Essential Business Reading

Thanks to Derrick, who suggested a blog about essential management books for web designers, especially those just starting out.

A list follows. It emphasizes old-fashioned approaches to management, the tried and true, as these have made all the difference to me. Please post your additions, with a brief reason why you recommend it. That way, this site can have one location with some great book suggestions.

Marketing and Sales:

The Web Design Business Kit, Brendon Sinclair. Where else can you get a marketing and sales book for web designers, written by a successful web designer?

The IT Business Acceleration Manual, yours truly. See the following Sitepoint link for a comparison with Brendon’s book: http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?t=157169&highlight=neitlich

Guerilla Marketing, Jay Conrad Levinson. An absolutely essential resource for small business owners looking for low-cost, high-impact marketing strategies and tactics.

Rain Making: The Professional’s Guide to Attracting New Clients, Ford Harding (along with Creating Rain Makers, which I prefer). A great book about how professionals like lawyers, accountants, and web designers build a network and get clients.

SPIN Selling, Neil Rackham. Neil spent $1 million to follow salespeople around and determine the conversations that the successful salespeople have. His SPIN model is outstanding, and a must read for those interested in personal selling.

You Can’t Teach a Kid to Ride a Bike at a Seminar, David Sandler. This book advocates some tacky selling formulas, but has some excellent material about how to ask powerful questions, and how to take control of the selling process. For those new to sales, this is an excellent place to start.

Differentiate or Die, Jack Trout and Steve Rivkin. Almost anything by Jack Trout (including the recent 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing) and his sometimes writing partner Al Ries will be worth the price.

New Strategic Selling, by Stephen Heiman. If you sell to corporate accounts with many decision makers, Heiman is the consultant who pioneered a methodology for thinking strategically about winning complex engagements.

General Management:

Good to Great and Built to Last, both by Jim Collins. Two terrific books about building a company for the long run.

First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently, Marcus Buckingham. Based on cutting-edge research from Gallup, Buckingham shows how top managers get results. For instance, they focus on building on employees’ strengths, instead of on correcting weaknesses.

The Five Temptations of a CEO: A Leadership Fable, Patrick Lencioni. This quick read will give you five temptations to watch out for as a leader.

The E-Myth Revisited, by Michael Gerber. Learn how to create a franchise by working on your business instead of in it.

Strategy:

Strategy Pure and Simple II, Michelle Robert. This book is the simplest, clearest description of strategy I’ve ever read.

The One Page Business Plan, James Horan Jr. This is a short book, and great if you want to create a simple plan to guide your company forward.

How to Really Create a Successful Business Plan, David Gumpert. Read the reviews on Amazon, and you’ll see why this book is popular.

Accounting:

Don’t get a book, because it will put you to sleep. Instead, get Quickbooks, take the tutorial, and work with a bookkeeper to get you up to speed on accounting.

Consulting (Web designers are consultants, and should study the field):

Managing the Professional Services Firm, David Maister. Maister is the guru of professional services, and this book is a classic. If you want to build a lasting service firm, start here.

Flawless Consulting, Peter Block. For those of you who are seasoned at managing client relationships, this book will take you to the next level. It’s a bit philosophical, and focuses on having open, honest, authentic conversations with prospects and clients. Many long-time consultants swear that this is the best book they’ve ever read about consulting.

Million Dollar Consulting, Alan Weiss. Weiss will show you techniques to build a million-dollar consulting practice.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, April 25th, 2004 at 10:54 pm, contains 714 words, 6 images, and is filed under Selling Web Design Services. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. The views and opinions in this blog post are those of its author.