Small Business Success

The Entrepreneurial Process, one of Brown University’s highest-rated courses, has empowered thousands of students to start their own ventures. You might assume these ventures started because the founders were born entrepreneurs. You might assume that these folks had technical or finance degrees, or worked at fancy consulting firms, or had some other specialized knowledge. Yet that isn’t the case. Entrepreneurship is not a spirit or a gift. It is a process that anyone can learn, and that anyone can use to turn a problem into a solution with impact.

Social innovation and entrepreneurship are rising forces in the world. As stakeholder capitalism takes root, and as the extent of systemic challenges becomes clear - from climate change to income inequality to food security to health care and beyond - more and more of the best and brightest will hear the calling to become innovators and entrepreneurs who develop and deploy solutions to the world's thorniest problems.

This gem of a guide is a clear roadmap towards true, authentic success in every area of your life. Disarmingly simple, yet filled with profound insights, The Seven Guaranteed Steps to Spiritual, Family and Financial Success is one publication that actually lives up to its title. Also makes an excellent gift.

Use storytelling to influence people and move them to action. Need to get your point across? Get staff on board with change? Foster collaboration? Increase sales? Strengthen employee engagement? Build customer loyalty? Drive innovation and creativity? Capture best practices? Align people around a goal? Grow your business? Business Storytelling for Dummies can help you do this - and more.

The key to achieving what you set out for - in business and in life - doesn't lie in perfectly executed strategy. The greatest tool you have is your own mindset - it determines your ability to adapt and persevere. While most aspiring entrepreneurs think the next business strategy will manifest the life they desire, successful entrepreneurs know it's the emotional and mental "shifts" that will bring you closer to your goals. No one is better equipped to explore these shifts than Ajit Nawalkha, cofounder of Mindvalley and one of the world's leading entrepreneurs and business coaches.

Imagine what Atari might have achieved if Steve Jobs had stayed there to develop the first massmarket personal computer. Or what Steve Case might have done for PepsiCo if he hadn't left for a gaming start-up that eventually became AOL. What if Salomon Brothers had kept Michael Bloomberg, or Bear Stearns had exploited the inventive ideas of Stephen Ross? Scores of top-tier entrepreneurs worked for established corporations before they struck out on their own and became self-made billionaires.

Ryan Blair knows about building a business from the ground up. Like many entrepreneurs he had no formal business education. But he had great survival instincts, tenacity, and, above all, a "nothing to lose" mindset.Blair's middle-class childhood came to an abrupt end when his abusive father succumbed to drug addiction and abandoned the family. Blair and his mother moved to a bad neighborhood, and soon he was in and out of juvenile detention, joining a gang just to survive. Then his mother fell in love with a successful entrepreneur who took Ryan under his wing.

Behind every entrepreneur's success story, there's a never-ending list of gut-wrenching failures, missed opportunities, and jaw-dropping setbacks. Real estate mogul and serial entrepreneur Manny Khoshbin is one of those entrepreneurs with a story of perseverance that will make you believe in the American Dream all over again. Driven: The Never-Give-Up Roadmap to Massive Success goes beyond Manny's personal ride through the entrepreneurial journey to deliver the habits, mindset, and insights aspiring entrepreneurs need to turn dreams into reality.

Most people think of Walt Disney primarily as a visionary, but he was also a highly skilled marketer. In this unique book, maverick marketer Andrew Lock guides you through 17 success secrets from Walt and explains how your business can apply them to follow Walt Disney’s way. You’ll discover valuable lessons in sales, marketing, and customer service, as well as how to create memorable experiences that will cause customers to return to you, over and over again.

Burnout is an epidemic in the business owner community, and the guidance to overcome it by taking a vacation, getting more exercise, and incorporating meditation into their days isn't the advice they need. During more than fifteen years as a business owner and leader, Julie Bee has experienced firsthand this unique struggle-one that often requires that they continue working while overcoming their burnout.

Finally! Develop good habits that stick! Do you find yourself trying to adopt good habits only to abandon them down the road? Are you frustrated because you seem unable to develop them in the first place? If so, there's a simple solution: starting small. This effective, time-tested method is described in detail in Small Habits Revolution: 10 Steps to Transforming Your Life Through the Power of Mini Habits!

As a 24-year-old line cook, Ellen Marie Bennett couldn't stand the kitchen staff’s poorly designed, cheaply made aprons. So when her head chef announced he was ordering a new batch, she blurted out, “Chef, I have an apron company” - even though she had no company, no business plan - just a glimmer of a design idea and a business license. Through hustle and a willingness to leap into the unknown, time and time again, she built that first order into a multi-million-dollar company called Hedley & Bennett.

Think the most critical factor for becoming a great entrepreneur is grit, risk taking, or technical skills? Think again. Despite what every other business book might say, historical data show the real secret ingredients to getting ahead in business are being rich, white, and male. Until now. Leapfrog is the decades-overdue start-up bible for the rest of us. It's filled with uncompromising guidance for winning at business your way. Leapfrog is for entrepreneurs of all stripes who are fed up with status quo advice.

Do you have a problem that you can’t see your way around, no matter how hard you try? You may be looking for the answer outside when the obstacles lie within. We’re all biased. You may have read the above and already your mind is raising its defenses. No...not me. I haven’t got a biased bone in my body. The fact is: You do. So does everyone around you. Cognitive Biases in a Nutshell will help you to identify and correct the cognitive biases you fall prey to in your everyday life.

Innovation used to be seen as a game best left to entrepreneurs, but now a new breed of corporate managers is flipping this logic on its head. These Corporate Explorers have the insight, resilience, and discipline to overcome the obstacles and build new ventures from inside even the largest organizations. Corporate Explorer is a guidebook to the practices that enable these managers to go from idea into action. This actionable and proven framework explains how managers can become successful corporate innovators.

In 2008, with no event production experience and two college degrees between the four of them, Elliott Bisnow, Brett Leve, Jeff Rosenthal, and Jeremy Schwartz became business partners and set out to build a global events company. With passion and tenacity, they began cold calling as many inspiring company founders as they could and tried to convince them to attend their first event. In the beginning, only nineteen people said yes.

Startup Success is written in a logical sequence that follows the general life cycle of planning and executing a successful fundraising campaign. Actionable tips, tricks, and aha realizations will have listeners rewinding and noting passages for future reference. The author’s own words tell it all: “I decided to write something different that best exploits the gray in my hair and the hard lessons I’ve learned.” Any startup founder, advisor, or angel investor - regardless of their experience level - will come away with improved skills and an increased knowledge base.

Authors Imran Rashid and Soren Kenner have sparked an international debate by revealing the "mind hacks" Facebook, Apple, Google, and Instagram use to get you and your children hooked on their products. In Offline, they deliver an eye-opening, research-based journey into the world of tech giants, smartphones, social engineering, and subconscious manipulation. This provocative work reveals how digital devices change individuals and communities for better and worse.

Can you remember that one time you got recognized or someone thanked you for your contribution to their life? You were a rock star, even for just one second. This book isn't about a charmed path to success or some untouchable fairy tale that nobody can relate to - this is about going from rock bottom to rock star, something that everybody can relate to.

Supermaker is a guide to business and career development by Jaime Schmidt: acclaimed entrepreneur, founder of Schmidt's Naturals, and icon of the Maker Movement. In Supermaker, she shares how you too can start or grow your own business with advice on branding, product development, social media marketing, scaling, PR, and customer engagement, all based on her own hard-won mastery.