Small Business Leadership

Millions of people hate their jobs, or have recently lost one, and would love to start a small business. Yet very few actually try, because the process feels as scary as jumping off a cliff. No matter how boring or stressful a job might be, it's hard to give up a salary and benefits. But for some, it can be the smartest, happiest decision of a lifetime.

Did you know that women only currently make up around 25 percent of the C-Suite? And they lead less than 10 percent of Fortune 500 companies? Hard to believe right? But things are slowly starting to change, and people are starting to realize that women can bring qualities to the table that men simply can’t.

Driving around the city in any metropolitan areas we all see trendy coffee shops everywhere and not all of them are Starbucks. Do you ever wonder why there are so many new boutique coffee shops popping up everywhere? Well, according to National Coffee Association, it is not a hoax, but the new trend. The coffee industry and the coffee shop business have boomed in recent years, especially with regards to specialty coffees. If you are thinking about opening a coffee house, here are the 13 steps that you will need to take....

As a small to medium business owner, correctly managing your workers' compensation coverage may mean the difference between staying open another year or closing your doors for good. This is the book that you wish you had read before you hired your first team member. In it, Nancy Germond will break down the complexity of workers' compensation, why you need it, why you need to pay attention to it, and how doing it well will make your team better and help your company's bottom line.

Inspiring women to pursue their own colorful dreams, I'm Not Really a Waitress tells the story of how Suzi Weiss-Fischmann transformed a small dental supply company into a number one beauty brand around the world.

Baseline Selling: How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know About the Game of Baseball will dramatically change the way we approach the sales process, replacing the gratuitous complexity advocated by today's sales "experts" with an elegant and very effective simplicity. Studies have shown that the selling techniques of the last two decades have had very little impact on most of the sales population. Why?

Author Amber Richards owned and operated a single-person home-cleaning business for three years. She shares tips and advice she wishes someone had shared with her before starting up the business. With transparency to both mistakes and successes, this audiobook is packed with useful information and strategies from someone who actually worked in the business.

The emphasis is not focused on practical cleaning tips, although there is a chapter about products in general.

Listen to this book at your own risk. It contains ideas that may lead to a profound self-awakening. An introspective journey for those in the trenches of today's modern organizations, Deep Change is a survival manual for finding our own internal leadership power. By helping us learn new ways of thinking and behaving, it shows how we can transform ourselves from victims to powerful agents of change. And for anyone who yearns to be an internally driven leader, to motivate the people around them, and return to a satisfying work life, Deep Change holds the key.

In Change Proof, business and personal development expert Adam Markel shows how you can move beyond managing change to actively embracing it—and actually using times of uncertainty, crisis, and chaos to create opportunities and stimulate positive growth. You'll learn how to choose change before it chooses you, what it takes (and what it means) to become truly change proof, and how to leverage your relationship to change. This book will help you take the art and science of resilience to the next level—and look forward to future and all the changes it will bring.

After several highly successful businesses and a couple of epic failures, Jake Hanes, CPA and highly successful entrepreneur, shares not only his step-by-step strategies on turning a business into a cash cow, but also the secrets of the most successful entrepreneurs. No matter your age, the industry you’re in, or your current level of success (or failure) in business to date, this book will provide the resources, insights, best practices, and ultimately, the step-by-step road map to become the number one most successful business owner in your industry.

Land the deals you want and develop your instincts with million-dollar negotiation techniques. After selling over $3 billion in real estate, including the most expensive one-bedroom house in history, Josh Altman, costar of the hit show Million-Dollar Listing Los Angeles, wants to teach you the real estate sales and negotiation tactics that have made him one of America's top agents. Buying or selling a house, whether for a client or yourself, is one of the most important and stressful deals anyone can make, demanding emotional intelligence and a solid set of negotiating skills.

Author and entrepreneur Mick Spencer offers entrepreneurs an inspiring new road map to success - one that runs against nearly everything you've ever been taught about business. In this book, Spencer presents a solid case that analysis paralysis and endless "preparation" won't get you anywhere - you have to take that leap and do what you really want to do. He challenges you to get outside your comfort zone and, although intimidating, his approach forces you to learn "on the go" and focus on what you can do rather than what you can't.

So many HR professionals crave the freedom and flexibility of being an independent HR consultant, and then the fear kicks in about whether they can make the transition from corporate to consulting and maintain their income whilst learning how to be a consultant. This audiobook guides you through not only the knowledge but also the mindset needed to be successful as well as building your confidence so that you too can make this move.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, it was clear that it would impact all of our lives in important ways and we would have to drastically change the way we communicated with one another and did business. Would we fight back against the changes and wait for the “old normal” to return, or adopt new technologies and adapt to the new way of doing things? Though the Zoom video conferencing platform was already being used by individuals and businesses around the world, the pandemic made its use a necessity, and those who embraced it and mastered it thrived.

In tough markets and with more people working remotely, creating a quality sales pipeline in traditional ways is more challenging than ever. As sales technologies continue to evolve and advance, developing technical quotient (TQ) is an essential element of sales success. Record-setting sales expert Justin Michael and bestselling sales leadership author Tony Hughes combine to provide practical guidance on how professional sellers can maximize results with an effective sales tech-stack to increase sales effectiveness for outstanding results.

Positive Leadership shows how to reach beyond ordinary success to achieve extraordinary effectiveness, spectacular results, and what Kim Cameron calls “positively deviant performance” - performance far above the norm. Citing a wide range of research in organizational behavior, medical science, and psychology as well as real-world examples, Cameron shows that to achieve exceptional success, leaders must emphasize strengths rather than simply focus on weaknesses.

Patagonia, named by Fortune in 2007 as the coolest company on the planet, has earned a reputation as much for its ground-breaking environmental and social practices as for the quality of its clothes. In this exceptionally frank account, Chouinard and Stanley recount how the company and its culture gained the confidence, by step and misstep, to make its work progressively more responsible, and to ultimately share its discoveries with companies as large as Wal-Mart or as small as the corner bakery.

Unsliced is the resource for elevating your pizzeria - from managing staff to mindset, marketing, and everything in between. Industry leader Mike Bausch explains how to make your restaurant unique and in demand based on his 20 years of experience. You’ll learn how to build systems that will help you boost your sales and keep your sanity. And you’ll discover time-tested protocols that will protect you and your restaurant. It’s hard not to get discouraged in this business. But with the right perspective, smart systems, and hard work, your restaurant can thrive.

Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles, co-authors of the New York Times business best seller Raving Fans, are back with Gung Ho! Here is an invaluable management tool that outlines foolproof ways to increase productivity by fostering excellent morale in the workplace. It is a must-read for everyone who wants to stay on top in today's ultra-competitive business world.

The fact is, over 90 percent of all new start-ups fail. Every entrepreneur must face this harsh reality and learn to master it if they hope to survive and wind up on top. In Surviving a Startup, Hoffman brings listeners on a wild ride, sharing with them the tumultuous journey of launching a venture-funded start-up and revealing what it takes to make it.