Best Business Book Reviews By Paul Simister

The One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard & Spencer Johnson

Book Review – 5 Stars

If you have problems managing your team then I highly recommend this short, simple, easy to read The One Minute Manager.

The One Minute Manager – Simple Ideas Make A Big Difference To How Well Your Employees Work

The big ideas in the One Minute Manager book come down to three simple techniques

• One Minute Goal Setting

• One Minute Praisings

• One Minute Reprimands

That is all there is to it. [continue reading…]

Guerrilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson

Book Review Rating – 5 Stars

The full title of this book is “Guerrilla Marketing: Easy and Inexpensive Strategies For Making Big Profits From Your Small Business, 4th Edition” by Jay Conrad Levinson.

There is a very large variety of Guerrilla Marketing books available from Amazon but this is the updated version of the first.

The Background To Guerrilla Marketing

It started in 1983 when Jay Conrad Levinson was lecturing at the University of California in Berkeley and he was asked to recommend a good small business marketing book to his students.

He searched various libraries but he couldn’t find anything suitable.

All the marketing books were written on the basis that there was a large marketing budget to spend on advertising and other promotional methods each month to build a brand and to increase brand awareness. While this was his own background, he knew the vast majority of business owners couldn’t do this type of marketing. [continue reading…]

Getting Everything You Can Out Of All You’ve Got
by Jay Abraham

Book Review 5 Stars

The full title of this book is “Getting Everything You Can Out Of All You’ve Got – 21 Ways You Can Out-Think, Out-Perform, and Out-Earn the Competition”

I Didn’t Like It At First

Strangely “Getting Everything You Can” was a book that when I first bought and tried to read it, I didn’t like it at all.

Just as with “The E Myth Revisited“, this Jay Abraham book is written from the practical, real world side rather than theory but unlike its title suggests, it is not a “21 steps to take” style book.

My advice is to stick with this Jay Abraham book or make sure you come back to it.

The key messages are profound. [continue reading…]

The E Myth Revisited by Michael E Gerber 

Book Review – 5 Stars

I believe this book, “The E Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work And What To Do About It” is a must read for every business owner and entrepreneur.

I don’t think you’ll enjoy it but there are some key lessons.

What Is All The Fuss About With The E Myth Revisited?

Several people recommended this book by Michael Gerber to me and when I first read it I didn’t get it.

The style of writing didn’t suit me.

I couldn’t empathise with the story of Sarah and her business All About Pies.

I didn’t want to help turn a client’s business into the McDonald’s of their industry. And I don’t think they want that either.

The writing is soppy and sentimental when I prefer hard nosed, content rich, practical business books.

The E Myth Revisited didn’t tell me “how” to change a business for the better. [continue reading…]

The Hidden Obstacles To Your Success by Rich Schefren

Book Review – 5 Stars

Rich Schefren made his name by writing excellent free reports for Internet marketing entrepreneurs starting with the Internet Business Manifesto to promote premium priced training courses.

You can see details of them if you click on the link below: [continue reading…]

The full title of this book by Lee Duncan is

“Double Your Business: How to break through the barriers to higher growth, turnover and profit“.

In my review posted to Amazon.co.uk, I gave the book Five Stars. This means I think iy=t is Excellent and is Very Highly Recommended.

Here is my book review.

Fix your constraints or growth barriers and grow your business to the size you want.

In his book “Double Your Business”, the author, Lee Duncan has revealed how any business owner can grow their business to the size that suits them.

He takes what some may find a counter-intuitive approach although it’s one I entirely agree with.

Some business owners may think that growing a business is easy. You just spend more money on marketing. This should mean you attract more leads, convert a fair share of them to customers and then the business automatically grows. While that might work, it might not if you don’t take into account your constraints, the very things that are holding you and your business back. [continue reading…]

The full title of this book by Lisa J. Scheinkopf is

Thinking for a Change: Putting the TOC Thinking Processes to Use

In my review posted on Amazon.co,uk, I gave the book Five Stars. This means it is Excellent and Very Highly Recommended.

Here is my book review.

A Big Improvement On It’s Not Luck

I found “It’s Not Luck” by Eli Goldratt a frustrating read.

The Theory of Constraints Thinking Processes were clearly powerful tools for diagnosing problems and implementing solutions and taking TOC out of the factory floor and into the boardrooms. But I found the tools abstract and confusing. [continue reading…]

The full title of this book by Richard Walsh is

The Start Your Own Business Bible: 501 New Ventures You Can Launch Today

In my review on Amazon.co.uk, I rated the book at 4 Stars. This means it is good to very good.

Here is my review.

As a business coach, I sometimes get calls that start with “I want to start a business but I don’t know what kind. Can you tell me a business where I can make a lot of money?”

The short answer is No. It depends so much on you and where your skills, interests and passions lie.

But this book gives you some answers to that question. It tells you about 501 different ideas for starting a business separated into categories based on how much money is needed.

For each business idea, you get a concise summary of what’s required which will help you to narrow your focus. Then you can start to research deeper into the particular business types that interest you. Not all the businesses will be practical. You can’t suddenly become a lawyer, an accountant or architect because you normally need to get a degree and then take professional qualifications. The journey can be long before you reach the end. Other types of business, including what I do as a business coach, don’t have any of these mandatory qualifications but it’s still best to get relevant experience before you risk starting a business.

As a general rule, the harder it is to get into a particular type of business, the more money you can make. That’s a simple application of supply and demand. If demand is high and supply is short, prices are high but it will attract new people unless it’s tough to break through and become established.

If you already know what business you want to start, then this book isn’t for you. If you see it in a bookshop, it’s worth reading what it says. When you already know the business type, there are plenty of niche specific business books on Amazon so search for the “(trade or profession) + marketing” or “starting a (trade or profession) business”. Just be wary of authors who take a cookie cutter approach and have written the same book for many types of businesses by using the find and replace facility in Word. With care, you can find books written by genuine experts in the trade you’re interested in.

I don’t understand why there are so many bad reviews. What can people expect from a book that takes a short look at so many types of business.

I originated rated this book with Five Stars but because time has passed with an update, I’ve knocked one star off.

You can buy the book from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

The full title of this book by Rob Warlow is

“Loan Sharp: Get the business finance you deserve“.

In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave the book Five Stars. This means it is Excellent and Very Highly Recommended.

Here is my book review.

The key to your banker’s mind

Loan Sharp is an excellent book from Rob Warlow packed with practical tips on how you can get the business finance you need.

What makes the book so special is that the author takes you into the world of the small business banker so you can see how and why they make the decisions they do. [continue reading…]