Summer is coming up and if you are like me, you are on the lookout for that perfect business books to read while you sip a cold drink. In all honesty, all of these books have fundamentally changed the way I see my own and my client's businesses - they are just really exciting! Some deal more with the business side while others are more about staying creative. So get ready for summer and see if any of these recommendations can be your pool side companion.
OVERVIEW:
Built to sell
Sprint
Make Your Mark: The Creative's Guide to Building a Business with Impact
Steal like an artist
Contagious
Built to sell
If you have listened to our podcast, you might have heard me rave about this book before. The reason I like it so much is because of it's format and message. The books deals with the problem of you being at the centre of your business - everything is dependent on you, your clients want to see you and you are the only one who really understands your method. By taking us through the story of a fictional agency, we learn how to structure our business to work without us. Even if you are not looking to sell your business, these tips will let you go on that holiday, hire someone to help you out and just overall make you a better business person.
Sprint
I used to think this books was just for companies developing apps and digital products so it took me years before I actually read it. Boy was I wrong. The lessons here are way beyond any particular type of project. You will learn about managing people and expectations, how to get more things done and most importantly, how to open up your creative process to your clients in a collaborative way.
Make Your Mark:
The Creative's Guide to Building a Business with Impact
Every business needs a mission, something that you are passionate about and that will help your customers. Make your mark is a wonderful book that looks at how business has changed over the past decades and it also works as a sort of self help book for you and your business. I really enjoyed the thought provoking questions and how everything revolves around positive change in all shapes and sizes. If you have felt unmotivated recently, this is the book for you.
Steal like an artist
When we hear "creative" we often think that we need to come up with an idea that no one ever thought about before. In reality, the best ideas come from seeing something else and finding a way to improve it. This easy read mixed humour with serious misconceptions about what it means to create something and will help improve your creative process a ton.
Contagious
People don't trust advertisement, they trust their friends. This notion is only getting stronger every year and it is one of the reasons influencer marketing is getting so popular. Contagious is a classic and looks at the power of story telling, understanding what our customers really want and how we can build trust. Unlike many other marketing books, I found this books to have very relatable examples that makes it easier to see past buzzwords like story telling and instead understand how to start speaking to people in a away that actually works, not as customers, but as friends.
If you know about a fantastic book we missed, join our Facebook group and share it with our creative community. Everyone is welcome and we are a very supportive bunch.
