When starting
a company, there are many resources available to you with folks telling how,
why, when and where to start your business in order to become a millionaire at
an early age. Unfortunately, many, if not most, of these resources are
mediocre, misleading, or just not useful. Having access to resources to
assist you is critical for your long term success, however. Since your
time when you start your company is at a premium, you want to ensure that
every moment you spend reading relevant books is time well spent.
To assist with that goal, here
is a list of 5 books that I have found invaluable in starting my businesses.
Why not a top 10 list? Because it’s hard enough to find time to
read 5 books.If you’re starting your company a list of 10 books to read is
completely intimidating. So start with these:
The Little Red Book of Selling.
Every entrepreneur will need to know how to sell. Whether you’re
selling prospective employees on your vision, investors on your company, or
customers on your product, you need to be able to sell. Even if you have
a partner who is responsible for sales or hire a a sales person, you need to
understand a methodical sales process. This book takes you through an
industry-generic process for the sales cycle. It’s a fast read, and a
book to keep for reference. I gave one to each of my sales team members
and executives.
Good Luck: Creating the
Conditions for Success in Life and Business. I’m not normally
a fan of the business teaching-by-parable book genre, but I do like this book
as a motivational book for anyone starting their own company. Without
becoming too trite or platitudinous it is another short read that will put you
in the proper perspective for starting your company and putting your efforts
into the context of your overall life plan. This is a great book to read,
discuss with someone you trust, then give to someone else you think will benefit
from it. I’ve given this book to at least 5 or 6 people over the
years.
The Entrepreneur’s Manual.
This is an older book, out of print but a classic. It is not particularly
well organized, but an amazing compilation of insights that will come back to
you as you continue to grow your business. This is one to keep for
reference, and break open every 4-5 months to skim through the chapters.
The Portable MBA in
Entrepreneurship. Another classic reference tome, much better
organized than The Entrepreneur’s Manual with a different set of best practices
and references. Another one to keep on the bookshelf. Reference it as
needed.
3-D Negotiation.
Another critical skill for any entrepreneur is to be able to negotiate.
Much as fighting in a skilled way isn’t about wading in and swinging
wildly and aggressively without direction, negotiation isn’t about shouting
loudly and playing hardball on every point. This book is used by the Harvard Business
School for some of their executive level negotiation courses, and emphasizes
the setting of the negotiation game board before the negotiation even starts,
so that the actual tactics employed during the negotiation become secondary in
importance.
By Eric Basu
