SpringQ.com - Entrepreneurship Inspiration and Information - Books, articles, and other media for entrepreneuring minds

Tuned In: Uncover the Extraordinary Opportunities That Lead to Business Breakthroughs by Craig Stull

Craig Stull

Thoughts/Words/Reviews:

Tuned In argues that the key to business success lies in understanding and connecting with what consumers and markets want most. Being tuned in to the needs of buyers, whether those needs are expressed outwardly or not, is the ultimate secret to creating and marketing products and services that people want to buy. For anyone who markets a product, service, or ideas in any business, industry, or organization, Tuned In delivers a simple six-step process for discovering real and deep insights into any market: finding unsolved problems, understanding buyer personas, quantifying impact, creating breakthrough experiences, articulating powerful ideas, and establishing sustainable connections. Tuned In shows readers how to stop guessing what consumers need and stop wasting time and money building, marketing, and selling solutions that the market doesn’t value. This insightful book shows readers how to connect with their market in order to create products and services that truly resonate with people.

View More about Tuned In: Uncover the Extraordinary Opportunities That Lead to Business Breakthroughs

Get Tuned In: Uncover the Extraordinary Opportunities That Lead to Business Breakthroughs at Amazon

June 23, 2008   No Comments

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho - Great Spiritual Book with Entreprenuership Lessons and Inspiration

Paulo Coelho

Our Rating: Rating: 5

Thoughts/Words/Reviews:
SpringQ.com says: The Alchemist is about having the courage to first open yourself up to listen for your true calling and then having the courage to follow your “Personal Legend”. While The Alchemist is not categorized under entrepreneurship, there are many life and business lessons to be learned from reading this book.

Treat yourself to an uninterrupted full morning or afternoon to read The Alchemist and then put it’s lessons into action!

From Amazon.com:

My Heart Is Afraid that it will have to suffer,” the boy told the alchemist one night as they looked up at the moonless sky.”Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams.”

Every few decades a book is published that changes the lives of its readers forever. The Alchemist is such a book. With over a million and a half copies sold around the world, The Alchemist has already established itself as a modern classic, universally admired. Paulo Coelho’s charming fable, now available in English for the first time, will enchant and inspire an even wider audience of readers for generations to come.

The Alchemist is the magical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure as extravagant as any ever found. From his home in Spain he journeys to the markets of Tangiers and across the Egyptian desert to a fateful encounter with the alchemist.

The story of the treasures Santiago finds along the way teaches us, as only a few stories have done, about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, learning to read the omens strewn along life’s path, and, above all, following our dreams.

View More about The Alchemist

Get The Alchemist at Amazon

May 25, 2008   1 Comment

The One Minute Entrepreneur: The Secret to Creating and Sustaining a Successful Business by Ken Blanchard

Ken Blanchard

Thoughts/Words/Reviews:

Mega-bestselling author Ken Blanchard and celebrated business leaders Don Hutson and Ethan Willis present an inspiring story that reveals the secrets to becoming a successful entrepreneur.

In THE ONE MINUTE ENTREPRENEUR, Ken Blanchard (coauthor of the #1 bestselling business classic The One Minute Manager), Don Hutson, CEO of U.S. Learning, and Ethan Willis, CEO of Prosper Learning, tell the inspiring story of one man’s challenges in creating his own business. Through a powerful and engaging narrative, we confront many of the typical problems all entrepreneurs face in starting up their business, from finding new sources of revenue to securing the commitment of their people and the loyalty of their customers. More important, we learn the secrets to becoming a successful entrepreneur, including how to build a firm foundation, how to ensure a steady cash flow, and how to create legendary service. In addition, the book offers invaluable advice, delivered through One Minute Insights, from such entrepreneurs and thinkers as Sheldon Bowles, Peter Drucker, Michael Gerber, and Charlie “Tremendous” Jones.

Today, in the midst of the largest entrepreneurial surge in U.S. history, four out of five small businesses continue to fail. THE ONE MINUTE ENTREPRENEUR offers businesspeople and would-be entrepreneurs a treasure trove of wisdom on how to think, act, and succeed in creating and sustaining a business, no matter what their industry.

View More about The One Minute Entrepreneur: The Secret to Creating and Sustaining a Successful Business

Get The One Minute Entrepreneur: The Secret to Creating and Sustaining a Successful Business at Amazon

April 24, 2008   No Comments

The [Scratch That] *A* Secret To Making Money Online by DHH

37signals-terror-italian-food-zappos1.jpgDavid Heinemier Hannson of 37Signals and creator of the web framework Ruby on Rails, gave a great talk at Paul Graham’s Startup School this weekend. In the same way that he and his 37Signals comrades defy conventional wisdom on developing technology, he presents his unconventional ideas on business (at least unconventional compared to the VC-ish and We-Want-To-Get-Bought-Out-By-Google crowd that probably attended Startup School).

Some highlights:

  • Comparing over-fearing terrorism to over-hoping to be the next billion+ dollar Facebook or MySpace
  • Targeting the “Fortune 5,000,000″
  • Charge REAL MONEY for your product/service! *GASP*
  • You don’t have to be the best Italian restaurant, there’s room for LOTS of excellent ones in the world
  • You don’t always have to have a super original or creative idea … Zappos.com created a great business selling shoes online for godsakes! They just do it great with extraordinary customer service.

Anyway, watch the video, it’s well worth your time (and check out the always interesting comments on this over at the Signal vs. Noise blog when you’re done):
<div><a href='http://www.omnisio.com'>Share and annotate your videos</a> with Omnisio!</div> <p>

April 21, 2008   No Comments

Technique for Producing Ideas by James Webb Young

James Webb Young

Thoughts/Words/Reviews:

A McGraw-Hill Advertising Classic

A Technique for Producing Ideas reveals a simple, sensible idea-generation methodology that has stood the test of time.

First presented to students in 1939, published in 1965, and now reissued for a new generation of advertising professionals and others looking to jump-start their creative juices, this powerful guide details a five-step process for gathering information, stimulating imagination, and recombining old elements into dramatic new ideas.

View More about Technique for Producing Ideas

Get Technique for Producing Ideas at Amazon

April 3, 2008   No Comments

Indie Startups: Legal Forms and Fees

indie-startups-logo.jpgThere’s a nice writeup from new site Indie Startups on legal fees and using free forms for legal agreements. Check it out: Legal Fees: How to minimize or rid the expense

March 29, 2008   No Comments

Small Biz Survivial: Checklists for starting your first business


Creative Commons License photo credit: mistersnappy
There’s a nice, no-nonsense list from Small Biz Survival: Checklists for starting your first business. Some folks may take issue with starting as a sole proprietorship, some say you should never do that and should always do business as an LLC, S-Corp, etc., but it’s up to you! Check out the list!

March 22, 2008   1 Comment

Venture Hacks: Half-Assed Startup: How do I start my company and keep my day job?

March 12, 2008   No Comments

Blogtrepreneur: 101 Useful Resources for Online Entrepreneurs

101-entrepreneur-resouces.jpgBlogtrepreneur has a really useful, no-BS list of resources for entrepreneurs. They cover communications/VoIP, data backup, invoicing, financial management/accounting, time/project management, contact management, hiring resources, online reputation, accepting payments, shopping carts, fund-finding and CPC revenue.

The list is very clean and readable and does not seem to pushing any products. Nice.

Check it out: 101 Useful Resources for Online Entrepreneurs

March 10, 2008   No Comments

calacanis.com: How to save money running a startup

startups-dont-use-microsoft-office.jpgCheck out How to save money running a startup. In a nutshell, he’s saying DO spend money where it counts, where you’ll get good ROI with happy, productive employees.
My favorite is #1:

Buy Macintosh computers, save money on an IT department

He caused a bit of a stir by saying “only hire workaholics” but modified it to “hire people who love their work” … his response to the backlash

March 7, 2008   No Comments