By Pierre DeBois - Apr 7, 2013 -
Decisions, decisions, decisions.
No matter your role in business, your daily schedule can be filled with decisions faster than seats to a Justin Bieber concert. But if you want to prevent yourself from becoming a zombie numbed by decision after decision, you should read Chip and Dan Heath’s new book, Decisive: How to Make Better Choices In Life and Work.
The Heath brothers (@heathbrothers) contacted me when their follow-up to their last book Switch, which I also reviewed, was close to release. Decisive is certainly an easy read …
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By Ivana Taylor - Apr 6, 2013 -
After a particularly down day, my husband turned to me and said, “You know what? You are your own worst enemy.”
How many times have you heard or thought that yourself? Usually, this phrase comes up when you’re being a little too critical or hard on yourself. But did you ever consider that this is actually true? I don’t mean figuratively, I mean literally true.
We all know that our brains and our evolutionary wiring hasn’t quite kept pace with our culture or environment. Our brains still act as if we’re in the stone age; …
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By Ivana Taylor - Mar 31, 2013 -
Did I ever tell you about the time my husband and I nearly broke up over a map?
We had just started dating and decided to drive down to D.C. from Philadelphia, where we lived at the time. You know the kind of spontaneous road-trip I’m talking about? It’s the one where you have this great idea and decide on the spur of the moment to throw a few things into a bag, jump in the car and head out for a romantic weekend.
It was glorious for about 90% of the trip, until I made a wrong turn into the worst part of D.C. It was getting dark, …
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By Ivana Taylor - Mar 30, 2013 -
What do you think is the most powerful component of a successful and profitable business? You might say marketing or technology – but I think it’s the business model.
When you think about all the companies that shifted and transformed how we consume products and services, you’ll notice that it was the creativity of the business model that made the difference - Blockbuster, Netflix, the Internet, Circue De Soleil and countless others that I’m sure you’ve thought of.
I realized this a long time ago and have always looked for some …
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By Howard Lewinter - Mar 24, 2013 -
One key to beating the competition is to adopt a strategy that sets your business apart. It’s important, now more than ever, that business people be aware of how competitors are marketing, hiring, protecting their intellectual property, leveraging the social media wave, deploying leadership techniques and the full complement of techniques it takes to be successful in a highly competitive business landscape.
When browsing the business books at the bookstore, online, or even at the local public library, I look for titles that not only catch …
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By Pierre DeBois - Mar 23, 2013 -
Johnson Media CEO, Kevin Johnson, (@BizWizKevin) wrote his book The Entrepreneur Mind: 100 Essential Beliefs, Characteristics, and Habits of Elite Entrepreneurs to serve business startups. But his words should have networkers’ ears as well.
When you start a business, you make choices. But how do you know you’re acting as an entrepreneur and developing the unique values of a sustainable business?
Johnson should know. He founded Johnson Media during his sophomore year in Morehouse College in Atlanta. Now, 13 years later, Johnson Media …
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By Small Business Edito… - Mar 16, 2013 -
You've finished that first business book. Whether to establish your expertise in a specific niche, build a brand for a new or existing business, or bring in additional revenue, your new book now needs to be published and placed in the hands of your target audience. You've decided to go it alone as a self-publisher, but there's just one problem.
How do you fund your first book before making even a single sale?
In a Twitter chat on Wednesday, March 13, 2013, we examined some of the approaches for raising money to fund your first …
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By Anita Campbell - Mar 10, 2013 -
Guy Kawasaki, the famed Silicon Valley venture capitalist and entrepreneur, has just been named the new board advisor for Writer.ly, a startup online marketplace for writers and the publishing industry.
Writer.ly, which debuted in late 2012, is a website where writers can assemble a team they need to publish and market their books.
On the site, writers can sign up for a free account. They build their own profile and post biddable job requests for a copy editor, book designer, ebook specialist, book marketer, and other …
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By Ivana Taylor - Mar 9, 2013 -
So you think you’re the model business owner? You seek balance, collaboration creativity, fairness, excellence, passion and preparation? Good for you.
But did you know that these virtues can easily turn into vices that hold your business back from everything you’re envisioning?
This is exactly what Jake Breeden says in his new book Tipping Sacred Cows. I received an advance review copy and was so taken by the topic, that I started reading right away. You have to admit that the premise is rather intriguing: our best intentions …
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By Pierre DeBois - Mar 3, 2013 -
In this highly competitive economy, small businesses need a strategy to flourish and grow. The question to ask yourself is: are you playing to win, not just trying to stay in the game?
With their book Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works authors Roger Martin and A.G. Lafley make the argument that delaying decisions on your strategy can have enormous consequences for your business. Martin and Lafley are both Procter and Gamble executives.
I learned about the book through a mention at Harvard Business Review and asked for a …
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By Ivana Taylor - Mar 2, 2013 -
A year or so ago, I sat in a seminar where the instructor said that we spend most of our days and our lives on autopilot. "You think that you are making choices and decisions, but you aren’t – your brain is." I knew he was right.
As much as I wanted to believe I was a highly evolved human being, I knew that deep inside, I was mostly nothing more than a stimulus-response mechanism. I mean just the other day I got in my car, I showed up at my destination and couldn’t remember what happened in between. Whaaaat?
You’ve had …
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By Pierre DeBois - Feb 24, 2013 -
With the 2013 Small Business Book Awards underway, I could not help but reminisce about my favorite small business books. I thought about the ones that made an impact on my way of thinking moving forward. I felt these books also impacted how small businesses can make a difference in their operations as well as in their community.
Without further adieu, I present my favorite small business books from 2012. I hope these inspire your thoughts for nominating your favorite small business books in this year’s awards.
No You Can’t Pick My …
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10 Marketing Books You Can't Live Without 13 
14 Books on Leadership Every Young Entrepreneur Should Read 15 
Top 10 Books About Sales 8 
Read "Rules of the Hunt" and Start Playing Successfully in Business 1 
Own Your Niche and Remove the Fear of Internet Marketing 4 
Best StartUp Books 5 
Reading The Good Fail Can Make You Successful 5 
Megan Totka
Amber
Robert Brady
Paul Teague
Ivan Widjaya - onSMB.com