Entrepreneur’s Bookshelf: Small Business Books for the Library

You’ve heard you are what you eat, well we believe that you are what you read. CEO Blog Nation & Teach a CEO presents lessons from our bookshelf on how you can improve and grow your venture. We have taken nuggets from our library and provide them for entrepreneurs and business owners.

1. Being a leader also means articulating that vision to everyone else in the company, convincing them of its importance, and encouraging and motivating them to work together to achieve it. – Bill McBean
2. One of the basic facts of business is that successful businesses are invariably bult on the relationship between a company and its customers. – Bill McBean
3. Selecting people with the right levels of confidence and motivation is fundamental, and it would be disingenuous to suggest that–by applying the right teamwork strategies–a crew with incompetent or unmotivated individuals will perform at the highest levels. – Dennis N. T. Perkins
4. Don't focus on how big the market is, but how do you capture a rational share of it and what resources you need to effectively do that. – Lonnie L. Sciambi
5. I can only describe our preparation as meticulous. It's one of the key strengths, and it starts with Ed's meticulous nature. The list of things to do usually runs into five or six full pages…. I think that preparation is one of the key reasons why we achieved success in the '98 race.  – Dennis N. T. Perkins
6. Understanding marketing will enable you to realize that yo have to become more creative than your competitors and that this creativity will entail taking ideas from other industries or competitors outside the local market and experimenting with them in order to improve your company's internal and external competitivenes. – Bill McBean
7. You must remember whenever your subconscious mind accepts an idea, it immediately begins ot execute it. – C. James Jensen
8. The very best teams develop the ability to learn from experience  They have the ability to innovate, and to generate and implement new ideas. – Dennis N. T. Perkins
9. The long and the short of it is that developing a business plan may be the second most important task in creating a foundation for success for an entrepreneur. – Lonnie L. Sciambi
10. Your head and your heart come together in your gut! What your gut tells you is what you really think and what you really feel. – Mary A. Molloy
11. The problem that people face is when they really don't know what they want. They think that they want a certain thing but deep down inside, they really don't want it–or they might not be sure that they want it. – Mary A. Molloy
12. You can bring into your life more power, more wealth, more health, more happiness, and more joy by learning to contact and release the hidden power of your subconscious mind. You need not acquire this power; you already possess it. – C. James Jensen
13. Our self talk is what has created, and continues to create, our self concept. – C. James Jensen
14. Marketing is an area where capital is most frequently wasted. – Lonnie L. Sciambi
15. Keep in mind that just because you are good at doing something doesn't mean that it give you joy to do it. – Mary A. Molloy
16. We have the power to change our circumstances. We have the power to change the events in our lives that we don't like. We have the power to direct good things to come to us. The key to all of this power lies in our thoughts, in our mind and in our beliefs. – Mary A. Molloy
17. Planning forces you to choose a destination and a direction for your company, without which it is impossible to establish criteria for success and, accordingly, determine whether the activities the staff is involved in are productive or efficient. – Bill McBean
18. Many entrepreneurs are most defensive about the fact that their company is small, or worse, intimidated by the fact that their competitors are large. When, if truth be told, their size can be their biggest asset. History is littered with stories of how small, yet nimble bands of guerrilla fighters with a deep belief in their mission, have often, out-maneuvered, out-thought and defeated larger, better equipped armies. – Lonnie L. Sciambi

The Facts of Business Life: What Every Successful Business Owner Knows that You Don't by Bill McBean explain business beyond knowing one's industry and understanding the basic concepts of leadership, management, or operations. The 7 facts of business life discussed in this book include: (1) If you don't lead, no one will follow (2) If you don't control it, you don't own it (3) Protect your company's assets should be your first priority (4) Planning is about preparing for the future, not predicting it (5) If you don't market your business, you won't have one (6) The marketplace is a war zone and (7) You don't just have to know the business you're in, you have to know business.

Beyond the Power of Your Subconscious Mind by C. James Jensen explores the relationship between the conscious and subconscious mind by illustrating principles and techniques that are scientifically valid and simple to implement.

Secrets to Entrepreneurial Success: Giving Entrepreneurs an Edge, Learned from Years in the Entrepreneurial Trenches  by Lonnie L. Sciambi, “The Entrepreneur's Yoda” provides guidance and secretes related to how to get a startup to succeed, marketing and sales, partners and advisers, getting customers to love you, culture, cash and how to develop an end game.

Into the Storm: Lessons in Teamwork from Treacherous Sydney to Hobart Ocean Race by Dennis N. T. Perkins with Jillian B. Murphy tells the story of almost four-day of a crew that was able to race to victory during The Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. The authors reveal 10 critical strategies for teamwork based on the story along with resources and tools so that teams can navigate through their own chaotic “seas.”

Design Your Own Destiny by Mary A Molloy is a step-by-step guide that helps readers create a life plan to achieve dreams. The book explores balance, core values, talents and joys, self talk, dreams, and your life choice map.