Top 10 best books for entrepreneurs

In todays world of media you can get your inspiration and knowledge from many places other than reading books. Yet do I find reading books the most valuable source of knowledge and information.

You just have to be selective on which books to read, because it is a jungle. I will like to help you navigate through this jungle and read the books, which shares the fundamentals and give inspiration.

King of Madison Avenue by David Ogilvy

A portrait of my big hero with in marketing, David Ogilvy. The King of Madison Avenue portraits David Ogilvy very well. Mr. Ogilvy is considered one of the fathers of modern advertising. Get it here.

Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy

Imagine a book written by one of the best, laying all the cards down for your to see, how to get the fundamentals of marketing. The book is written long before Social Media, but is still very valid, and should be in the bookcase of all people working professional with marketing. Get it here.

Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers Into Friends & Friends Into Customers by Seth Godin

Seth Godin is best selling authour with a number of books, which each have a very high level of valuable information. Add that he is a very popular speaker at events like TED and a huge influencer though digital media.

This book is written back in 1999 and describes the social media even before it was here, through the push vs pull marketing. Get it here.

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell is another best selling author, which know a thing or two about marketing. This book is about how you get your ideas to spread and take off. Get it here.

The Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne

This is a book, which will open your mind and think about how you can make your business free of contest in your marketplace. The book hold great well known examples of business, that moved from the Red Ocean (traditional marketplace) to the Blue Ocean. A great book in strategy. Get it here.

7 habits of highly effective people by Steven Covey

This is a new bestseller by Steven Covey on how you become more efficient by developing better habits. It is convincing and challenge your to become a better person. Bold words, but a great book. Get it here.

Who moved my cheese by Spencer Johnson

The author has written several books which are all very good. This book is in my opinion, the best book. It very easy and fast to read break the sleepy rhythm of when days becomes weeks, and weeks becomes months and months becomes years. Challenge yourself and look for opportunities wherever you go. Get it here.

Guerilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson

The book should be is the bookcase of everybody who is working with marketing. The book is written more than 30 years ago, why before social media and the viral effect of those. The book is about utilizing the element of surprise to market your business. This can be done both simple, fast, inexpensive and efficient with guerilla tactics. Get it here.

Buyology by Martin Lindstrom

This book is book is not old school, but yet fundamental. It describes what happens when you combine neuroscience and marketing, or what happen in people's brains when they are exposed to marketing impulses. The author has done much research, and the results is on display in the book. Get it here.

The Purple Cow by Seth Godin

This author is one of my heros and this book is some of his finish work. It is about how you make your product standout from the crowd. You will find this book incredible inspirational. 

The metaphor is, when you see a field about cows, there is nothing special about that, but if one of the cows where purple, that would be something and makes your stop up and think twice. Get it here.

How to make a 2 page marketing plan

Marketing is an essential part of most small business and start-ups, and probably the key to success. You need to get the word out, people need to know about your business.

Marketing is a complex, there is a ton of instruments you can choose from, one can easily get confused about which channels to use and next how to use them efficiently.

There is a number of analysis and studies you should do in order to make you marketing strategy, which determines which channel you are to use and how.

Make your marketing strategy

When you are clear on your marketing strategy, you can make you marketing plan, where you systemize your tactics and campaigns. Keep your marketing plan simple, below will you learn to make a 2 page plan.

Page 1

Build an excel sheet where you describe each campaign you want to do. You need to consider these elements:

• Objective
• Tasks
• Resources
• Start date
• Estimated cost
• Actual cost
• Tangible results

Feel free to use inspiration from picture below of an excel template:

Page 2

This page is about giving you and your staff the quick summary of your activities, when are your doing when and with which channels. Detail is in the first sheet.

Create a new sheet within the same document, use inspiration for the image below. Write your campaign with a short description in the left hand side columns, then build a calendar in the next columns. I prefer to have it index per month and divided into weeks.

This makes a matrix or a lot of cells. You can not color code the cell of when you have an activity. You will learn you are in control, you know exactly when a campaign starts, when it stops and when difference channels are active compared to each other, the tail effect.

Here is how you calculate the ROI

Do you fix what is broken

You see this everywhere, things that are now working as intended. Why are they not fixed?

I recently watched a video clip with Seth Godin, called "It is broken" and where he speaks about a number of things, services that are not functioning as intended.

Now watch the movie clip:

You have now watched the video and you can probably come up with a number of examples of things that are broken, which you have seen and experienced.

The scope is, what is broken in your business? And do your staff have the rights to change this on their own, or do such decisions have to go through a manager? Consider if this is right and remove the bureaucracy.

If you allow your staff to make their own judgements and solutions to a problem, which will get more motivated and enthusiastic employees and essentially a better business.