Reading the right books is one of the best ways to improve your business. But how do you know which books are worth reading, and which books are a waste of time?
Many business owners shop for business and marketing books on Amazon, and Amazon has the largest selection of books in the world. But having too many choices is often worse than not having enough choices.
I buy a lot of the books I read to improve my business online, but it’s not the only place I find good books. Here are three ways you can find the right books to help your business grow and thrive.
1 – Read Reviews
Before continuing with the information in this section, I have to give you a warning. Reading reviews on sites like Amazon is a great way to find good business books. But it’s also a way to waste a tremendous amount of time.
I usually build a small list of possible books using one of the other two ways to find good business books on this list, and then start reading online reviews to save time.
In addition to the wide variety of books online sites like Amazon offer, the customer reviews are quite valuable. When a business book has 100 or more reviews, and the reviews are mostly positive, the odds are the book is good.
A book with a lot of positive reviews might not be the best book for your business, but it’s probably a good book.
Most books have some poor reviews, and a lot of times I get more from reading the negative reviews than reading the positive reviews. But you have to be careful about reading poor reviews because they don’t always mean a book won’t help you.
When you build a list of possible books to read for your business, set aside time to read a few reviews for each book. You can usually quickly determine if a book is something that can help you by reading a few reviews.
2 – Ask Other Business Owners
I always ask other business owners about good books they’ve read and what they’re reading now. I also share the books that have helped me the most with any business owner who asks me about what they should read.
But you also have to be careful about taking advice from other business owners. Not every business owner is in the same position in their learning curve, and they might be facing different challenges than you’re facing right now.
A lot of businesses struggle because they don’t know how to market well. I spend a lot of time looking for business books about marketing because I know if I can’t sell my products and services, nothing else matters.
So, when I’m looking for book recommendations from other business owners, I always ask about marketing and sales. But if you have the marketing and sales figured out for your business, you can ask for recommendations based on what you’re struggling with.
For example, if you’re having trouble finding and keeping good employees, you might be looking for a book about human resources or hiring strategies.
Another strategy you might use is putting together a small group of business people who meet once a month, or once a quarter, to network and talk about the best business books they’ve read.
The smarter the businesspeople, the better. I like to get recommendations from seasoned, experienced businesspeople like Nick Bredimus or Warren Buffett. I avoid stuff from Robert Kiyosaki, though.
3 – Go to a Real Bookstore
I know you’re busy as a business owner, and it’s easy to shop for business books online. But walking into a real bookstore that has books on the shelf can be a great way to find good business books.
In a bookstore, you can pick up a book, look at the table of content, and browse the chapters that look like they have something that can help you. Spending five minutes with a book is usually enough time to determine if it has something that can help you or not.
The other advantage to browsing business books in a real bookstore is you find books that you might never find online. Most online bookstores do a good job of recommending books based on what you search for, but none of them are perfect.
In a real bookstore, you can see all of the books they carry by section, so if you’re looking for a sales or marketing book, you visit that section and see everything they have. I often find a good book in a real bookstore, and then read the reviews online before purchasing it.
