FCB #022: 12 Books to Help You Grow Your Business

Introduction

To succeed as a business owner, must learn and master four key areas:

1. Vision & Mindset
2. Strategy & Planning
3. Systems & Automation
4. Hiring, Training & Delegating

In this issue, I’m going to share 12 of the best books to help you do just that.

Read these over the next 12 months, apply what you learn, and you'll be able to grow 2X, transform your business, and set yourself free.

1. The E-Myth Revisited
2. Becoming a Strategic Business Owner
3. Run Your Business, Don’t Let It Run You
4. Traction
5. Get A Grip
6. Work the System
7. System Busters
8. The 4-Hour Workweek
9. Automate Your Busywork
10. Who
11. Hire Train Retain
12. The Business Playbook

Vision & Mindset

1 - The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It, by Michael E. Gerber

From Calvin:

This is the book that started it all for me. Second time I read this the light bulb got switched on upstairs. I learned I needed to create a franchise prototype for my business, working on my business not just working in my business. That made all the difference. This book is No. 1 on my list for good reason.

From Amazon:

E-Myth \ 'e-,'mith\ n 1: the entrepreneurial myth: the myth that most people who start small businesses are entrepreneurs 2: the fatal assumption that an individual who understands the technical work of a business can successfully run a business that does that technical work

Voted No. 1 business book by Inc. 500 CEOs.

An instant classic, this revised and updated edition of the phenomenal bestseller dispels the myths about starting your own business.

Small business consultant and author Michael E. Gerber, with sharp insight gained from years of experience, points out how common assumptions, expectations, and even technical expertise can get in the way of running a successful business.

Gerber walks you through the steps in the life of a business—from entrepreneurial infancy through adolescent growing pains to the mature entrepreneurial perspective: the guiding light of all businesses that succeed—and shows how to apply the lessons of franchising to any business, whether or not it is a franchise.

Most importantly, Gerber draws the vital, often overlooked distinction between working on your business and working in your business.

The E-Myth Revisited will help you grow your business in a productive, assured way.

2 - Becoming a Strategic Business Owner: A Proven Process to Enhance Your Strategic Mindset, by Daniel M. Murphy

From Calvin:

The was the second book I read after I'd finished The E-Myth Revisited. Kind of like the Bible for me as it was a very painful mirror revealing exactly who I was at that stage of my business ownership career and what I needed to start focusing on. It was a very painful read for me, but one of the best books I've read.

From Amazon:

This book helps owners to face reality - to see what is working and what is not working in their lives and businesses. It helps them to burn off the fog that keeps them from seeing their businesses and personal lives for what they really are - not as they wish, hope or dream them to be.

This book shows you how to remove the clutter and non-essential stuff from your days. To prevent you from wasting your time, talents and life-force on the wrong activities.

Rather, this book helps you to identify the highest and best use of your time and talents - getting you focused on the vital few activities that produce massive results. This resource should help you to better learn about yourself and what you truly desire from life and your business.

After all, knowing who you are, what you want and where you are going creates a powerful sense of clarity.

3 - Run Your Business, Don’t Let It Run You: Aileron’s Practical Guide For Helping Businesses Grow, by Clay Mathile

From Calvin:

After reading this book, I also read Clay Mathile's book Dream No Little Dreams. I was so inspired by both that I flew back to Dayton, Ohio, to Aileron, and took their Course for Presidents and subsequently worked with one of Aileron's business coaches virtually for a year. Some of the best money I've ever invested.

From Amazon:

No More 16-Hour Days!

Running your own business—the American dream—can be daunting: long days, none of the freedom you envisioned, no time for family and friends, and the unrelenting pressure to keep up the pace. Worse, all this hard work can only take you so far.

To get to the next level, you need to stop being “Super-Employee” and become a leader who sets direction, operationalizes goals, monitors and controls results, and involves others. You need to run your business using an integrated professional management system (emphasis mine).

Clay Mathile, who grew the Iams Company from $500K to $1 billion in sales, discusses proven management fundamentals applied in a practical way, one that has been used by thousands of business owners.

You’ll get real-world details that academic courses don’t teach—true stories from those who, like Mathile, implemented these fundamentals and thrived. Read this book and discover how to make your business more successful and sustainable and your life more fulfilling!

Strategy & Planning

4 - Traction: Get A Grip On Your Business, by Gino Wickman

From Calvin:

After spending over $100,000 on numerous high-end coaching programs, I finally found Gino Wickman and his Entrepreneurial Operating System, or EOS, as espoused in his books Traction and Get A Grip. We self-implemented EOS in our company and the rest is history.

This is THE professional management system for small businesses.

From Amazon:

Do you have a grip on your business, or does your business have a grip on you.

All entrepreneurs and business leaders face similar frustrations—personnel conflict, profit woes, and inadequate growth. Decisions never seem to get made, or, once made, fail to be properly implemented.

But there is a solution. It's not complicated or theoretical.The Entrepreneurial Operating System® is a practical method for achieving the business success you have always envisioned. More than 80,000 companies have discovered what EOS can do.

In Traction, you'll learn the secrets of strengthening the six key components of your business. You'll discover simple yet powerful ways to run your company that will give you and your leadership team more focus, more growth, and more enjoyment.

Successful companies are applying Traction every day to run profitable, frustration-free businesses—and you can too. For an illustrative, real-world lesson on how to apply Traction to your business, check out its companion book, Get A Grip.

5 - Get A Grip: How To Get Everything You Want From Your Entrepreneurial Business, by Gino Wickman & Mike Paton

From Calvin:

If Traction is the how-to playbook for implementing a professional management system into your business, then Get A Grip is a fable of one company's EOS journey and how they implemented it using an EOS implementer.

We didn't have the money for an expensive EOS implementer and, instead, self-implemented EOS ourselves, using Traction and Get A Grip as our guides. I can help you do the same for a fraction of the cost of an EOS implementer.

From Amazon:

It’s time to take your business to the next level.

Eileen Sharp and Vic Hightower were frustrated. After years of profitable, predictable growth, Swan Services was in a rut. Meetings were called and discussions held, but few decisions were made and even less got done.

People were pointing fingers and assigning blame, but nothing happened to solve Swan’s mounting problems. It felt as though they were working harder than ever but with less impact. The company Eileen and Vic had founded and built for 10 years was a different place.

Their story is not unusual, and the challenges they were facing are common—and solvable. Get A Grip tells the story of how Swan Services resolves its issues by implementing the Entrepreneurial Operating System®.

With the help of EOS, Eileen, Vic, and their leadership team learn to develop and commit to a clear vision, establish focus, build discipline, and create a healthier and more cohesive team.

The story of Swan Services is a fable, but the Entrepreneurial Operating System®, a complete entrepreneurial toolkit, is very real and has helped thousands of businesses worldwide.

With characters and situations created from collective business experiences and stories, Get A Grip is a fable that will ring true for entrepreneurial leaders the world over and guide them to get their companies on track.

Systems & Automation

6 - Work The System: The Simple Mechanics Of Making More And Working Less, by Sam Carpenter

From Calvin:

This book of Sam's and The Checklist Manifesto, by Atul Gawande, are probably the two best books to help shift your mindset about systemization. We worked with Sam and his organization for a year to help us kick-start our business process documentation and systemization efforts. Again, money well spent.

From Amazon:

A simple mindset tweak will change your life.

It started with a midnight insight. After a fifteen-year nightmare of coping with his struggling business, Sam Carpenter discovered and then developed a simple methodology that knocked his routine 80-hour workweek down to zero, while multiplying his net income by a factor of 100.

Now, in 2021, here's his bestselling business book, revised yet again, showing how you too can instantly break free to build the business and life of your dreams.

In this fourth edition of Work the System, Carpenter reveals the profound insight and exact uncomplicated, mechanical steps he took to turn his business and his life around. Once you ''get'' this new vision, success and serenity will come quickly. You will learn to:

• Make a simple perception adjustment that will change your life forever.
• See your world as a logical collection of linear systems that you can control.
• Manage the systems that produce results in your business and your life.
• Stop fire killing and become a fire-control specialist.
• Maximize profit, create client loyalty, and develop enthusiastic employees.
• Identify insidious ''errors of omission.''
• Maximize your biological and mechanical ''prime time'' so that you are working at optimum efficiency.
• Design the life you want and then, in the real world, create it!

You can keep doing what you've always done and continue getting unsatisfactory results. Or you can find the peace and freedom you've always wanted by transforming your businesses or corporate department into a finely tuned machine that runs smoothly and profitably on autopilot.

7 - System Busters: How to Stop Them in Your Business, by Philip Paul Beyer

From Calvin:

Philip, like Clay Mathile, is one of my business owner heroes. He fully systemized his printing business and built a commercial software product (System 100) which allows other printing companies to do the same more easily. This book is gold.

From Amazon:

THIS BOOK IS FOR YOU if your answer is Yes to any of the following questions:

• Troubled with CHAOS in your business?
• LOSING MONEY due to wasted time and resources?
• Stressed over MISTAKES recurring over and over?
• MISSED DEADLINES causing panic?
• Working LONG HOURS training and retraining personnel?
• OVERWORKED and no time for personal life?
• FRUSTRATED keeping your business clean and orderly?
• Constant INTERRUPTIONS with the same questions?

THIS BOOK IS ALSO FOR . . .

• Those who want to learn how to organize and turnkey any type of business or organization service or manufacturing;
• Those who may not have a business education or training, but who have the drive and vision to launch their own business;
• Managers of small-to-large companies and organizations who want to improve their skills and see their company grow and prosper.

AND FOR THOSE OF YOU who have many years of business education and experience, I feel confident you will pick up a few priceless nuggets of fine gold they were mined under extreme pressure!

8 - The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, And Join The New Rich, by Timothy Ferriss

From Calvin:

Tim is a genius, in my opinion, and this book helped fuel the current tsunami of online content creators, including older encore solopreneurs like yours truly! His tips and how-to's on systemization and automation are truly invaluable.

If you struggle with your email, need a VA, and want to take your business to the next level here in the digital/information age, READ THIS BOOK.

From Amazon:

The New York Times bestselling author of The 4-Hour Body shows readers how to live more and work less, now with more than 100 pages of new, cutting-edge content.

Forget the old concept of retirement and the rest of the deferred-life plan–there is no need to wait and every reason not to, especially in unpredictable economic times.

Whether your dream is escaping the rat race, experiencing high-end world travel, or earning a monthly five-figure income with zero management, The 4-Hour Workweek is the blueprint.

This step-by-step guide to luxury lifestyle design teaches:

• How Tim went from $40,000 per year and 80 hours per week to $40,000 per month and 4 hours per week
• How to outsource your life to overseas virtual assistants for $5 per hour and do whatever you want
• How blue-chip escape artists travel the world without quitting their jobs
• How to eliminate 50% of your work in 48 hours using the principles of a forgotten Italian economist
• How to trade a long-haul career for short work bursts and frequent “mini-retirements”

The new expanded edition of Tim Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Workweek includes:

• More than 50 practical tips and case studies from readers (including families) who have doubled income, overcome common sticking points, and reinvented themselves using the original book as a starting point
• Real-world templates you can copy for eliminating e-mail, negotiating with bosses and clients, or getting a private chef for less than $8 a meal
• How Lifestyle Design principles can be suited to unpredictable economic times
• The latest tools and tricks, as well as high-tech shortcuts, for living like a diplomat or millionaire without being either

9 - Automate Your Busywork: Do Less, Achieve More, and Save Your Brain for the Big Stuff, by Aytekin Tank

From Calvin:

Honestly, I just bought this book but haven't read it yet. But I HAVE perused its TOC and contents and it looks like a fantastic playbook for how you can use "no-code" automation tools (I highly recommend SmartSuite) to transform your business.

I used a low-code relational database platform called QuickBase to revolutionize my business before I sold it for 7 figures. If I was going to do it again today, I would SmartSuite and leverage everything in this excellent new book on automation.

From Amazon:

Wall Street Journal Bestseller | Publisher's Weekly Bestseller

Learn to automate your busywork and focus on what really matters.

In Automate Your Busywork: Do Less, Achieve More, and Save Your Brain for the Big Stuff, entrepreneur, founder, and CEO of Jotform Aytekin Tank delivers a can’t-miss blueprint to help you make the most of your most precious asset: time.

You’ll explore what’s possible when you offload repetitive tasks, why automation has democratized innovation, and how you can use cheap―or even completely free―no-code automation tools to transform your ability to focus on what truly matters in your business and life. 

In the book, you’ll discover: 

• Why the future of business is no-code, and how you can use an automation-first mindset to unlock your productivity potential 
• How to move from busywork to less work, and finally to having the time you need to accomplish your most important work 
• How you can use delegation and automation to achieve “timefulness,” the state of having enough time 

A must-read handbook for every entrepreneur, founder, business owner, and freelancer who just doesn’t have enough hours in the day, Automate Your Busywork will also earn a place in the libraries of managers, executives, and other business leaders looking to maximize their most valuable resource. 

Hiring, Training & Delegating

10 - Who: The A Method for Hiring, by Geoff Smart & Randy Street

From Calvin:

Geoff's dad (Brad Smart) wrote Topgrading, which was sort of the Bible for how to hire A Players for your business. Geoff and Randy have their own company, and this is their take on basically the same process, but in simpler terms that are easier to understand and implement, I think.

This book will be very helpful if you have over 10 employees, preferably over 25, and are wanting to develop a truly systemized recruiting process. We combined these principles with a semi-automated recruting system leveraging Zoho Recruit, one of the over 50 integrated apps in the Zoho One ecosystem.

From Amazon:

In this instant New York Times Bestseller, Geoff Smart and Randy Street provide a simple, practical, and effective solution to what The Economist calls “the single biggest problem in business today”: unsuccessful hiring.

The average hiring mistake costs a company $1.5 million or more a year and countless wasted hours. This statistic becomes even more startling when you consider that the typical hiring success rate of managers is only 50 percent.

The silver lining is that “who” problems are easily preventable. Based on more than 1,300 hours of interviews with more than 20 billionaires and 300 CEOs, Who presents Smart and Street’s A Method for Hiring.

Refined through the largest research study of its kind ever undertaken, the A Method stresses fundamental elements that anyone can implement–and it has a 90 percent success rate.

Whether you’re a member of a board of directors looking for a new CEO, the owner of a small business searching for the right people to make your company grow, or a parent in need of a new babysitter, it’s all about Who. Inside you’ll learn how to:

• avoid common “voodoo hiring” methods
• define the outcomes you seek
• generate a flow of A Players to your team–by implementing the No. 1 tactic used by successful businesspeople
• ask the right interview questions to dramatically improve your ability to quickly distinguish an A Player from a B or C candidate
• attract the person you want to hire, by emphasizing the points the candidate cares about most

In business, you are who you hire. In Who, Geoff Smart and Randy Street offer simple, easy-to-follow steps that will put the right people in place for optimal success.

11 - Hire Train Retain: How to Get the Right People in the Right Roles Doing the Right Things, by Michael Matalone

From Calvin:

I met Mike Matalone in the Maui Mastermind high-end coaching program and used him and his company XP3 Talent System to help scale my company. Mike knows his stuff when it comes to systemizing the recruiting, hiring, and training process. This book is a must read for business owners wanting to scale.

From Amazon:

The average company spends up to 40 percent of its total revenue on employee compensation. Are you maximizing your company’s biggest investment?

In this riveting, entertaining, and ultimately empowering book, XP3 Talent System Founder and Chief Talent Officer Mike Matalone provides a fun, fascinating, and easy guide to a shared language, tools, and protocols that can literally shave years off your company’s profit trajectory.

You’ll learn how to:

• Un-wire the hard-wired human brain. You’ll discover how people—whether they’re candidates, managers, or business owners—are intrinsically programmed to think, feel, and behave in ways they’re often not aware of—and the unintended impact this has on others.
• Then you’ll learn how to recognize those patterns and leverage them to your—and your firm’s—advantage. It’s the underlying science that empowers superior hiring, informed promotions, and turbocharged performance.
• Get new hires productive in just 30 days: It’s not enough to simply find those elusive “A Players.” They need to get trained on your systems, tools, products, services, methodologies, and values.
• Learn how to develop and implement a structured, foolproof onboarding program that eases the learning curve, speeds assimilation into your company culture, builds bonding relationships that lead to retention, and gets those new hires productive, ASAP.

Unlock the secrets of power performance coaching: Nobody wants to be managed. But everyone wants a great coach—to play on the winning team.

Learn the “intrinsic” motivational techniques that will inspire your people to exceed their wildest performance dreams—keeping them passionate about

12 - The Business Playbook: How to Document and Delegate What You Do So Your Company Can Grow Beyond You, by Chris Ronzio

From Calvin:

To be honest, again, I just purchased this book and have not read it yet. However, based on my research, it looks like an excellent read on delegation, the last major cog in the process for systemizing and getting yourself free from your business.

Learning how to delegate effectively was one of the hardest and most valuable lessons I learned in business. I really wished I'd had a book like this to help me. Probably would have cut a few years off my school-of-hard-knocks learning curve.

From Amazon:

Are you struggling to scale your business?

It doesn’t matter how amazing your brand and culture are; if you don’t have functional processes, your business can’t scale. Which means your small business will stay small if you can’t remove yourself from the day-to-day hands-on running of it.

In The Business Playbook, serial entrepreneur Chris Ronzio walks you through his proven framework for building a playbook: the profile of your business, the people who work in it, the policies that guide it, and the processes that operate it.

He shows you how to codify your culture and create a living document that allows you to let go of day-to-day responsibilities and empower your team to run the business without you.

If The E-Myth series by Michael E. Gerber inspired you to take systems seriously, The Business Playbook will teach you how to actually do it.

Learn what makes a good playbook and understand:

• Profile: How to assess if you’re at the right stage to scale
• People: Develop your company culture
• Policies: Proactively invest in boosting company productivity
• Process: Create more flexibility in your life because you can document and delegate

Ronzio lays out the process in an easy-to-digest manner so the tasks of documenting your business feel doable.

He gives context for why each step is essential, tips on how to bring your team along for the journey, and specific examples of what “done” looks like.

He includes lists of topics, policies, and content that you can use right away.

If you want extra freedom in your life, a business playbook is your ticket to that freedom.

Summary & Conclusion

Twelve books for you to read this next year and implement:

1. The E-Myth Revisited ($10.77)
2. Becoming a Strategic Business Owner ($35.98 Used)
3. Run Your Business, Don’t Let It Run You ($19.95)
4. Traction ($13.69)
5. Get A Grip ($13.05)
6. Work the System ($27.99)
7. System Busters ($14.95)
8. The 4-Hour Workweek ($13.79)
9. Automate Your Busywork ($19.89)
10. Who ($14.99)
11. Hire Train Retain ($16.99)
12. The Business Playbook ($10.95)

* Note: Prices are for physical books. Kindle may be cheaper.

For around $200, these books are the best collection you can buy, IMO, if you really want to learn how to grow, scale, transform your business, and set yourself free. Let me know if I can help you in any way. I care about you.

Whenever you’re ready, there are 4 ways I can help you:

1. Founder Coffee Break Newsletter - Every Saturday morning, I share practical guidance to help you strategize, systemize, improve, and grow your business for free. Join 580+ subscribers here => https://lnkd.in/eBqvHDtY.

2. Founder Coaching Program - With my 6-month Founder Coaching Program, you'll get ten (10) 90-minute Zoom meetings with me one-on-one for $2,500. I will teach you how to strategize, systemize, delegate, and automate so you have much less stress, more free time, and a much more successful business!

3. Strategic Planning Facilitation - Bring me in to facilitate a 2-day strategic planning retreat for $4,000 plus travel costs. I will help you and your management team implement our proven Founder Operating System (FOS) for greater business strategy, execution, accountability, growth, and success.

4. Check Out Our New Website - There is a lot of great content plus FREE GUIDES on our new website. Check it out at www.CalvinCummings.com.