wanted to live the life of a creative entrepreneur while helping make the world a better place. He soon realized that he’d climbed aboard a careening, billion-dollar roller coaster ride. This is a story of survival in [...]
What No One Ever Tells You About Starting Your Own Business
One year ago today: What No One Ever Tells You About Starting Your Own Business: Real Life Start-Up Advice from 101 Successful Entrepreneurs.
