With millions of books about business out there is actually pretty hard to tell which one is the best or which to read. That’s why I have prepared a series of recommended books. Each week I will publish a blog post with the books I urge you to read. And yes, I have read them all 🙂
And what books I will be talking about today?
This week I have decided to start with the books that are currently closest to my heart – business books.
Of all the ones I have read throughout the last 2 years (that’s when I started to read books before sleep instead of checking my phone 🙂 ), these are the ones that influenced me the most.
Blue Ocean Strategy by Renée Mauborgne and W. Chan Kim
The Company of One by Paul Jarvis
Rich Dad, Poor Dad – Robert T. Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter
If you ask me I can’t tell you straight away which one is the best or which one you should read first. Each of these books will give you a new point of view on business, money, or business strategy. And hopefully, they will inspire you to become a better business owner, product designer, blogger, or an entrepreneur.
Ok, let’s jump to the overview.
Books about the business you should read.
Blue Ocean Strategy by Renée Mauborgne and W. Chan Kim
I can honestly say that this book was a breakthrough for me when it comes to business strategy. Before I read this book I always thought that it is pretty easy to build a product or business. And that after you get the idea, create the service or your product, the marketing will do the rest. And you will sell whatever you want. FYI – that’s how I created my first business, a digital agency called The Digital Pug.
But how naive is this thinking, right?
Blue Ocean Strategy gave me a completely new view of business strategy. A strategy that is so powerful that once you create a product or service according to it, you will almost instantly become successful. Ok, maybe not instantly, as you still have to invest some work into your project and give it some time to grow.
So what is the Blue Ocean Strategy about?
In short, the Blue Ocean Strategy is about creating businesses, products, or services that are different than the ones already created. According to the authors, you can achieve this by creating a business that is low-cost, opens up new markets, and creates new demand.
The majority of the business are very similar to each other and it is very hard to say what actually differentiates them from each other. Companies are focusing on taking as much profit and market share from their competitors as possible. They do it sometimes by so-called “bloody” techniques. When this happens we talk about Red Oceans.
On the other hand, the Blue Ocean companies are the ones that do not focus so much on competition. Their products or services are simply created by exploring new markets and creating new demands.
Not sure what I mean? Here is an example of Red and Blue Oceans.
I guess the best will be to demonstrate this strategy to a well-known company like Apple.
Apple is a company that created many Blue Ocean products in the past 2 decades, but I will focus on the first one – the iPod. Around the year 2000, CDs were the most popular way to listen to music, and companies like Sony were still focusing on making portable devices like CD players. Also, those were the times when the MP3 format was growing fast and some the companies like Microsoft or Creative created the first MP3 players.
They were very bulky and had a very small memory that could be enhanced only by using a memory card. I still remember how hard it was to actually play some music with it as you had to download the music first, then connect it to your PC, and then upload it to your device. And due to the limited space, you could fit like 20 songs.
And here is when Apple came in with their revolutionary product called iPod. When Steve Jobs introduced iPod on the stage on October 23 in 2001 he gave one of the best speeches ever (I strongly recommend you watch it). He also clearly demonstrated how you can create a Blue Ocean product.
With iPod, he made the competitors irrelevant with the 5GB memory that could hold up to 1000 songs, the amazing design, and the user-friendly navigation. The music was downloaded to your iPod from a service called iTunes and it was all legit. Not a pirated copy downloaded from the internet or low-quality music converted to MP3 from a CD. Apple later on repeated this success by introducing products like iPhone and iPad.
As I mentioned before for me the Blue Ocean Strategy was a game changer in how I see a business strategy or product development. Thanks to the knowledge from the book I have created my recent business, an SEO agency called Organik.ly.
For the creation of the business plan, I have used the tools available at https://www.blueoceanstrategy.com/tools/
Last but not least, I liked this book and the strategy so much that I later got the Blue Ocean Shift, which is kind of a refreshed version of the original book, with new tools and case studies from newer companies.
The Company of One by Paul Jarvis
When it comes to creating a successful business many people would say that the most important thing to focus on is growth. Paul Jarvis in his book The Company of One has challenged this.
According to Paul, you can still create a successful and profitable business by creating a company of one. A company that does not take growth as a must and focuses on other things like high-quality services and products, and excellent customer service. And all of this can be done from your home meanwhile you are playing with your kids, dog, or cat, or just laying in your hammock on the beach.
Until I read this book I also thought that I must grow my business in order to get more profitable.
And this is not true at all.
Thanks to Paul and his experience I have understood that I can do that by staying at the same place. I do not need to expand my company, hire employees, and get a fancy office.
I can simply focus on the quality of my services and build strong relationships with my clients instead of thinking about growth.
And the best part is, that I am much more profitable this way, I work less, and I still have time to enjoy my private life.
I recommend this book to all bloggers, solopreneurs, entrepreneurs, and small business owners who think that growth is a must.
Rich Dad, Poor Dad – Robert T. Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter
The last book on today’s list is the worldwide bestseller Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter. This book is about how to think about money differently.
Robert speaks about his life from two different perspectives – a view from his father Poor Dad and the view of his mentor and dad of his friend Rich Dad.
The first doesn’t really know what it takes to make money and become rich. The second one has all the knowledge about money making and passes the knowledge to Robert and his friend.
The Poor Day thinks that the best way to live your life is to get a stable job, work there for 25-30 years, and get a comfortable pension in the end. Maybe a golden watch too. He also believes that talking about money is not good, and you should definitely not take any risks by investing them in other businesses.
The Rich Dad sees it differently. He believes that in order to become rich you have to start talking about money whenever you can. Also, he believes that you should change your mindset and start to think like rich people.
He also believes that you should indeed invest in other businesses, find a way to create more money-making streams and you should learn to manage risks.
To me, this book was an eye-opener when it comes to money. I now believe that everyone can become rich if he or she wants. Based on the learnings from this book I have revised my money strategy. I learned to invest and looked for options to generate more streams with passive income.
Summary
Each of these books had a huge influence on my business and daily life. Thanks to the Blue Ocean Strategy and Shift I have started to think differently when it comes to product development or business creation.
The Company of One was kind of a summary of my last 5 years as an entrepreneur. But it changes the way how I think about growth and building a profitable business.
And when it comes to profits, Rich Dad, Poor Dad thought me how to invest that money and create more streams that generate passive income.
And what about you? What books about business would you recommend me to read? Let me know in a comment below.
