The summer holidays are approaching and it's time to unwind and gather your strength. But a whole month is a long time to be away from your business. The sun is shining bright, the warm air is all so tempting, not to mention your family literally pulling you out of the house in hopes you’ll join them on the beach. But you have this one task to do, this follow-up to make, the phone call to take. When you finally lay on that beach and enjoy the sun, the conscience creeps in, and begins to chew on your good sense. With this aching conscience, your need to be present with your family and friends, and being able to be creative and innovative when working on your entrepreneurial endeavors, how can this work?
During the summer holidays, it's time to get new ideas and see how you can upgrade your business with new features, products, better customer experiences, etc. And you can get inspired by following the 5 tips we have gathered for you. Remember to have a pencil and a pad by your side all summer, as these tips will give you ideas worth writing down and it would be a shame if you forget even one. Take this pad and pencil with you everywhere, even if you are not following any of the tips below, after some thinking you might just come up with something you read or heard, which you will want to get down on paper.
The tips we will give you the little tricks you can do during your summer vacation to keep your pesky conscience at bay. Some of these tips can be implemented so discreetly that your family will not even notice. Let’s get into it.
Books
While laying on the beach you can read a chapter or two. You nurture your appearance, by working on your tan and you nurture your brain, by gaining useful knowledge. These books are a must read as an entrepreneur, there is a lot of inspiration to pick up and new solutions to explore.
Company of One by Paul Jarvis
If you’d like to find out why staying small is the next big thig in business, then this book will lay out a perspective you, as an entrepreneur, should consider exploring. You don’t have to always scale-up, you can remain small and still receive plenty of income, work for yourself, determine your own hours and still lead a fulfilling life and a career. While scaling up remains the typical route for many entrepreneurs, staying deliberately as a small business has its advantages, the biggest advantage being the opportunity to pursue more meaningful pleasures in life, and avoid the headaches that result from dealing with employees, long meetings, or worrying about expansion, while generating profits. Paul explains this unique business strategy and explains how to make it work for you, including how to generate cash flow on an ongoing basis.
Among other places, you can purchase the book here.
The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
Easily one of the most recommended books for entrepreneurs out there! If you want to know how to prevent the potential failure of your startup, this read is for you. The principles fare based on the “validated learning”, rapid scientific experimentation, as well as a number of counter-intuitive practices that shorten product development cycles, measure actual progress without resorting to vanity metrics, and the learning of what customers really want. Insights of this approach teach you how to, instead of sticking to the classic business practices, adapt the efforts continuously with the development of the market.
Among other places, you can purchase the book here.
The Startup Owner’s Manual by Steve Blank and Bob Dorf
Considered the step-by-step encyclopedic manual on how to build a successful, scalable startup. Do we need to say more? Want to know what to do the first, week, month or year? What's the right distribution channel for your product? How to get traffic to your web site? Just a few of many questions answered within this nearly 500-page manual. This is a truly versatile reference guide for any startup founder, entrepreneur, investor or educator.
Among other places, you can purchase the book here.
Besides these, we also recommend looking into: Phil Knight - Shoe dog, Ben Horowitz - The hard thing about hard things, Richard Branson – Screw Business as Usual.
Audiobooks
If you are on the go, an audiobook is a very nifty tool for you to pass time when commuting on longer road trips, or just traveling longer distances to get to your family in the countryside.
Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston
What’s really appealing about this read is the fact that Jessica collects different interviews with founders from famous technology companies during their earliest days of company development, which means raw, authentic insights into lessons, ideas, choices, strategies of some of the most known entrepreneurs of 21st century. We are talking Steve Wozniak (Apple), Caterina Fake (Flickr), Max Levchin (PayPal), and Sabeer Bhatia (Hotmail), among others.
Among other places, you can listen to the audiobook here.
The $100 startup by Chris Gillebeau
If you feel like raising funds is what is stopping you from growing your company, this book will give you motivation to keep going by providing 50 examples of success stories, where companies earn more than $50,000 and who began their work with very little money to their name.
Among other places, you can listen to the audiobook here.
Click Millionaires by Scott Fox
E-commerce has never been so relevant as today. With this book Scott is hoping to guide you through the maze opening an e-shop is. Everything from outsourcing and automated online marketing to building monthly cash-flow online.
Among other places, you can listen to the audiobook here.
Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk
If you are looking for some good old fashion blunt motivation, this is a great hype-up. While controversial, Gary walks you through all the real reasons why you should be living outside of your comfort zone, and why doing so you will create the best business you can. This book is definitely motivational, especially since Gary mentions dozens of examples who are on their way to building their dream businesses.
Among other places, you can listen to the audiobook here.
Losing my Virginity by Richard Branson
While any of Branson’s books is a great read, with his incredible insights into building the infamous Virgin brand, this particular biographical depiction of his early days in trying all the different ideas and approaches is bound to add more fuel to your fire when working with your business. It’s an easy, satisfying and exciting must-read.
Among other places, you can listen to the audiobook here.
The 7 habits of highly effective people by Stephen R. Covey
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.” Thank you, Will Durant! This is a cross discipline must-read! Going strong since 1989, this collection of habits can give you the necessary boost with your daily productivity and yield noticeable results when working with your company.
Among other places, you can listen to this audiobook here.
80/20 Principle by Richard Koch
Did you know, for example, that 20 percent of customers account for 80 percent of revenues? That 20 percent of our time accounts for 80 percent of the work we accomplish. The 80/20 Principle shows how we can achieve much more with much less effort, time, and resources, simply by identifying and focusing our efforts on the 20 percent that really counts. This entrepreneurial must-read grants you the freedom not to worry about all the different things as much and focus on the most impactful points of your activities. Effectively helping you increase your own and your company’s efficiency.
Among other places, you can listen to this audiobook here.
Capital and Ideology by Thomas Piketty
Not as much entrepreneurial as general education for you to get some eye-opening insights into the economy we are living in, and all the factors impacting the market trends. Piketty challenges us to revolutionize how we think about politics, ideology, and history. If you need arguments for sustainability and equality, this here will give you just that. Knowing this puts you ahead of your competition in terms of thinking about the big picture.
Among other places, you can listen to this audiobook here.
Podcasts
If you do not have the time to read or listen to long audiobooks, you can listen to a podcast. Here, like-minded entrepreneurs share their thoughts and explain what has worked for their entrepreneurial journeys.
How I Built This with Guy Raz
You will enjoy the raw stories of some of the most compelling entrepreneurs. Guy really aims to leave you with some great ideas to implement in your own business. Submerge yourself into the episodes of building Canva, Strava, Kodiak Cakes among many others.
You can listen to this podcast on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher or NPR.org.
Mixergy with Andrew Warner
If you ever wondered, how would it be like to study entrepreneurship, the Mixergy community will bring you just that. The show itself centers around the experiences of lesser-known entrepreneur who are killing it with their businesses but haven’t bounced around the interweb over 1,000 times. As a founder you want to listen to this one, and we promise you’ll find relatable stories.
You can listen to this podcast on Apple, Spotify or Stitcher.
Startup with Alex Blumberg and Lisa Chow
The sauce of this show is hidden in insights you will gain on subjects entrepreneurs struggle with the most. Everything from how to write a business plan to handling conflict at the workplace. Furthermore, Alex and Lisa discuss real entrepreneurial problems rarely mentioned in the business world. You will want to hear their stories and resolutions.
You can listen to this podcast here.
Eventual Millionaire with Jamie Masters
Here you have a podcast show where you will hear stories of how more than 350 multimillionaire CEOs reached their first million. Isn’t this one of the goals for most entrepreneurial hopefuls? Jamie’s comprehensive discussions with her guests generate insights into how to make better not only financial, but also life decisions on your way to becoming a millionaire.
You can listen to this podcast here.
The Pitch with Josh Mussio
If you like the show “Lion’s Den”, “Shark Tank” then this podcast is for you. This addictive podcast shows how entrepreneurs sell their ideas, what makes investors tick, and how these conversations can bloom into a full-blown business deal.
You can listen to this podcast here.
Movies
It’s 9pm, and the kids are down for the night. A great time to put on a movie, and we have some great suggestions relevant for entrepreneurs.
The Founder
‘The Founder’ is based on a true story of Ray Kroc, a salesman, who ends up owning McDonald’s the fast-food chain. We follow Ray going from diner to diner in hopes of selling some of his industrial machines. Prepare to see the unexpected. It’s a very interesting story that also your partner will enjoy.
Cast: Michael Keaton, Nick Offerman, John Carroll Lynch, Linda Cardellini
You can watch the movie here.
Social Network
This is a personal recommendation of our very own founder Anders Fogh, who rewatches it a couple times per year. It’s about the birth story of Facebook and the choices that lead Mark Zuckerberg to running one of the most known brands of all time.
Cast: Andrew Garfield, Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Timberlake, Rashida Jones
You can watch the movie here.
The Last Dance
While this is not directly about entrepreneurship itself, the story is about management and the positions of the various departments. There is a focus on culture and how you as a team can work towards success. So, if you have employees and several departments in your company, then it is worth seeing, maybe you will get inspiration for how your culture in the company should be.
Cast: Jason Hehir, Jon Weinbach & Michael Tollin
You can watch this movie on Netflix
Blogs/media
Marketing, sales, management, finance among others, are the ever-changing fields of initiatives. To stay updated on all the innovations, ideas and updates is crucial for someone managing a company of their own. Fortunately, there are media sites and blogs which help you do just that. This way you do not have to become an expert in every field, but merely look into the most recent opinions and news and take what matters to you and your company most.
If some of the articles look exciting, but you are not sure of their relevance to your business, then we would recommend reading them anyway, you might just get surprised on what you might find out that you have already implemented this in your business and now this just confirms you are on your way for scaling up.
Of course, there are many interesting blogs and media platforms to look out for, it’s really about what you are interested in. We recommend beginning with these, and then finding some that speak to you the best.
Entrepreneur.com
This media platform provides an overwhelmingly huge collection of information on starting and running your own business. They also launched a Women Entrepreneur site dedicated specifically to women entrepreneurs, it’s definitely a go-to for some comprehensive research. Check it out here.
Inc.Magazine
While the focus of this media platform is on American companies, it still is a great source of ideas, motivation. The most relevant part of the site is the “Start-Up” section, where you’ll find helpful reads, dos, and don’ts of running a company. Check it out here.
StartupCentral
Of course, you can always read our blogs, here you will find topics on everything in entrepreneurship, everything is easy to read and easy to implement in your company. Among other things, you will find a blog about live auctions and live shopping, which is very relevant in this COVID19 time. It talks about how you can sell your products online while giving your customers a personalized experience, without being in the same room with them. All blogs are written by experts in the field. Check it out here.
Have a great summer and best of success!