In my review of
by Julian Flynn posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave the book Three Stars. This means Worthwhile.
Here is my review.
This is a short, practical guide to use good practices in your personal training to keep clients.
In many ways, what’s in this book is just common sense. e.g. chapter 1 is set goals and get an idea of what the client wants. [continue reading…]
The full title of the book by Bedros Keuilian is
In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave it Two Stars.
Here is my review.
This book has an ambition title, to teach readers how to start and grow a 6 figure fitness boot camp business.
I don’t think it succeeds. [continue reading…]
The full title of this book by Saman Bakhtiar is
In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave the book Two Stars.
Here is my review.
After reading this book I’ve realised that it’s possible to write two books about email for fitness businesses:
1 – The technical side of email marketing (this book)
2 – The marketing side of sending emails to customers and prospects interested in fitness (the book I wanted to read). [continue reading…]
The full title of the book by John Spencer Ellis is
In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave it 3 Stars.
Here is my review.
This is a hard talking short book designed to shake you any out of any lethargy you have towards your marketing.
As the author says, if your business isn’t giving you what you want, then something isn’t right and you need to change it. [continue reading…]
The full title of this book by Pat Rigsby is
In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave it 3 Stars.
Here is my review.
Many business owners don’t like selling because they don’t see it as the route to helping people. Instead selling is seen as sleazy and about manipulating people to buy what they don’t want. [continue reading…]
The full title of this book by Debra Atkinson is
In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave the book Two Stars. This means Disappointing.
Here is my review.
Marketers refer to headlines when they mean the first words that are read. It may be the few words at the top of an advertisement, an email subject line, a blog post title (or even a book title).
The aim of the headline is:
a) to attract your attention; and
b) to encourage you to read more.
The full title of this book by Lisa Shaughnessy is
In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave it 3 Stars and means it is Worthwhile
Here is my review.
Shares the experience of people who have been there
Personally I found the style of the book irritating. It builds up the contents from quotes of people who have been successful in building up fitness businesses themselves.
It’s an interesting idea and I can imagine that some owners with a fitness business will like it a lot but I prefer books that are easier to read.
I read the Kindle version and part of my problem is that i struggled to see where the examples of those owners finished and where the author’s ideas started again. If the examples were in italics, I could have read the theory first and then read the applied examples which I’d have found easier. The physical book may not have this problem.
I haven’t asked for my money back (yet) because I want to come back to it when I’m feeling more tolerant and less grumpy. Then I may be prepared to put in the effort to get out the nuggets of insight but at the moment, I feel like it’s going to be hard work.
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The full title of this book by Fritz Richard is
In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave it 1 Star.
Here is my review.
Feeble.
I can’t understand why the author has been so skimpy in what has been written.
I wonder if this has been a bad conversion to kindle as the Amazon page indicates that it’s 4 pages long while the paperback is listed as 30 pages. I wondered if I’d just downloaded the sample when I thought I’d meant to press the buy book button but there was the £1.95 in my orders.
I’m a business coach who believes in direct marketing and I bought the book because I’ve started to work with a new client in the health and fitness market. I thought it might give me a few ideas for campaigns.
If this is it, I wouldn’t bother because I’m asking for my money back.
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The full title of this book by Perry Marshall is
In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave it Three Stars.
Here is my review, which has been slightly extended.
I’m on Perry Marshall’s email list and it’s one of the few that I regularly pay attention to. I also enjoyed his book on Adwords but I was disappointed in this book.
I believe in the 80/20 principle and it’s something that I’ve used for years as a way to help business owners focus on the few things that really matter. I hoped the book would reveal plenty of new concepts to me that I could use with my clients but it didn’t.
One of the big ideas in the book is that the 20% that produce the 80% can be further divided. That means that 4% (20% of 20%) of customers can produce 64% (80% of 80%) of revenue. And then divided again and again until there is a tiny number of customers who individually spend a fortune.
If you have a business, does that sound likely to you? Does the 80/20 principle keep doubling up?
If not, can it be made to? Can you find customers who will buy an ultra high priced version of your product or service, 10, 100 or even 1,000 times more expensive than normal?
It naturally works in Perry’s business as an information marketer and business advisor. The book is a low cost product, recorded courses, live courses and then one to one consulting escalate prices rapidly and naturally provide opportunities for people who want to trade up. The book at the moment costs £9 for the Kindle version and Perry will have plenty of clients who will pay him 1000 times that £9 (i.e. £9,000) and even much more.
This 80/20 escalation principle will work in some other markets but I don’t believe it applies to across the board because brands are often not transportable across vastly different market segments.
At a certain price for a car, you’ll want to move from a Ford to a Ferrari and so will your customers.
I also know the 80/20 is more generalisation than fact. In my experience, sometimes it is closer to 70/30 and other times 90/10 or 60/5 (it doesn’t have to add up to 100). This varying split is also likely to apply to the continuing divisions.
The book goes on to cover some general direct response marketing ideas which are useful for new readers but much better covered elsewhere before other ways that the 80/20 rule can help you outside of marketing.
It’s not a bad book. If you’re not familiar with the idea or thought through practical issues like “how can you get more of the high spending customers?”, then you will get some aha moments.
Unfortunately I expected much more and I was left feeling disappointed. I advise you to read the original 80/20 books by Richard Koch in preference to this book.
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In my review of
by Stephen J. Genco, Andrew P. Pohlmann and Peter Steidl posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave the book Three Stars. This means Worthwhile.
Here is my review.
This is quite a technical introductory book about the exciting, relatively new field of neuromarketing. If I’d have been reading it for study rather than practical purposes, I’d have finished up with a long list of definitions to learn. [continue reading…]
I was a consultant, small business coach and advisor based in Birmingham, with over 35 years business experience, including more than 20 years as self employed.
My main business qualifications are:
– Chartered Accountant
– MBA
– Certified Guerilla Marketing Coach
My main interests are in helping business owners who are stuck get unstuck by thinking more clearly about their issues and possible solutions.
I no longer provide professional business coaching but I will be sharing more ideas on my blog and will continue my popular business book reviews.
I can be contacted by email at Paul@BusinessDevelopmentAdvice.com
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