I’d always wanted to start my own business, but not knowing anyone who’d done it before meant I had no idea how to get started and even less of a clue about what I should be doing on a day to day basis to actually run said business.
There’s a lot more to it than posting ‘perfect’ pictures on Social Media. For a business owner, Social Media is a business tool, that requires a strategy to ensure you are using it and it’s not using you!
Do your research
If you hate your job and want to start your own business below are five books I recommend you read. Each book will give you another piece of the puzzle (there are many pieces, but these books are a great place to start).
Some of them I read prior to starting my own business (evening, weekends, on my lunch break and during my commute), some I wish I had read and some were published after I had already started.
Along with the book recommendations, I’ll also share what each book taught me, to help you decide where to start.
No one’s journey is the same and it’s certainly not a straight line for anyone, but I feel it’s my duty to share some insights now more than ever.
The Corona Virus Global Pandemic has fundamentally changed the work and business world on so many levels and put the onus on the individual to self-educate and upskill if they want to remain relevant and take control of their business/life/career (more on that in another post).
Book recommendations if you want to start your own business
1. Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! Mass Market by Robert Kiyosaki
Rich Dad Poor Dad is Robert’s story of growing up with two dads — his real father and the father of his best friend, his rich dad — and the ways in which both men shaped his thoughts about money and investing. The book explodes the myth that you need to earn a high income to be rich and explains the difference between working for money and having your money work for you.
This was one of the first books I read prior to starting my business. Many of us were raised by people who were raised by people, who were raised by people, who were raised by people…who had little or no understanding about money, how to earn it, how to make it, how to receive it, how to retain it and how to recirculate it.
This book will get you on the path to seeing money for what it is, something we give to get something we want, something we earn/receive for something we do, something we retain for use at some point in the future, and something we are happy to recirculate on the basis we know money is flow and there is plenty more where that came from (abundance v scarcity mindset).
2. The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael Gerber
This book walks you through the steps in the life of a business—from entrepreneurial infancy through adolescent growing pains to the mature entrepreneurial perspective: the guiding light of all businesses that succeed—Learn the distinction between working on your business and working in your business.
I read this book in late 2019 and wish I’d known about it when it was written in 2001 the first half of the book goes into great depth about the 3 major job roles a business owner has to fill from the get-go until they can build their team.
This book will help you understand more of what goes on in a business on a day-to-day basis.
3. She Means Business: Turn Your Ideas into Reality and Become a Wildly Successful Entrepreneur by Carrie Green
The purpose of this book is to inspire and empower these women to take back control of their mind, their ideas, and businesses, and to provide strategies for them to make it happen.
I read this book as soon as it was published in 2017 and I love it. The author Carrie Green takes you on a journey, her journey of growing her global membership community FEA. If you want inspiration for what’s possible as well as exercises (journaling prompts etc) then this is the book for you.
4. Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown
Being an Essentialist is about a disciplined way of thinking. It means challenging the core assumption of ‘We can have it all’ and ‘I have to do everything’ and replacing it with the pursuit of ‘the right thing, in the right way, at the right time’.
This is another one of those books I was late to the party reading, but I’m grateful I read it when I did, it blew my mind. This book is for anyone that wants to learn how to simplify their business, life, career. We don’t need to do it all to have it, and all once we learn how to use discipline as a tool we will also learn how to increase our productivity by doing less not more!
5. Time Management for Entrepreneurs & Professionals by Abigail Barnes
Have you ever stopped to calculate
the real cost to your work/life
of the time that you waste?
– Learn how to set goals you achieve to create the work/life balance you want
– Learn how to turn your time into productivity
I wrote this book as a step by step guide to help Entrepreneurs and Professionals regain control of their time, change what needs changing and create the life they want to be living while maximising the time they have. Most people don’t have enough time for their current life, let alone have time to plan for the future! This book will help you take to be more productive with the time you have, giving you enough to focus on your Business Plan.
Commit to a life of learning
I can’t wait to hear which books you buy and what you discover from reading them. Whatever happens, as the world and economies recover in their own time, you can still control the dreams you have, what you choose to learn, the actions you take, and the life you create one step at a time!
There has never been a better time to get started.
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There is no worse feeling than knowing what you need to do next, but having no idea where to start, why you are procrastinating and how to turn things around.
Knowledge isn’t power, it’s potential power. The problem isn’t that you don’t know what to do, the problem is that you don’t have a plan that you can get behind.
It’s almost impossible to plan when you feel overwhelmed, hopeless and are ping-ponging between panic and euphoria, imposter syndrome and purpose.
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