7 Books Any Aspiring Entrepreneur MUST Read (Ideally Before Starting A Business)!

Today I’m going to continue my series of debunking some of the rubbish that comes through my inbox from some of the big business magazines.

So today I want to share my top seven books that you should read or listen to, because, of course, audible has changed the world on that front, before you start a business, and if you’ve already started your business, these are the ones you should catch up with as soon as possible, and I promise you each one has got many nuggets of gold in them. I haven’t just chosen the ones who’ve got one bit of goodness that you need to know about.

So let’s start off with, of course, the most important book of all, which is Rich Dad, poor Dad, and everybody’s read Rich Dad, poor Dad if they want to make money, but if you haven’t, then just get it immediately. I resisted reading it for two years. My coach kept suggesting it and I kept moaning to her about money, and she kept suggesting it and I still moaned to her about money, and finally she just lost it and said look, I’m not going to discuss money with you anymore unless you read this book. So I went and got it and it totally changed the way I thought about things, and it was when I first got my inkling about the difference between being freelance and actually building a business, because I’d always had lots of unsuccessful freelance businesses that I thought for most businesses, but they weren’t really. So. The Rich Dad book just gets your head straight before you start. And the other thing as a bonus, I’m going to give you several bonuses along the way today Rich Dad’s Guide to Investment. It’s a bit dull to start with, but the last third of the book tells you how investors think when they’re looking at investing some money into a business, or indeed buying a business, and it will open your eyes as to the kind of things that you need to get in place if one day you’d like to sell your business as a going concern. So that’s it. Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Rich Dad’s Guide to Investment. Those are two don’t miss books.

The next one, of course, is the Fabulous E-Myth Revisited. E-myth, rightly has sold millions and millions of copies about as many as Rich Dad expects and it’s amazing for getting you to think about your business as if it was a franchise. And they talk about a pie shop, they talk about McDonald’s, they talk about all the big franchise companies, and basically the concept is that you need to create your business using processes and methods that could be duplicated, that you can actually teach to someone who’s just fresh out of high school, and you’ve got it all documented.

I was reminded of this book recently because I’ve just been writing my business memoir and I was reminded of the time I bought a 12 bedroom hotel no Money Down and within 12 weeks I’d turned it around, got it renovated, got it marketed, got it filled and opened it on time. And the thing I did after that was I created the how we Do it here manual, because I never intended to be a manager of a hotel and I still had a coaching business to run. So what I did was I created the how we Do it here manual. I’m going to be describing how I did that in my forthcoming book. But yeah, e-myth Revisited a really, really good read, rattling good stories and a great template for how to set up your business so that other people can come in and run parts of it for you and know that it’s being done the way you’d want it to be. Now, even if you’re not intending to bring anyone into your business, it’s a really good idea to know how the process works, because you can set up simple systems for yourself. I’ve just been going through re-jigging my social media content output and writing down the processes that I would, from what I do first thing in the morning to get out a different set of social media to different platforms every day, and indeed how I create the content to start with, which is where it all flows from.

Number three let’s talk about writing your business plan. I don’t believe in or I’ve written many. I’ve written many, many business plans, but I don’t believe in writing well you know five, six, 10 page detailed business plans because I think it’s just a waste of time. I think you need to know some basics and the book traction is very good for getting you to nail down those basics. The other bonus books I want to recommend to you are Getting to Plan B by Mullins and Commissar. I think it is with the K and the Lean Startup. Now, these two are more for people who want to start up traditional startup kind of businesses where they go out and get funding and then grow it very fast, not necessarily making a profit in the early days.

But I also think it’s useful for anyone who is going to start a business, because Getting to Plan B particularly made me realise that when you start a business, there’s lots of different variables. There’s the personality of the founder, the entrepreneur, there’s the type of business sector you’re in, there’s the niche within the business sector you’re going into and basically there’s so many different variables, the country you’re in and various other things, the cycle that the economic cycle is in. So, really, it’s all about having a plan and testing your theories. That’s what starting out as a business person is Having a plan, testing your theories and knowing how to tell whether you’re drawing the right conclusions from the results you’re getting. So, yeah, good backup books, but traction is the one you absolutely can’t miss, whether you’re just starting out or whether you’re going to be founding a startup.

Next one you should cram down yourself as quickly as possible is Profit First Michael McCallowitz, I think it is, yes, that’s the name and Profit First is an absolutely brilliant, brilliant book. One of the first and most important things I learned was how to. When I bought the hotel was how to manage cash flow, and I was managing it on a weekly basis. But my bank manager didn’t tell me that and my accountant didn’t tell me that. It took me meeting a couple of property entrepreneurs who were managing so many different properties that they needed to have a way of knowing exactly where their finances were on any given week, not any given month. So I started out with a simple spreadsheet and I’ve run my business and personal finances like that ever since. So I know exactly what’s happening every single week. At the beginning of the week I update it to my bank account and I know what’s happening every single week. So Profit First. The book takes it one step further. It takes it one step further in that you don’t just have your income and your outgoings and then your overheads. He tells you that you’ve got to put in a line for getting your profit out first. And, oh my God, if I’d done that for all the businesses I’ve had, the ups and downs I’ve been through, then I would have had a lot more to show for it ever since. So really, this book is a ground breaker, just like Rich Dad and Emith and all the other books I’m talking to you about Another one I’d recommend highly is it’s I never remember it was Dan Kennedy or JA Abram’s, but it’s JA Abram’s it’s called getting everything you can out of all you’ve got, and it’s all about how to be incredibly resourceful.

It’s all about how to set up business swaps, business trades, business joint ventures, how to find your customers in someone else’s database, how to go and offer a deal that the other person will be interested in, and it even talks about doing three-way swaps. So if one person isn’t interested in what you’ve got to offer, but you want something that they can offer you, then you go and find what they want. And you go and find a third person, a third party, who can then get involved in the sort of bartering system that you’re setting up. And it’s really very good and it really makes you feel incredibly empowered, especially if things are going through a rough financial cycle, which is what we’re about to go through. So it’s all about how to make the most you can, getting what you can from what you’ve already got. And I love the title, even though I can never remember how to pronounce it exactly, but yeah, that’s fantastic.

Number six go for Outliers. Outliers is an incredibly encouraging book. It’s not all about how much talent you’ve got for a certain thing. You can actually outwork the competition. Now this is Gary V material, right down to the ground. I always recommend Gary V. His books are amazing. But yeah, so I would definitely be looking at reading Outliers because it makes you feel much more hopeful that you can make it if you just outwork the competition. And I don’t mean work yourself into the ground or burn yourself out, I mean just be clever about it and spend more time than your competition might spend honing your skills and learning the bits that you need to learn to make your business a success.

Next up, number seven, is the Dan Kennedy series of books, the no BS guides. These are like the dummies guides for everything else. Well, these are the dummies guides for business, but they’re called the no BS guides. And the one that particularly jumped out at me when I was looking at the list earlier was marketing to the affluent. If you saw my last video, which was five things, five fast tips for aspiring business people, then you’ll know what I think about who to market to which hungry crowd to get in front of, and I think Dan Kennedy has definitely nailed it here how to find an affluent market, people who not only want what you’ve got to sell but who can afford to pay you for it, and that you know, looking back over my business life, that would have made my life so much easier, because I’m always trying to market things to people that need them but can’t necessarily afford to pay for them. And, of course, I wouldn’t be being a marketer myself if I didn’t mention my own two books which I still really believe are extremely valuable.

One is called the Money Gym and look for the one with the gold star on the bottom, because that’s the updated version and I’ll put link to that underneath the video here and that’s a good all-rounder about generally how people become wealthy and it’s got two very useful sections. It’s got the whole business section in it and it’s also got the whole how to build a business online and what kind of businesses you can look at. So if you haven’t decided which businesses to start yet, definitely get a hold of the Money Gym and then, when you have decided which business you want to start, get a hold of my book, attract 3.0. And if you come over to my website, I will happily give you a free copy just in return for your name and email. So come over to NicolaCairnX.com that’s like Nicola Cairncross, with just an X instead of cross. And also my website clicks and leaves. You can also get a copy of Attract 3.0 there. And, of course, if you want a paperback version, you can get it on Amazon, as you can with the Money Gym. So just look for Nicola Cairncross’s Author and then that will take you to my Author’s Page and then you can pick from any of my books. But those are the two I most recommend. The Money Gym and Attract 3.0 go beautifully with the seven other books I’ve recommended today.

Do let me know if you think I’ve missed any books out. I’ve read hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of business books and I know there are some really good ones out there, but these are the ones that I think you should absolutely definitely not miss. If you’re thinking of starting a business, speak to you soon. You’ve been listening to Nicola Cairncross on the Clicks & Leads podcast. We’ve got loads of great resources, so why don’t you come over to NicolaCairnX.com and download a few for yourself? It might help you with your business. And, of course, if you like the idea of working with me, don’t hesitate to book yourself into my diary or check out your options on the How I Can Help page.

Transcribed by https://podium.page