book reviews – Michele Christensen

Introducing the Solopreneur Reading List!

I’m pleased to announce the official launch of The Solopreneur Reading List, my curated list of books to help you thrive in your solopreneur business!

The most successful solopreneurs are committed to continuous learning, and reading is a great way to learn. Books can be inexpensive, are easy to carry, and are able to be read in small blocks of time that may otherwise be wasted. You can also refer back to any book that you own as many times as you need to.

I read every book before I even consider adding it to the list, and every one of the books is something I think is highly relevant for solopreneurs. You’ll never be able to read everything that is available and relevant to your business, so use this list as a starting point to find great books with information you need. My books written for solopreneurs are included as well.

You can find my reviews for these books by clicking on “book reviews” in the tag cloud in the sidebar.

Check out The Solopreneur Reading List and find your next read!

Book Review – Launch by Jeff Walker

This post is a review of the book “Launch: An Internet Millionaire’s Secret Formula to Sell Almost Anything Online, Build a Business You Love, and Live the Life of Your Dreams” by Jeff Walker. In short, this book is great and has everything you need to follow his launch plan. You’ve probably seen product launches using his formula and just didn’t know it. That’s the beauty of “PLF” or “Product Launch Formula” style launches – they deliver great value whether the potential customer buys or not, and can be done without hype or aggressive selling tactics.

For an investment of less than $10, you really have everything you need to launch PLF style. There are a variety of case studies in very different niches, and these case studies had me continually saying “I can totally do this!” The case studies are a great way to show you the information in the book in action, but also a way to show you how different people use the PLF for their launches.

There are several types of launches presented in the book, but one of the most useful is the Seed Launch. This is, in my opinion, the most useful because it assumes you are truly starting from scratch. You don’t need a finished product, a list or even a website. Of course if you have any or all of those things, your launch will be much easier but the Seed Launch chapter demonstrates that you don’t need any of them to launch your first product. In fact, a seed launch can help you create your first product, start your list and make some money if you need it to get your website built.

One of the errors I see business owners making in launching is thinking that if they put something for sale that somehow people will find it and want to buy it. Once you realize this isn’t true, you are left with a problem of how to let potential buyers know you have something for sale and why they might want it. If you are like most people, you don’t want to sound like too pushy or sales-y. The Product Launch Formula gives you a step by step method that overcomes all of these problems. You’ll also have plenty of time and space to say what you need to in order for people to understand your product or service.

In short, this book delivers huge value for the money and has earned a spot on my Solopreneur Reading List. Grab a copy on Amazon here.

Image of Launch Book cover from Amazon.com

Measure your results to improve them

From my book “Use Metrics to Know What Works“…

One of the hallmarks of successful entrepreneurs is that they take action. They don’t wait for the time to be perfect or for some mythical moment when everything lines up, they get busy and get going. This is a hugely important trait for success, but it can also be a curse. The problem is that many entrepreneurs are so action oriented that they go off in random directions with no plan. It’s not enough just to take action – you have to be taking action on the right things.

This is where a lot of entrepreneurs get into trouble. Yes, you do need to be taking consistent action, but if you don’t take some time first to determine what you should be doing there’s a good chance of not getting the results you want. The problem is that it is really hard for an action-oriented entrepreneur whose idea keeps him up at night to take a step back and do some research and planning. Later, the problem becomes taking the time to measure and analyze results when you would rather be doing more.

So many business operate like this:

Start doing something in hopes of growing your business
Sales don’t come as desired
Add another activity
Repeat

Can you see the problems with this approach? First, you can only repeat this cycle for so long. There is an absolute upper limit to the amount of activity that you can add to your business. At some point, you will run out of hours in the week. Second, if you keep adding new things without taking away anything you’ll end up with a bigger and bigger list of activities to keep up with. Your attention becomes split and you end up expending a lot of energy switching between and managing all your projects. Third and most serious is that you have absolutely no way to improve. There’s no feedback or indication of what’s working or not and how to improve. This is the biggest problem of all because testing, measuring and adapting is the only sure way you have of making sure you are on a path of continual improvement. Continuing to blindly add activities with no clear plan is like trying to get across town on your bicycle by pedaling faster and making random turns. If you don’t stop and consult a map before and during your trip, you won’t know if you are even heading in the right direction. All of that activity may actually be taking you further from your destination.

It’s almost impossible to get things just right on the first try. That’s where being action-oriented is an asset – as an action taker you just get out there and do something. However, the shortest path to success after you take action is to learn from that experience and adapt your next attempt.

When you take action with no planning, there is no way to measure and no way to close the loop. Everything you do will be just random shooting in the dark with no way to adapt and learn. Often the only feedback you get is “that didn’t work.”

For all of these reasons, metrics (i.e. measuring your results) is often one of the first areas I work on with my clients because we really can’t begin coaching and moving forward effectively until they have a feedback loop in place. As much as I wish I could, I simply can’t pull the right answers out of nothing. I need data to work with in the first place and a way to measure results once our ideas are implemented.

If you aren’t doing any metrics, or you want to see how metrics can help you, head over to the Kindle store and grab my book “Use Metrics to Know What Works.” This article is taken from Chapter 1, and the rest of the book teaches you not only the principles of metrics but how to do metrics for specific purposed in your business. Grab your copy here:

Use Metrics to Know What Works

(No Kindle device? No problem! You can download a free Kindle app for your phone or tablet, or install the free Kindle reader for your desktop.)

Use Metrics to Know What Works

Today is an exciting day! My newest Kindle book is now available!

(Can’t wait? Here’s the link!)

This book will teach you how to stop guessing, flying by the seat of your pants and running yourself ragged just to make a living.

In this book, I teach the basics of metrics, or using measurement to know what is and isn’t working. As a one-person operation, you simply cannot afford to be wasting time on things that don’t bring your results. Without a way to know for sure how well your efforts are paying off, how do you know where to spend your time?

This book is written specifically with you, the solopreneur, in mind. After laying out some general concepts on metrics, I show you where to start and exactly what to measure. The book even includes a downloadable starter kit with a tutorial video so you can get started right away.

Click the link below and grab your copy today:

Use Metrics to Know What Works

No Kindle device? No problem! You can get the free Kindle app for your smartphone or tablet or use the free Kindle desktop reader.

Get your book copy here

If you aren’t sure if this is for you, I invite you to imagine how great it would be if you knew you were working on the best thing you could be doing right now. That’s the confidence and clarity that measuring your result can bring. Get started today by downloading your book here.

Free book download today!

In honor of Small Business Saturday, I’ve polished up and revised my first Kindle book “Is a Solopreneur Business Right for You?” and made it available free today through Monday (aka Cyber Monday!)

Grab your copy here:

Is a Solopreneur Business Right for You?

Today is all about supporting small businesses, and if you are thinking of starting your own small business I want you to have this book. In the book, I share what you need to know to figure out if the model of a solopreneur business is a good fit for you. Enjoy, and please use the social sharing buttons below to spread the word to your community and to any aspiring entrepreneurs you know. Thanks!

Book Review: Be More Popular, Culture-Building for Startups

Be More Popular is about creating and utilizing culture to make your startup a success. I’ve written and spoken a lot about how I think that startups are not the same as solopreneurs, but there is a lot of value for solopreneurs in this book. I decided to read this book because I have tremendous respect for the the author, Lee Schneider, and have collaborated with him on several occasions. I’m also a subscriber to his newsletter and fan of his Twitter feed!

One of the key themes of this book is on gaining users for your product, but there is a big focus on building community. There are some valuable lessons in the community-building part of the book, and most of what is written about gaining users can be applied to other kinds of businesses as well.

Can a one-person business have culture?

At first I questioned this idea because culture, almost by definition, is shared by more than one person. However, the theme of culture is expanded upon greatly and culture isn’t only about shared rituals or traditions by employees. Culture permeates everything about your business and is a backdrop to every decision you make. Culture impacts what kind of people want to do business with you. The biggest takeaway I got in this area is that your business has a culture whether you are aware of it or not. Rather than let your culture just be some scattered list of ideas that you don’t even know about, it’s better to be intentional in creating your culture and communicating it.

Much of the book is dedicated to building community, and this is valuable for a solopreneur as well. Even though you may be mostly a one-person operation, the people who are interested in what you have to say are your community. They are your future customers, your advisory board and the home of your business. The book features case studies, and covers both fast and slow ways to build your community.

Most of what I’ve mentioned so far has been more about how this book teaches you new concepts and new ways to think about your business. However, there are some really practical “how to” sections as well.

One of the noteworthy sections of the book covers how much you can or should spend to acquire a user/community member/potential customer. Spending money is a perfectly valid way to let people know about you, but it can be a challenge to balance how much you spend vs. the potential revenue per client. Lee walks you through the calculation in enough detail that you could do this for your own business. It’s a really valuable concept and one that all business owners should be aware of.

A second section with valuable “how to” information is on using email marketing. It’s refreshing to hear someone in the startup community talk about the value of email marketing even though there are much more exciting and newer ways to reach people. The fact is that email marketing is still one of the most, if not the most, valuable activity a business can engage in even if it’s not particularly sparkly or new.

An unexpected surprise was a chapter on hacking your nervous system. This was toward the end of the book, and it was almost like getting a present! The book would have been complete without this chapter, but it was useful information on how you can make small changes to help yourself perform better.

I recommend you read this book for your business! Click here to see this book on Amazon.

Image from Amazon.com

Book Review – Making Your Book a Bestseller

One of my big themes for 2014 is narrowing my focus, and one of the areas I’m focusing on is writing Kindle books. I’ve got two published and a third is in the works. One of my books even got to #1 Bestseller status in the Kindle store! In this post, I’m reviewing a Kindle book that has information I used to get my book to #1 Bestseller status:

Author’s Quick Guide to Making Your Book a Bestseller

The book’s author is Kristen Eckstein, who is one of my Kindle mentors. I was in her first “Kindle in 30 Challenge” back in January, and from that I was able to get my series “The Solopreneur’s Success Strategy” started.

Here’s the review, in short form: Buy it. It’s well worth the $3.49 price point. If you are writing Kindle books that sell for $2.99, you only need to sell 2 to cover the cost of this book and I’m pretty certain this book will cause you to sell at least two additional books.

If you want more information, here’s the longer review.

Kristen’s credentials for writing this book are extensive and can be found in the beginning of the book. Suffice it to say, she knows her stuff. She covers many areas that will help you become a bestseller including writing a good book, choosing catagories, pricing, using keywords and writing for your specific audience.

One of the great things about this book is that much of what you will learn is applicable to other areas of your business as well. For example, she spends a lot of time on finding your audience and learning to speak their language. That skill is useful in so many areas of your business – when marketing on the web, when speaking from the stage, when creating products or when talking one-on-one with potential customers.

This book was hugely helpful to me and helped me get one of my books that coveted #1 status! My tip: Don’t forget to take a screenshot when your book gets to #1!

Check out the book here:

Author’s Quick Guide to Making Your Book a Bestseller

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Image source: Amazon.com