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The Top 9 Books You Should Be Reading After SA6

Published on December 12, 2019

SA6 was JAM-PACKED with thought-provoking content and solutions.

… And many of our speakers at this year’s Conference were best-selling authors so our 2019 list is comprised of high-quality books that are sure to help you on your entrepreneurial journey to success.

Furthermore, whether you did or didn’t attend SA6, you can take a stab at reading some of these wisdom-dispensaries from our world class speakers.

1. Profit First by Mike Michalowicz

As you’re well aware, profits are vital not only to your business’ growth… but also its survival.

In this book, Mike takes you on a journey to finding where to generate profits in your business.

Unlike most takes on increasing profits, Mike doesn’t believe your sales and expenses should determine your profit. Instead, he believes you should take profits into account to determine your budget for expenses.

He’ll will teach you how to:

  • Increase your profits by making it your first focus.
  • Pinpoint the things in your business that are eating your cash.
  • Limit your expenses using his step-by-step processes.
  • Simplify your accounting practices to make it easier and more profitable.

Mike shows you the roadmap to generating the profits you’ve always dreamed of achieving.

Who Should Read This?

No matter where you’re at in your business, anyone can benefit from reading this book.

Mike walks you through the step-by-step process to creating your own customized budget for increasing your overall profits. And so, no matter where you’re at in your business, you can benefit his profit-generating strategies.

2. The Replaceable Founder by Ari Meisel

If you’re trying to scale your business and reach that “next level,” you need to be replaceable (not irreplaceable) within your business.

In this book, Ari teaches the four levels of mindset that prevent you from getting to the next level (and how you can overcome them):

  1. COG (Where every business owner starts.)
  2. Engine
  3. Engineer
  4. Inventor (Your ultimate goal)

EVERY business owner faces these bottlenecks at each level, and Ari shows you exactly how to overcome those obstacles.

Who Should Read This?

Every business owner should read this book, because it applies to everyone at any stage in your business.

By following Ari’s step-by-step processes, you’ll have the opportunity to break through your bottlenecks and “level up” your business.

3. Bottleneck Breathrough by Josh Long

Every business has its bottlenecks, but sometimes those bottlenecks can be huge enough to create a revenue plateau you can’t break free from.

Josh has developed an effective approach to finding and solving your business’ bottlenecks - one problem at a time.

He created a method for quickly providing you with the bottlenecks in your business that you should actually start immediately fixing. Josh’s method helps you create the biggest improvement possible with the least amount of effort and risk.

This helps you to focus your efforts on what really matters and stop wasting your valuable time on bottlenecks that create little progress toward your overall goals.

Josh gives you:

  • A formula to discover and solve your most important bottlenecks.
  • An effective approach to find a specific solution to meet your unique situation.
  • A Bottleneck Breakthrough Method you can use throughout any stage of growth.

This book will you provide you with the solutions you need to push past your specific revenue plateau.

Who Should Read This?

If you’re stuck in a revenue plateau that you can’t seem to break free from, you should read this book.

Josh provides you with the tools you need to help break out of any bottlenecks or growth stunts that you can imagine.

4. Making a Difference by Steve Gilliland

This book is all about leaving your mark within your company.

Steve shows you how to be a great leader within your company and build a company your team is proud to work for.

Steve says these values are what’s going to help you make a difference:

  • “Represent the truth.”
  • “Honor your commitments.”
  • “Life will make you bitter or better, stronger or weaker.”

“Making a difference is what you do when no one’s watching, that you don’t have to do,” Steve says.

Who Should Read This?

Steve shows you how you can start taking actions today to make a difference in your business.

This is the book for you, if you want to create a company with:

  • Less stress
  • Happy clients
  • Great customer service
  • High-quality services
  • Loyal employees who take pride in their jobs

By reading Steve’s book, you can start being the great leader you’ve always dreamed of - today.

5. Clockwork by Mike Michalowicz

You’re fighting against the clock - day in and day out. There never seems to be enough hours in the day to complete your tasks… and you’re always working.

THIS is the problem Mike helps you solve in this book.

Mike teaches you how to make your business work for you - rather than the other way around.

He takes you through the strategies you need to implement to:

  • Free you from constantly micromanaging
  • Help you identify a common goal for you and your team
  • Find and neutralize your company’s biggest weakness to provide the most value

Mike shows you how to stop fighting against the clock and start implementing work-life balance.

Who Should Read This?

Even if you sold your first job yesterday, this book can help you.

Mike teaches you how to fix the major problems in your business in order to equip yourself with work-life balance. In addition to that, he shows you how to stop micromanaging and provide your team with the tools they need to take initiative.

6. The Art of Less Doing by Ari Meisel

Would you like to do LESS work and see GREATER results?

Ari teaches entrepreneurs reduce your workload by 80% and increase your results at the same time.

He shows you how to create your own work-life balance by using a unique approach to your work methods.

“The Art of Less Doing” approach  consists of these three elements:

  1. Optimize
  2. Automate
  3. Outsource

Using these elements, Ari shows you how to work smarter… not harder.

Ari’s approach combines his own philosophy with other methods (like the 80/20 rule, the 3D’s, and multi-platform repurposing) to give you a seamless approach to entrepreneurship.

Who Should Read This?

Ari’s book is perfect for any business owner wanting to maximize their productivity while also increasing their work-life balance.

He’ll teach you how to automate your business and change your everyday working methods. Plus, his advice helps you focus more on your personal life (rather than just your professional life), which allows you to unwind and destress.

7. Fix This Next by Mike Michalowicz

From the moment you started your business, you’ve had a dream of what you’d achieve.

… And yet, you just can’t seem to accomplish that dream.

If you’re wondering why or if you’re going to reach your business goals, Mike will show you how.

“The biggest problem entrepreneurs have is that they don’t know what their biggest problem is,” says Mike.

As a result, your team isn’t happy, your clients aren’t happy, and you’re not happy.

He shows you how to:

  • Create happy customers.
  • Foster a loyal, positive, hardworking team.
  • Stop sending your business into a never-ending growth loop.
  • Take your business to the next level by pinpointing your biggest problem.

Mike takes you on a step-by-step process to picking one (JUST ONE) problem you should fix in your business… right now. He explains why you’re trying to do too much at once - and why none of it is working. Then, he tells you how to solve it.

Who Should Read This?

If you, your team, and your clients are unhappy, this book is for you.

Mike takes you on a journey to discovering your business’ biggest problem that’s making everyone around your business miserable. Once you’ve discovered that issue, he shows you how to fix it and foster a positive working environment everyone will love.

8. Hide Your Goat by Steve Gilliland

If you’re having trouble maintaining a positive, hopeful outlook in your business - Steve’s book can help you.

Steve focuses on six core principles in the book:

  1. “The courage to recognize who you are.”
  2. “The strength to accept where you have been.”
  3. “The wisdom to discern where you are heading.”
  4. “The knowledge to acquire where it takes to get there.”
  5. “The awareness to exclude who is stopping you.”
  6. “The power to change what’s holding you back.”

Once you’ve conquered these principles, you can begin refocusing your outlook of your business.

Who Should Read This?

If people keep “getting your goat,” and your overall outlook of your business has been negative - you should read this book.

Instead of constantly asking yourself, “Why me?”... you can begin actually solving your issues.

Using Steve’s thought-provoking questions, ideas, and solutions, you can kickstart your journey to becoming a happy, problem-solving, positive entrepreneur.

9. The Pumpkin Plan by Mike Michalowicz

What do pumpkin farming and growing your business have in common?

Apparently, a lot!

Mike compares growing your business to growing a pumpkin farm. He relates the same processes that you use to grow your pumpkin farm with the processes you use to grow your business.

In this book, you’ll discover new steps and strategies for growing your business. You’ll find out how to:

  • Clone your ideal clients.
  • Get rid of your least valuable customers.
  • Nurture your most valuable customers.
  • Zero in on your business’ specialities.
  • Be different… instead of better than your competition.

“Your biggest opportunity for colossal growth is being DIFFERENT than your competition,” Mike says.

Who Should Read This?

Even though new business owners can still benefit from this book, it’s probably going to better benefit established businesses looking to grow.

This book will help you discover your business’ biggest assets and then use them to supercharge your growth.

Be Lightyears Ahead of Your Competition

Even if you were to read just one of these books, you’re going to be lightyears ahead of where you were yesterday.

These best-sellers have helped thousands of business owners just like you, and we know they’ll help you too.

And so, even if you didn’t attend SA6, you can pick from the reading list of the very speakers that helped so many of our SA6 attendees during the talks.


Related: SA6 Recap | Time to Level Up!


Originally published Dec 12, 2019 7:00 AM

Alyssa Sanders

Alyssa is the Team Lead of Creative Marketing at Xplor Field Services. Alyssa is an expert in field service industry trends, roadblocks, and solutions. When she’s not writing or creating engaging content, you can find her watching a new sci-fi series or shoving her nose into a good book.
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