Other Business Books

In my review of

Harvard Business Review On Managing Through a Downturn

posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave the book Three Stars.

Here is my review.

A collection of articles for downturns and turnarounds

The Harvard Business Review is the pre-eminent monthly business magazine for new ideas about improving business and its contributors are the top academics and practitioners.

Inevitably this means a bias towards big businesses rather than small businesses but, unlike many academic periodicals, these articles are very readable. [continue reading…]

The full title of this book by Abagail Pumphrey and Emylee Williams is

16 Formulas that Convince & 101 Headlines that Convert Readers to Leads

In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave it 3 Stars.

Here is my review.

A short book about advertising headlines

I was slightly confused by the book title because I thought the 16 formulas to convince were going to be copywriting formulas like AIDA (attention + interest + desire + action ). [continue reading…]

The full title of this book by Sammy Blindell and Miles Fryer is

The 7 Reasons Why Customers Don’t Choose YOU!: And How You Can Change That

In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave it Three Stars. This means Worthwhile.

Here is my review.

This is a book about branding and that surprised me given its title

This wasn’t the book I was expecting to read because the title doesn’t summarise the contents.

I was expecting to read about the seven reasons why people (not customers) don’t buy. Things like they don’t know you exist or they don’t believe your claims or they don’t think your value exceeds the price you charge and especially when compared to the competition. [continue reading…]

In my review of

Summary: The Sticking Point Solution: Review and Analysis of Abraham’s Book

posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave this summary Three Stars. This means it is Worthwhile.

Here is my review.

Not the place to start with Jay Abraham

I’m a very big fan of Jay Abraham ‘s ideas for developing a business and I help business owners who are stuck, get unstuck.

I should love the full book (The Sticking Point Solution) and this summary but I don’t. Perhaps part of the problem is that my expectations are sky high and it’s tough to match, let alone exceed them.

The other problem is that I don’t feel this book is well conceived or well executed. It has the feel of a book hurried out to meet a publishing deal. There’s too much crossover between the identified sticking points and that means the solutions merge into each other. It also rehashes old Abraham concepts rather than introducing much new insight.

Many of the best ideas from Jay Abraham ‘s extraordinarily careers have been borrowed by those of us who follow, often without proper credit back to this author. If you’re a business owner or entrepreneur, you need to be familiar with the main concepts but it’s much better to start with Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got: 21 Ways You Can Out-Think, Out-Perform, and Out-Earn the Competition.

I’m sorry but I thought the full book was dull but I thought I’d try through summary version in case I’d missed something. This is also dull. The ideas are valid but they’ve been expressed much better elsewhere.

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In my review of

Summary: Awakening the Entrepreneur Within Michael Gerber

posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave it 3 Stars.

Here is my review.

A condensed version of the entrepreneur’s creation process without the waffle

I admire Michael Gerber’s thinking and insight but I’m a critic of his writing.

Incredibly the indulgence increased from The E-Myth Revisited to E-Myth Mastery and increased again in Awakening the Entrepreneur Within: How Ordinary People Can Create Extraordinary Companies. The good ideas become harder to dig out and you need more resilience to make it through to the end. [continue reading…]

In my review of

Summary: The E-Myth Enterprise: Review and Analysis of Gerber’s Book

posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave it 3 Stars.

Here is my review.

Summarised update to an early Gerber book The Power Point

“The E-Myth Enterprise” is an updated and retitled version of one of his early books, “The Power Point” which has been out of print for many years.

I bought “The Power Point” when I was making the transition from, working with medium sized businesses to smaller businesses owned by entrepreneurs. At that time, I was eager to learn as much as I could about Gerber’s ideas. [continue reading…]

The full title of this book by Bard Williams

The Justification Point: What Stops Your Customers From Buying Online and How to Change It – NOW!

In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave it 3 Stars.

Here is my review.

A summary of the things that matter when selling online but not the interesting concept I’d expected

I like the idea of a “justification point” which the author describes as the “exact moment when the scale is tipped and your customer actually makes the purchase.”

Sadly the book wasn’t as good or as focused as I wanted. The subtitle of the book is “What Stops Your Customers From Buying Online and How to Change It” and therefore I was expecting a list of reasons why customers look at a webpage and decide to click away rather than move forward. [continue reading…]

The full title of this book by Jose Palomino is

Value Prop: Create Powerful I3 Value Propositions To Enter And Win New Markets

In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave it 3 Stars.

Here is my review.

This is an important topic but I thought it would be a better book

This book argues that your value proposition should meet the I3 criteria being innovative, indispensable and inspirational. In words that are easier to understand, it needs some that is new, useful and exciting. [continue reading…]

The full title of this book by Dennis Lewis is

Combat Zone: The Value Based Proposition

In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave it Three Stars.

Here is my review.

Interesting For Sales People In B2B Markets

This wasn’t the book I was expecting to read as I thought it was about strategic marketing style value propositions.

Instead this is a book about selling in B2B markets where products can be sold on the basis of financial justification e.g. a chemical company might sell a new type of fertiliser that increases wheat yields per acre by 25% over the next best alternative. Depending on what you’re selling, you can therefore explain your advantage based on costs savings, extra revenue generated, faster payback for a machine or a combination of all three. [continue reading…]