5 Business Books Worth Reading

As I found out when you start a business there seems to be no shortage of books and advice that are readily available.  If you search amazon.com for business books, you will be presented with a list of around 2.8 million hits!  Of course you can narrow that down considerably; for example searching for starting a business gives you only 20000 books.  Which is still a hell of a lot of books.  So, if you don’t have time to sort through them all (I seemed to have a bit of free time lately, see this post for why) the titles I have listed below were the ones that I purchased and found really worthwhile.

Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki is really for people who are starting anything from a club to a potentially international company.  It’s a very motivating read and really encourages you to get moving and get started!  As Guy says in the book “no one ever got rich by planning for gold”.  This book has a different take on starting a business than your typical business book, as you are encouraged to release a product then revise based on feedback then release a revision etc, etc.  All in all it’s a great read and will give you plenty to think about.

Guerrilla Marketing by Jay Levinson.  This book is great; it really is the bible of marketing for small business but it has one downside.  This book contains heaps of low-cost or free suggestions on marketing your business.  It takes you through developing a marketing plan how to use different types of media; everything from advertising in classified section of your local newspaper through to advertising on TV.  Make no mistake, as Jay Levinson clearly illustrates successful marketing takes commitment, perseverance and consistency.  Now to the downside, this book was revised in 2007 well before social media exploded on the internet and as a result I personally found the book to be very light-on for information on social media marketing which is where many small businesses will want to focus their attention.  This doesn’t take away from the great information in the book and it is certainly worth having on your bookshelf.

Likeable Social Media by Dave Kerpen picks up right where Guerrilla Marketing leaves off and covers everything you need to know about social media marketing.  If you have never considered using social media for marketing you are missing out on a potentially massive audience.  This book will take you through how to build an audience and generate the all important “like”, how to respond to both positive and negative comments and the importance of providing value, i.e. giving stuff for free, and how to integrate social media into your entire customer experience.  I particularly liked the sections that dealt with how to use the various search features in Facebook and Twitter so you find out what people are saying about your company.  I also enjoyed the emphasis on engaging with your customers and how to get them involved in your social media presence be it your Facebook page or Twitter account.

Start Your Own Business from the people who bring you Entrepreneur magazine.  This book is more like your traditional business start-up book and contains several / many exercises that involve self-analysis and reflection which are designed to determine if starting your own business is right for you.  With these types of questionnaires it’s very easy to say yes you are prepared to work hard and work long hours, but really you will never really know what you will do unless you give it a go.  This is a rather large book at over 750 pages and as you would expect considering it’s length includes sections planning and researching, funding you business, setting up basic systems, marketing, hiring staff and buying equipment.  It’s well written and is full of useful tips and suggestions and is worth having in your collection.

How to Write a Business Plan by Mike McKeever.  The dreaded business plan!  Is there a better way to go insane than to lock yourself away for a couple of weeks and write a business plan?  Thankfully, How to Write a Business Plan makes the task a little easier (it’s still not a whole heap of fun though).  Art of the Start mentioned above actively encourages you to avoid writing a business plan when you are first starting up, however, if you need to source funding from just about anyone you are going to need a business plan.  You can use this book to create everything from a complete well thought out business plan through to a what they call quick plan which you can put together in a day (it can make for a very long day).  Like Start Your Own Business there are many checklists and work sheets to go through but if you do them if makes you seriously consider financial viability of the business you are planning on starting.  Oh and the really good thing about this book is that it comes with a CD-ROM that contains spreadsheets and sample business plans that you can use in creating your own business plan.

So there you have it, my top 5 business books worth reading.  Are there any that you think I have missed?  What would you recommend?

Logo Design

Once you have thought of and registered your business name (and hopefully your domain name too), it’s time to consider the visual look of your business.  Essentially this comes down to the design of your logo and the colours you use.

The name of your business and its logo both establish the visual look of your business and work to create the first impressions your clients will have of your company.  For a logo to be effective it should be

• simple.
• memorable.
• timeless.
• appropriate.
• versatile.

It’s worth spending some time giving serious thought to the colours used in your logo and there are many excellent resources on the web about how colour choice can communicate different meanings.  For example, Smashing Magazine has two great articles on colour theory that are well worth looking at (part I and part II).  In very simple terms warm colours such as red, orange and yellow are regarded as being energising and positive, while cool colours such as green, blue, and purple are viewed as being reserved and relaxing.  Much more information is available in the two-part article linked to above.

Unless you are a graphic designer experienced in logo design I believe it is better to hire a professional graphic design company to do the work for you.  Sure there are sites on the internet which allow you to design your own logo, heck you can even run a logo design competition if you really want to which will give you up to dozens of designs to choose from.

Personally, I think getting your logo right and being able to discuss concepts with the designer is much more important which is why I used Impact Logos in Brisbane, Australia to design the logo for my photography website.  For a couple of hundred dollars they designed three concepts and then from the one that I chose gave me unlimited revisions until I was happy with the design.  They then designed both my business cards and letterhead stationery.  Throughout the process their communication was amazing and they delivered the final products within a week.  Can’t beat that!

If you would like to have a look at how my logo turned out then head over to my website at www.aaronstottphotography.com.au.

Choosing a Name for Your Business

Having decided to into business, it quickly becomes apparent that you need to think of a name for your company.  What to name your business it very important and should be given quite a lot of thought.  Your business name is typically the first encounter the public will have with your company and it therefore needs to give a good impression.  There are some excellent resources on the web that are well worth reading about how to choose a business name (see Entrepreneur Magazine, Inc Magazine, for example).

Some general tips on naming your business include:

• the name should be memorable,
• it should be original,
• be easy to pronounce and spell,
• ideally communicate what your business does.

In some ways the choice of name can be influenced by the way you choose to structure your business.  For myself operating a photography business as a sole trader I chose to call my business Aaron Stott Photography.

While this name sounds obvious it wasn’t the first one that I chose!  For several weeks I went through a brain storming process which frequently involved annoying my partner multiple times a day to ask for her opinion of different names; needless to say she soon got very sick of hearing about it.  I had names that ranged from Chroma Studios through to Strobeworks Photography, and many different variations in-between.

So why after all that did I choose to use my own name as the business name?

Well I realised that I am offering my services as a photographer to my prospective clients and that they need to know that they are going to be interacting with me directly to delivery the best outcome for them.  If I had of named my business one of the alternatives that I considered then clients would not know who they are going to be talking with let alone who would be working with them to create their photographs.

Having settled on a name you will then need to check to see if its available for use and that it has not been previously registered by someone else.  In Australia this can be done (from 28 May 2012) at the ASIC website, in the United States the Small Business Administration contains details on how to check for availability.  Unfortunately if your name has been already registered its back to the drawing board.

One last thing that will need to be checked is your names availability as a domain name, once again if someone else has registered a website with a name that you have thought of you will most likely have to start again.  Domain names can be checked at any domain name registrar, for example godaddy.com in the United States and crazydomains.com.au in Australia.