Here are a few books I’ve enjoyed reading, learnt from and recommend.
“How to Do a Great Job and Go Home on Time” by Fergus O’Connell
This is a practical guide that focuses on managing time effectively while maintaining productivity. The book aims to help you balance your work and personal life by teaching you how to focus on results rather than just effort.
I personally love it’s continual reflection with questions and practical action of scoring yourself.
The book has a theme of focusing on ‘results driven work’ to work smarter, with the attention on outcomes rather than tasks to make your work and use of time more effective. He advocates prioritising what really matters to move things forward.
Chapter 6 looks at a big one – the negotiating of one thing = saying NO. He makes a statement that was very real for me “Don’t get suckered into saying ‘Yes’”
“105 Ways to Accelerate Your Business Success” by ME!
Sorry but how can I have a recommended reading list without my own?!
ChatGPT tells me the core message in this book is that business growth is driven by taking consistent, practical actions across various areas like marketing, sales, customer service, and operations. The book offers bite-sized, actionable tips to help entrepreneurs increase visibility, improve processes, and create lasting customer relationships. One Lesson: Foster emphasises maintaining a growth mindset, as success is not only about tactics but also about how you approach challenges.
“Traction” by Gino Wickman
The book focuses on clear, actionable operating systems and tools to build a stronger, more efficient business that can achieve long-term growth.
Gino Wickman breaks down six key components every business must master: Vision, People, Data, Issues, Process, and Traction. By aligning your team around a shared vision, putting the right people in the right roles, using data to drive decisions, solving issues as they arise, streamlining processes, and creating accountability, businesses can gain the “traction” they need to scale and thrive.
“The world’s best known marketing secret” by Ivan Misner
The core of this book, from the founder of the networking organisation BNI (Business Network International), emphasises the importance of “word-of-mouth” marketing, and that building strong, meaningful relationships is the most powerful marketing tool for many businesses success.
Networking is always considered to be the next greasy breakfast or drinks gathering, but I share this as I have found that effective networking ‘in person’, OR online, should be part of your marketing strategy. It is low cost, although potentially time consuming, but this book shares a number of principles that we can apply to help people realise our ‘go to’ expertise and acknowledge our value.
The headlines include building trust, nurturing relationships, providing value, and maintaining consistent follow-up to drive long-term success. Principles that apply across all our marketing.
Work your network and it can be the king of your marketing spend.
“Introducing NLP” by Sue Knight
Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) is a powerful tool for personal and professional transformation through better understanding how we think, communicate, and behave.
This is a short, easy, introduction to NLP techniques that can improve communication, and personal effectiveness by helping you reshape your thinking patterns, enhance emotional intelligence, and model successful behaviours to build confidence, resolve conflicts, and achieve goals by connecting your language, mindset, and the outcomes.
“Feel the fear and do it anyway” by Susan Jeffers
Fear is a natural part of life, but it shouldn’t hold us back from pursuing our goals and dreams. The books emphasises that everyone experiences fear, especially when stepping into the unknown of growth or change, but the key to success is building resilience and pushing through it by taking action.
It provides strategies for reframing fear, building self-confidence, and shifting your mindset from victim to empowerment.
“The E-myth” by Michael Gerber
This is a favourite of many. The core message is that many small businesses fail because their owners focus too much on working IN the business rather than ON it. The “Entrepreneurial Myth” is the mistaken belief that technical skills alone can create a successful business.
The book highlights the importance of thinking like an entrepreneur rather than a technician and building replicable systems and processes that allow the business to run smoothly without constant hands-on involvement from the owner.
“Who moved my cheese” by Dr Spencer Johnson
The central message is that change is inevitable, and how we respond to it determines our success and happiness. Using the analogy of mice and tiny people searching for what we want in life (the cheese), the book illustrates the importance of adapting quickly when circumstances shift.
My takeaways were that resisting change leads to stagnation, while embracing it opens new opportunities. By being flexible, staying alert, and not fearing the unknown, individuals can navigate life’s changes more effectively and find new paths to success and fulfilment.
“Eat that frog!” by Brian Tracy
Another favourite and one I regularly re-read. It provides a thought provoking approach of tackling your most challenging and important tasks first thing each day and this leads to greater productivity. The “frog” represents those tasks that we tend to procrastinate on but have the biggest impact on our goals. It provides 21 actionable strategies to improve time management, prioritise effectively, increase efficiency and overcome procrastination.
“7 Habits of highly effective people” by Stephen R Covey
This is a well known book for it’s well known phrases such as “Begin with the End in Mind” and “Sharpen the Saw”
The core message I took from the 7 Habits is that success and effectiveness come from developing strong character and personal leadership, not just quick-fix techniques.
The habits focus on being proactive, setting clear goals, prioritising important tasks, creating win-win relationships, empathetic communication, collaboration, and continuous self-improvement, whilst aligning your actions with your values.
“Strategic Planning” by John H Dobbs & John F Dobbs
Strategic Planning is a topic I absolutely love and this book highlights following a well-organised planning process, so that we can make informed decisions, stay competitive, and achieve sustainable growth.
It emphasises the importance of aligning resources, setting measurable objectives, and regularly reviewing and adapting your strategy to ensure it stays relevant, whilst in line with your mission, vision, and goals,
