Top Five Business Summer Reads

Growing a business is a full-time job and often requires a commitment to lifelong learning. In today's article, I want to discuss five business books that are worth reading over the next couple of months. The books I will be discussing have passed the test of time and have inspired countless entrepreneurs to grow their business, increase their wealth, while also growing at a personal level. Each focuses on a slightly different aspect of business growth. Hopefully, these selections will serve to build the foundation for building wealth through your business and then eventually harvesting that wealth.

1. Good to Great, Jim Collins

Summary

This is a must read for all entrepreneurs (and their advisors). In this book, Collins explores companies that grew from being good companies and attempting to find the secret sauce that propelled each company into the pantheon of greatness. Collins is the progenitor of value creation and served as inspiration to many future authors on this topic, so why not explore the source material firsthand?

Why Read It?

This is one of the older business books written (if you want to go older, you can read Drucker) and everything he says still holds up today. On top of this, most value creation systems today are based on the principles outlined in this book.

2. Traction, Gino Wickman

Summary

Influenced by both Jim Collins and Verne Harnish, Traction neatly summarizes what is today referred to as the Entrepreneurial Operating System (or “EOS”). The book details the tools and processes required to successfully get real movement (or this case, traction) on growing the business. The book first addresses some common impediments towards growth such as poor communication, a lack of accountability (or accountability solely on the business owner rather than empowered employees). It also introduces concepts such as the importance of both long-term and short-term goal setting, establishing a vision for your business, and understanding and documenting the purpose of your business (what problem is your business solving, or alternatively what joy are you bringing to your customer?)

Why Read It?

The book is simple and intuitive and can help you understand both why an entrepreneurial system is important for growing your business, as well as how to construct one for your team.

3. Financial Intelligence

Summary

If you have ever watched Dragon’s Den, you’ll know the one thing that really sinks pitches is not being able to understand key financial numbers. Financial Intelligence demystifies the world of financials and identifies key areas to focus if you are a business owner. You don’t have to understand numbers like some Wall Street analyst, but becoming competent in understanding what your numbers really mean (and being proactive about tracking them on a regular basis) is critical to your business success.

Why Read It?

Understanding financials, especially as they pertain to your business, is critical to fuel growth.

4. The E-Myth Revisited, Michael Gerber

Summary

This book is primarily focused on the three roles a business owner can play when running a business: the entrepreneur (the visionary), the manager (the one who sees the risks and challenges and overcomes them), and the technician (the do-er, the person who gets things done). Obviously, when growing a company, the owner needs to hire people to do the work the owners either does not know how to do, or does want to do themselves, but ultimate, these three roles still remain. A business owner should ultimately strive to leave themselves as the visionary while hiring managers and technical people. The more a business owner can separate themselves from the business (or at least work on the business not in it), the more the business can serve the owner and the other stakeholders rather than the other way around.

Why Read It?

Many entrepreneurs can use the reminder on the differences between creating a job for yourself versus growing a business.

5. Walking To Destiny, Christopher Snider

Summary

Walking to Destiny breaks down the process of exiting your business by addressing the three pillars of exit planning: i) business readiness, ii) personal readiness, and iii) financial readiness. The problems with traditional exit planning are two fold: i) planning often does not address business and personal readiness, which results in conflicts as a prospective business sale approaches, and ii) when planning is done, it has too often been done in silos by advisors (by only focusing on one aspect such as tax planning, or retirement planning) with very little focus on a holistic viewpoint.

Why Read It?

This is one of the few books that will explain what is involved in a successful business transition from a holistic perspective, taking into account business, personal, and financial considerations. A must read for anyone looking ti exit in the next five years.