January Monthly Must-Reads: Best Books for Small Business Owners

It’s easier to say you’ll make time to learn new things that really doing it, especially when you own and operate your own business. But research has shown that continuous learning is essential to business and careers success. So, how do you make time in your busy schedule to think about new ideas and how you might apply them at work? Read—or listen—to great business books. With our pick of the best books for small business owners, you’re sure to find the inspiration you need to succeed.

To help you choose the best business books for your situation, we’ve created our Monthly Must-Reads Series. This series highlights helpful books for small business owners and also save you time. How? For each featured book, we share the main focus, key take-aways, and even reader reviews, so you can quickly determine whether the book is worth your valuable time. We hope this makes it easier for you to keep up with current innovation, management and workforce trends.

To kick off 2020, we’re sharing Start with Why by Simon Sinek. For a list of past Monthly Must-Reads, like December’s Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter, check out the bottom of this article.

Business Book:

Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, by Simon Sinek

Focus:

Identifying how the most influential leaders think about, act on, and communicate their why.

Main Idea:

Understanding the underlying purpose–the why— behind an idea, product or service inspires people to make positive changes in their lives.

Great for Small Business Owners Who:

Want to innovate and inspire by discovering their true mission and operating from it.

Synopsis:

Simon Sinek’s 2009 TED talk, How Great Leaders Inspire Action, is the third most-viewed TED talk of all time. In it, he urges all leaders to start asking, “Why?”

“Why do I get out of bed in the morning?”

“Why does my company exist?”

“And why should anyone care?”

And he named his book with that in mind. Start with Why delves deeper into his central idea, offering real world examples that illustrate what happens when companies successfully communicate their why.

Key Take-Aways:

• Too many companies start with, focus on, and talk about their what: the product or service they sell.
• When companies understand their why’ (i.e. their mission and the values that support it; the reason they’re in business), they can better identify appropriate audiences and more effectively market to them, creating a loyal customer base in the process.
• A company’s why should also influence its culture, its hiring decisions, and its teambuilding strategies. Employees, not just customers, should understand and buy into your company’s why.
• When you organize everything from your operations to your marketing efforts keeping your why in mind, you build a loyal customer base and an engaged, motivated team.

Reviewers Say:

“[Wow.] I cannot rate this book highly enough to take a different, positive approach to life and work. Like others, I have watched Sinek’s TED Talk on this, and questioned whether the book would add anything more, and, boy, yes it did. Imagine the TED Talk expanded to two hours, with more depth, intrigue and examples. What I like most about the book compared to the TED Talk is that it delves more in to how Starting With Why can influence home life, not just work. [It definitely makes you think], and I’m even finding myself taking a different approach around my team at work. I agree, a lot of the examples are repeated (a lot) throughout the book, in particular Apple. I’m not against Apple and found it useful how the different topics are explained using the same companies as examples. It helps provide the fuller picture. However, let me assure any potential readers that there are also plenty of new examples given too.”

“The author’s TED talk is one of the most-viewed ever; and it’s really quite good. In fact, it’s so good that you don’t need to read this book! He takes a very, very simple concept and expands, and expands, and repeats, and seemingly never edits, and then repeats, and expands, and — well, you get the idea. The whole thing could’ve been done in 50 pages or less. Example: Yes, there’s a difference between WHAT one does in business and WHY one does it. And sometimes they diverge. He calls this the “Split” and has a graphic and whole chapter on it. Really?? Not needed.”

Monthly Must-Read Business Books:

August, 2019 – Blitzscaling

September, 2019 – The E-Myth Revisited

October, 2019 – Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

November, 2019 – Built to Last

December, 2019 – Multipliers

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