The best
Starting a Business eBooks:
Reddit reviews
From 3.5 billion Reddit comments
The best of Starting a Business eBooks by number of unique Reddit comments:
Top Reddit reviews mentioning Starting a Business eBooks:
Read this: https://www.amazon.com/INSPIRED-Create-Tech-Products-Customers-ebook/dp/B077NRB36N . This is the bible most (great) product teams follow in 2021 :-)
I don't think you should abandon it - I think you're not doing enough marketing. I'm guilty of that as well - building features is fun and marketing is cryptic and confusing.
The developer of a product can be the absolute worst copy writer, because the entire product is in their head. It's been hell trying to find help on that front though.
I've gone through the site and I'm a little lost what this actually does. My test cases run as part of my build pipeline - why would I want a separate tool to manage that? Or is this a tracking tool for a separate test department?
I think the video needs a voice-over saying what it's doing. If you don't have a voice for radio that's fine - you can loop back to that later.
My gut says a cloud version would help, because it reduces the mental energy someone has to invest to try your product. Sure you offer a 90-day trial, but someone still has to invest the time to download an appliance. My goal was to have a running trial instance up in under 5 minutes and with no human interaction.
I'm completely with you on using containers for software delivery, but by delivering that way you're putting up another wall. I've met a lot of people that think docker is some kind of sorcery, plenty that don't have Linux experience. A lot of people can't just spin up servers because that has to go through a different department. Having an online trial lets you delay that whole question until they've decided if they need the product.
Start Small Stay Small has helped me.
Barriers to entry are there. But like a lot of boutiquey things, many people would like to run such a business and not strictly related to reasons linked to a good business plan.
May be easier to buy an existing firearms business rather than trying to start one.
This may be useful to you:
https://www.amazon.ca/HBR-Guide-Buying-Small-Business-ebook/dp/B01KP33K4Y
Speaking about your business/niche specifically, you will learn more through experience than you ever will through reading or watching YouTube or taking online courses.
That said, there are a lot of skills you need as a business owner that don't have anything to do with the product or service you are selling. The one thing most new entrepreneurs don't realize is that you won't actually be spending all that much of your time doing the technical aspects of your business - or at least you shouldn't. As a business owner you also have to do the legal parts (setting up the business entity, getting insurance, navigating hiring/firing employees, etc), financial parts (setting up bank accounts, bookkeeping, reviewing financial reports, etc), advertising & marketing, customer service, even cleaning the toilets.
If you really want to change your mindset and start thinking more like an entrepreneur and less like an employee, read The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber. On the financial side of things, read Financial Intelligence for Entrepreneurs.
Without knowing more about what type of business you want to start, I really can't offer much more advice than just get started.
I really enjoyed the book Traction by DuckDuckGo founder Gabriel Weinberg. He identified 19 traction (marketing) channel strategies, and a methodology for identifying the most promising channel for your company. Mainly startup focus.
https://www.amazon.com/Traction-Startup-Achieve-Explosive-Customer-ebook/dp/B00TY3ZOMS
Start Small Stay Small is a good book about running an independent software company. It's not specific to gaming but the advice still applies.
There is a lot of good advice here. Consider reading this book as well:
HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business: Think Big, Buy Small, Own Your Own Company (HBR Guide Series) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KP33K4Y/
Also consider that there are other opportunities out there. Maybe the best thing you can do is to just spend the time vetting this deal and understanding the risks and upsides, well eventually walking away. There are plenty of other businesses in a similar position, so it's hard to imagine that the very first one you are considering buying is the right one for you.
Its not clear to me if you just want to do an experiment and have fun or you really want to make a successfull app/business.
If it is the latter, Eric Ries "Lean Startup" was an eye opening for me and the development of my product. Stop what you are doing and go to read that book first, or at least watch some of his talks.
Mark Cuban's How To Win At the Sport Of Business is an entertaining, quick read. I think it may just be blog posts he's written before but I reread it occasionally. It's not advice for how to be an investor necessarily, just general "how to be good at business" advice. You will see advice that he uses in some of his judgements for investing. (Example: If a new company has a bunch of swag, you know they're burning for no reason)
The Finance and Capital Markets section of Khan Academy is great content. Learn how to read the 3 financial statements and you will know the language of business.
Lori has a book too, but it's more useful if you actually have an invention and what it takes to get it patented and turned into a business. There's valuable lessons in it though.
I read 2 of Daymond's books and they're just general life stories about his rise. I read Kevin's and it was filled with basic advice like "get a credit card and build credit."
Rudy has a number of older videos which are good. I would also recommend OP read Gary Rays book which addresses a number of the key tenets to running a game store:
https://www.amazon.com.au/Friendly-Local-Game-Store-Middle-Class-ebook/dp/B07CMKY4LY
Check out Lean Startup
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004J4XGN6/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
Super helpful book that breaks it down. I think you can get it for free on Academia.
Thanks! I'll check it out.
Right now the business is going alright. It's been a side hussle and brings in around 3-5k a month, but only leaves me a paycheck of around 750-1,250/month.
Honestly the only thing holding us back is production size and logistics. Thing is I need to buy a bigger local and get it certified, which costs more mullah that I could possibly save in the short term. . .
100% this. OP should read the book :
https://www.amazon.com.au/Friendly-Local-Game-Store-Middle-Class-ebook/dp/B07CMKY4LY
Very eye opening to the reality of the industry and how much stress you will experience combined with the low income prospects available.
How many businesses generating 0.5-1.5M in annual FCF have you looked at already?
From this post, my guess is zero.
Buying an existing business is a huge topic that requires a lot of unpacking.
Start by reading the HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business.
It will frame many of the key pros and cons, as well as give you lots of direction on next steps and clarify many of the early questions you have.
Good luck!
I did. I started with Traction (https://www.amazon.com/Traction-Startup-Achieve-Explosive-Customer-ebook/dp/B00TY3ZOMS/), been listening to podcasts on e-commerce marketing as of late since I've been commuting a lot.
​
Really, I was just looking to explore the Reddit Ads platform. Making sales would have been great but ultimately I just wanted to learn. Pretty cheap lessons IMO.
​
I haven't read any Robert Greene but I'll take a look. Thanks for the book recommendations!
I always recommend the E-Myth Revisited. I think its critical to the proper mindset of being a business owner, but that's just me.
First mistake. Not everyone with an inspect problem will be your customer
You need to define your market: are you going to be the cheapest prices provider it will result in you going into low income dumpy houses and those customers are not going to pay as much and complain the most. Take up a lot of your time for lower margins and no money for marketing
Or to you shoot for the top 30% of the market and charge higher prices with better guarantees and work with income earners with 100-200k per year jobs and can afford to have you out 3 times a year like clockwork to keep the spiders away?
Every technician goes through this as an employee
The boss is getting rich off my back
Means while he’s working 70 hours a week keeping the schedule full to provide you with a stable income. Takes all the risk
When you go out and spray aware winning petunias
You boss is the one to fork over the settlement
Great ambition to want to start our own business. But don’t do it because you think your boss is getting rich. Because you will be sadly mistaken.
And what appears easy for him now was years of blood sweat and tears
Source : 20 year hvac technician turned business owner 9 years ago with 2 employee 1000s of customers and problems that nobody seems to want
Shit I can’t even give the business away. And yes it’s profitable but everyone wants to go home at 5pm
Go read the emyth by Micheal gerber
And then come back and I would be happy to answer anymore of your questions
https://www.amazon.ca/Myth-Revisited-Small-Businesses-About-ebook/dp/B000RO9VJK
It would be helpful if your bookkeeper uses Xero or Quickbooks online so you can see the numbers at any given point.
I highly suggest you have your books done once a year by a CPA if you don't already.
Make sure both the CPA and bookkeeper have restaurant experience as they can pay for themselves if they know what they are doing. The opposite is true as well.
Have you read The E-myth Revisited? I highly suggest you follow the advice herein. tl;dr systematize everything like you were trying to sell a franchise.
Apply for a job at our company :) DM for details
Or, if you go solo, try to create a product that generates at least $10 a day in revenue. Like /u/enantiodromia said in another post:
> Software helps normal people get early wins, which keeps them motivated, which keeps them interested enough to keep trying.
It was in a different context, but the idea's the same. You need an early win. Mixed In Key was my early win. It gave me the strength to keep going. I recommend a book called Zero to One, it might be relevant for what you're asking about:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J6YBOFQ/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
> You’re suffering from something called impostor syndrome, which is something many successful people have. No matter how good you are and how far you come, you still feel like it’s a mistake and you aren’t worthy.
You know, that really puts things into perspective for me. I've recently had an interview and just looking at my resume you can see I'm very successful; I have a patent pending, ivy education, and president of some things which their contributions have seen positive attention from media.
The interviewer asked me the following question:
> What is an achievement that you are particularly proud of?
There was a long pause, and she was surprised. I could objectively see why, but I wanted to be honest--so I thought about it. I don't really feel that way. In the end, I answered something along the lines of being able to create something out of nothing, which is something that few people seem to be able to do. Zero to One by Peter Thiel is a book that kind of puts this idea into perspective. Honestly though, I still feel like I could do better and I feel like I've made far too many mistakes that I shouldn't have made in the past.
Why can't you represent yourself as a team member of the fund? It lends a lot more credibility to say you're part of a team backed by xyz investors looking to purchase a single business, rather than a random tire kicker. Also, are you approaching business owners directly, or going through brokers? The latter will not divulge detailed info without financials.
If you haven't already, pick up a copy of HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business. https://www.amazon.com/HBR-Guide-Buying-Small-Business-ebook/dp/B01KP33K4Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1489500489&sr=8-1&keywords=harvard+business+buying+business
I’ve found the ebook on Amazon for those who would be also interested.
Thanks for your recommendation!
This one is about creating start ups. It is called Zero to One.
To be honest, I really have not read many books. This is something that has been off and on the past couple of years. I really haven't finished many books. I know that sounds really sad. I can't even remember the last book I really read cover to cover. So I am having a hard time answering the top three books. Sorry! I know that makes it hard to make recommendations to someone that just started reading.
I'm looking at getting into real estate. I think i'm going to lean towards books about that to further my education on the topic. I am going to create a list of recommendations that you guys give. I will tackle it!
I'm currently reading Traction, a book that discusses marketing for startups. (https://www.amazon.com/Traction-Startup-Achieve-Explosive-Customer-ebook/dp/B00TY3ZOMS#nav-subnav) While the game space is different, there are many strategies in the book that apply to games as well, and that game devs can learn from.
Start Small, Stay Small. This book is full of insights on how to successfully bootstrap a business.
Just picked that book up. Going through it this week and next week. Hopefully I can either take that model, or tweak it to fit our needs. Either way, let me research, and propose a business game plan and i'll PM you. Thanks for giving this chance to propose something.