Rob Fitzpatrick has written the most essential book on validating your business ideas correctly and in a way that is practical and will save you time, money, and heartbreak. It's a short book that basically says that you shouldn't ask anyone if your business is a good idea, because it's a bad question and everyone is bound to lie in varying degrees. It's not their responsibility to tell you the truth, but yours to extract it correctly. And this book can teach you how.
Clayten Christensen seminal book is based on the Jobs to be done framework, and insight that when we buy a product, we essentially “hire” it to make progress and get a job done. And if the product hired to do the job does it well, we hire it again. And if not, we “fire” it and look for an alternative. Christensen argues that when companies truly understand the job their customer is hiring their product or service to do, is when companies can drive innovative solutions forward.
Running a business is all about solving problems, but business leaders often don't know what's their biggest problem. Instead of going in endless circles putting out urgent fires or prioritizing the wrong things, Mike Michalowicz provides a framework for identifying the most important problems based on a business' heirarchy of needs, and prioritizing to fix them first.
Joey Coleman's book isn't about focusing on marketing, or closing the sale. Rather it is to undergo the customer journey in their first 100 days and manage all the interactions and experiences of the customer that can turn them into a lifelong customer. Coleman's system is presented through research and case studies showing how best-in-class companies create remarkable customer experiences at each step in the customer lifecycle.
Great advertising is about writing compelling sales copy. In this book, Dan Kennedy shows why some sales copy works, why some don't, and to write copy for your business. These lessons can be applied everywhere, whether in Facebook ads, or marketing emails, or copy on your product pages.
Coming up with great product or brand names is hard. Alexandra Watkins shows you the SMILE and SCRATCH methodology to create memorable and effective brand names, even if you're a noncreative.
