Small Business Leadership

Running a small business is both exciting and challenging. While the rewards of entrepreneurship are great, the risks are equally significant. From financial instability and operational missteps to cybersecurity threats and reputational damage, small business owners must navigate a landscape filled with potential pitfalls. Without the right strategies in place, even a promising business can face unexpected setbacks. This book is designed to help you take control of the risks that threaten your business.

The lean entrepreneurship movement has captivated Silicon Valley and entrepreneurs across the country. It provided an agile framework to develop the right product solution for a given target market and is now used by almost every fledgling company to do just that. The next challenge is growth - to achieve the financial returns and, more importantly, the impact they dreamed of when starting off on their adventure.

Hype Yourself is an invaluable toolkit for getting you and your business featured in the media: newspapers, magazines, radio and TV. Crammed full of insider advice, from the building blocks of your PR strategy to the execution of creative campaigns, it includes expert tips from journalists and industry specialists and is supported by a stack of online resources. Lucy Werner has over 15 years of publicity experience, including running her own specialist consultancy focused on startups and entrepreneurs.

How can we do employee engagement well during the coronavirus pandemic, Brexit, and huge economic uncertainty? How can we motivate every employee, including the increasing number of people working from home? Mastering Small Business Employee Engagement will change the way you manage your small business - for the better.

While it may not occur to us on a daily basis, there is a widespread cultural tendency toward quick decisions and quick action. Though the root cause is by no means malicious, we have begun to reward speed over quality, and the negative effects suffered in both our personal and professional lives are potentially catastrophic. Best-selling author and Chief Envisioner Dan Pontefract offers the solution to this predicament with what he coins "Open Thinking".

Knowing that entrepreneurs have no time to waste, Ramberg presents simple and effective guidance that can be put to use right away. This book will be indispensable for every small business owner, from a family-owned store to a venture capitalist-backed start up.

Like many business owners, renowned politician and activist Stacey Abrams didn’t start a business because she dreamed of calling herself an entrepreneur. Her part-time post (and its $17,310 annual salary) as a member of the Georgia House of Representatives necessitated striking out on her own as a consultant—her first small business. Then, Stacey and her friend Lara Hodgson launched an infrastructure advisory firm—named Insomnia Consulting because they did their best thinking at 3:00 a.m.—and then another business, and then another.

The Mushin Way teaches tools and techniques to help you reach peak performance and transform your business and personal life. Regardless of what we want to achieve in business or in life, transformation can be difficult and we tend to be our own worst enemies. We hold ourselves back without even realizing what we are capable of. In this audiobook, you'll learn how to break through the cycle of stress and setbacks to act with clarity, purpose, and direction - achieving peak performance and transformation along the way.

INSIGHTS grants you access to some of Yale's leading entrepreneurs and the key learnings they've collected on their own entrepreneurial journeys. From founders of Fortune 500 companies such as FedEx, to the next generation of entrepreneurs like Thiel Fellows, to early investors in Apple, Cisco, Facebook, and other billion dollar startups, INSIGHTS is a collection of the best advice offered by a diverse group of leaders and innovators.

In the United States, most people who own small businesses struggle daily to make ends meet. Two-thirds of businesses earn less than $25,000 a year. Thankfully, Susie Carder - entrepreneur and business coach to everyone from Steve Harvey to Paul Mitchell - has developed the ultimate formula for incredible success. But she didn't create it overnight. Susie Carder was at rock bottom financially during the Great Recession of 2008 when she was inspired to dig in and rebuild her fortune from the ground up.

Funding falls apart. A similar product is unveiled by a more established company. A key employee jumps ship to work for a competitor. These are the unexpected obstacles that derail even the most promising new ventures. Entrepreneurs determined to keep up with today's constantly changing business environment need to stay nimble enough to shift their strategies, products, and services on a dime. Yet many fail to master this essential new mind-set: agility.

As a leader, you might know exactly what you need to do, but might be less clear on how to do it. You might know you need to have that difficult conversation, but you're less sure about how to have it. You might know you need to hold your team accountable, but don't know how to do it in a manner that builds authentic engagement rather than mere compliance. The Act of Leadership goes beyond the theory. It is a coaching playbook designed to empower you to be the leader you want to be, and the leader your people need you to be.

Coaching Up! is about inspiring those who matter to you to achieve peak performance. Whether you are a coach, a business leader, a civic activist, a teacher, a counselor, or a parent, this book will offer you a powerful, highly effective way to connect to the people you care about and move them forward toward their best selves. In sports, coaches have developed ways of connecting with their players quickly in the "heat of the battle", inspiring them to perform to their fullest potential and "leave it all on the field".

Cheekys' founder Jessi Roberts reveals how she grew one small store hurdle-by-hurdle into a national clothing and accessories brand with a one-and-a-half-million-strong community. Best of all, she did it by standing tall for her values: Always be kind, lift up the next gal, and treat employees and customers like family. More than a business book, Backroads Boss Lady is about embracing your passion even when others don't see value in it - or you - and about putting food on the table and believing in yourself.

You'll learn how to generate and test business ideas, and pick the one that's best for you... select the right entry strategy... name and locate your business... raise capital... build your team and get expert advice... protect your business secrets and intellectual property... effectively brand your business and market its offerings... handle pricing, distribution, and sales... manage your finances to specific objectives... prepare for growth... and even maintain your work/life balance as an entrepreneur.

Every day, a new silver bullet comes out, promising to grow your business, increase your profit margins, and make your life as a business owner easier. Unfortunately, most of them don't work, wasting your time and money. Plus, they take your attention away from other more worthwhile opportunities. The ones that do work for others just never seem to work for you. Blanket prescriptions are like that - never quite hitting the mark for all but the few with the exact symptoms.

Have you put hard work, time, and energy into building your pet sitting, dog walking, pet grooming, dog training, or dog daycare business - but keeping up with everything has left you stressed out, overworked, and overwhelmed? If you're wondering where to go from here, and whether you and your pet business can move beyond burnout or compassion fatigue, get ready to unlock the solutions you need with this audiobook. Now it's your turn to find hope, relief, and a solid road map to run your pet business in a new way that supports your personal time and freedom.

Birds of a feather flock together. We're all in the same boat. Great minds think alike. While just figures of speech to some, they reflect a simple truth - it's the company we keep that often determines the level of personal growth and professional success we achieve in life. Business leaders exchange information and ideas. They network to make deals and build partnerships. They work together to optimize best practices, and they reach out to leaders outside their companies to accelerate growth.

All too often, entrepreneurs become their own worst enemies, designing systems that keep them stuck without even realizing it. When that happens, it’s easy to blame the lack of progress on other people. Owner Shift is the no-holds-barred, breakthrough story of Mike Malatesta’s own journey through excitement, pain, grit, and mistakes—showing you how to take back your power, evaluate your business objectively, and claim the future you want. When it feels like the world is against you, Owner Shift reveals the Five Words that can reignite your fire.

A bold, useful, uncomplicated guide to mastering the three keys of business success: In this practical book, Dr. Howard Farran shows that running a business isn't all that complicated - if you're focusing on the right three areas: people, time, and money. People: maximizing the potential of employees, customers, and yourself. Time: mastering the efficiency that helps a business turn the biggest profit possible. Money: learning to love the numbers that function as the business's scorecard.