Seth Godin’s book Permission Marketing is one of the most timely books for the new era of marketing. With the internet becoming a prominent form of communication, the new ways of marketing are dramatically changing. Seth believes the new marketer will take permission from his prospects before sending him information.

Seth believes the old era of interruption marketing is over. However, several companies are still stuck in the old era of interruption marketing. Tele-calling, sms blasts  and junk email are still being used by several organizations for no results at all. The traditional forms of marketing are expensive, not easily trackable and do not really produce the results companies are looking for.

Seth believes the new marketing philosophy is turning strangers into friends, and friends into life-time customers. He believes frequency builds trust and permission facilitates frequency.

Overall, this book is a must-read for all marketers and entrepreneurs. Even if you do not agree with Seth Godin’s methods, this book will give you a totally different perspective on marketing.

Book review written by Vinil Ramdev

Vinil Ramdev is an entrepreneur, speaker and author of several ebooks. He is founder of StartUpGrowthExpert.com – An Online Magazine for Entrepreneurs who want to start and grow extraordinary businesses.

Seth Godin’s book “The Dip” according to Seth is a book on quitting. According to me, this is more a book on being the best at something rather than on quitting. It is an amazing book, very short and something every person motivated at being the best should read. This book is a such a short read, most people can read the entire book in a weekend, even if you are a slow reader.

I found the book very fascinating because Seth Godin is so unconventional, he debunks and challenges everything many of us have learned through several years of formal schooling. He believes you should not follow a proven system. All throughout business school and even outside of business school, many of us are obsessed with proven systems. As a CEO and a business consultant, I always believed in proven systems. I would search and identify proven systems rather than try something unconventional, innovative and something nobody else has done. Seth Godin changed all that for me. I, now don’t care as much about proven systems.

In the book, Seth Godin debunks the popular myth that all quitters are losers. Instead, he says,

“Quit the wrong stuff.
Stick with the right stuff.
Have the guts to do one or the other.”

Seth’s book discusses how every individual reaches a point in his career where he feels like quitting and the truly extraordinary people sometime in their career make a decision to be great. I believe this is what differentiates the best from the rest. Making a decision to be the best and not quitting when things get really tough. This is what Seth calls the Dip. The Dip is when things get really tough and you feel like quitting. Seth says, the Dip is the point where individuals choose to become great, become mediocre or quit.

The Dip is such a wonderful concept that it forces you to stick to things that you choose to be the best at even when things get really tough and quitting things that you don’t plan on being the best at. The time to make a decision to quit is even before you start a career, a project or a business. Reminds me of a former mentor who said “the worst time to quit is when things are at their worst.” There is so much truth to that, imagine selling your business when you are raking in huge losses. Good luck with that!

My understanding of key concepts in the book?

Focus on a niche and be the best at it.

Every thing under one roof is a lousy concept. I said that way back in 2005 when I was in the retail business when everything under one roof was a popular concept. I believed in finding a niche then, I still believe in finding a niche now.

Let go of the products and services that you don’t plan on being the best at. And, focus on the products and services that you plan on being the best at. When things get tough, don’t quit, go through the Dip and become the best at your chosen trade.

Screw the proven system. Try something different, something you believe in. Something that has never been tried before. That’s how great inventions and great business models have come about. The days of proven systems are over. It’s now time for innovation.

If you’ve read the book, feel free to discuss you interpretation of the book in the comments section below.

The book is available for purchase on Amazon.com, click here to buy the book.

Book review written by Vinil Ramdev

Vinil Ramdev is an entrepreneur, speaker and author of several ebooks. He is founder of StartUpGrowthExpert.com – An Online Magazine for Entrepreneurs who want to start and grow extraordinary businesses.

This week I am reviewing T Harv Eker’s Secrets of the millionaire mind. This is a must read book for anybody who wants to dramatically improve his financial life for the better.

Every once in a while, a great book comes along that can make a dramatic impact on your financial life. T Harv Eker’s Secrets of the millionaire mind is one such book.

Harv Eker talks about how every person has a money blueprint installed in his subconscious mind. This money blue print is like a thermostat that determines your income, net worth and pretty much everything in life.

If your money blueprint is set at an income level of $ 100,000 a year then you will perhaps make only $ 100,000 every year no matter how much you learn.

Harv talks about how there are two parts to the money game, one part is the external game and the other part is the internal game. Learning about business, marketing, sales and accounting is your external game which is important but what Harv talks about in this book is the internal game – your money values, why you tend to keep losing money while others seem to make money in the exact same profession.

If you have been learning and learning for several years but for some reason don’t seem to be making the progress you deserve to make in your financial life. Then, it is time to visit your money blueprint and identify the reason why you are not making that progress.

The time to change your financial life for the better is now and the book to start with is definitely T Harv Eker’s Secrets of the millionaire mind.

This book is all about the inner game of money and wealth. It’s not about the technical skills but the inner philosophy and the psychological mindset you need to develop to attain wealth.

If you’ve read the book, let us know what you think about the book in the comments section below.

Good luck on your journey to everlasting wealth and happiness!

Book review written by Vinil Ramdev

Vinil Ramdev is an entrepreneur, speaker and author of several ebooks. He is founder of StartUpGrowthExpert.com – An Online Magazine for Entrepreneurs who want to start and grow extraordinary businesses.

When Harry Che, Founder of Goals on Track asked me to test drive the Goals on Track software, I was skeptical at first. He told me it was a software where you can track your goals and track how far you’ve progressed every week.

So, I decided “what the hell” let’s give it a try.

I test drove it for a week and I was pleasantly surprised at how simple and easy it was to use. I am NOT really that tech savvy. I don’t use as much technology in my life and the name software almost always makes me nervous.

But this particular software which is an online version was really easy to use. It had a tab for goals, sub-goals, tasks and habits. Every day you complete a habit, you can click on the check button and at the end of the week you can track how many days you actually did the new habit.

So, at the end of the week or month you’d know exactly all the tasks you did or did not do and for how long.

The software also has a section called reports where you can get a report of all your activities. This, I call conscious living.

To try out Harry’s software, click here.

About the Reviewer

Vinil Ramdev is an entrepreneur, speaker and author of several ebooks. He is founder of StartUpGrowthExpert.com – An Online Magazine For Entrepreneurs who want to start and grow extraordinary businesses.

Robert Kiyosaki’s book Rich Dad Poor Dad is one of the classics in wealth management. It is the Harry Potter of the personal money management world. This book has been a New York Times best seller and has sold over 28 million copies worldwide.

If you want to be rich then this book has to be your starting point. Several people dream about being rich but few people actually work hard at it and even fewer become rich. But what does rich really mean to you?

In this book, Robert talks about his two dads – one his real biological father who was middle class and the other was the father of his best friend who happened to be rich who Robert calls Rich Dad. Robert’s biological father who was poor died poor with bills to pay. But Robert’s rich dad grew wealthier and wealthier every day.

Robert, in this book discusses why rich people grow richer everyday and poor people grow poorer every day. The rich are rich NOT because they have extraordinary intelligence but because they think differently than the poor and the middle class.

Poor and Middle class families tell their kids to go to college, get a degree and then get a safe, secure job. They teach their kids to work hard for their money.

On the other hand, Rich people teach their kids to invest their money and have their money work hard for them.

In the book, Robert also says “Your house is NOT an asset. An asset is something that puts money in your pocket.” As we all know, a house does NOT put money in your pocket, it takes money out of your pocket in terms of taxes, maintenance, etc.

Furthermore, Robert also discusses several aspects of what the rich teach their kids like how to read financial statements. Many of us are never taught how to read financial statements in school or even in college unless we took a course in accounting or finance in college.

We are taught all kinds of courses in school like history, calculus, etc but never taught how to manage your money or read a financial statement.

If you are really committed to getting rich, you ought to read this book. It is one of the best books I have come across in my life time. I read this book way back in 2002 and I can confidently say that it has shaped my life in a big way.

Book review written by Vinil Ramdev

Vinil Ramdev is an entrepreneur, speaker and author of several ebooks. He is founder of StartUpGrowthExpert.com – An Online Magazine for Entrepreneurs who want to start and grow extraordinary businesses.

Help An Entrepreneur. Support Our Business Plan Competition.

This is a book review of Rick Segel’s Retail Business Kit For Dummies.

Rick Segel’s Retail Business Kit For Dummies is a book that I read when I was in the retail business several years ago. Personally, I love the book because it shows you the basics of the retail business.

If you are getting into the retail business for the first time or if you have been in the retail business for several years, this book will break down retail into simple steps.

There are several marketing strategies that you could use right away to help you get more leads or develop your brand. This book is mostly catered to the small business owner NOT necessarily the retail magnet who plans on having a chain of retail stores.

What I like about the book is that most strategies recommended by Rick are simple and easy to follow. He has a chapter on branding, inventory management – which is a major challenge for retailers, retail marketing, book keeping and retail sales among others.

The chapters I found most useful were the ones on inventory management, sales, book keeping and some parts of marketing. The old complicated inventory management system followed by several retailers is confusing and hard to follow, Rick explores another system that he calls “open to thrive” that anybody can understand in 5 minutes or less.

The chapter on book keeping is a great resource for the small business owner that could save the small retailer a lot of heart ache. The sales chapter also has a simple system that can be easily followed.

Overall, the book has lots of tips and retail marketing ideas that can be used by the independent retailer but it lacks in depth and the chapter on branding needs to be rewritten.

I would the give the book a rating of 3 out of 5.

Should you buy the book? Yes, you should buy the book if you are starting off in the retail business but you may not want to make it your bible. Pick some of the tips and tricks in the book but also explore other books on branding, retail, marketing and planning and devise a strategy that is most suitable to you.

This book is available for purchase on Amazon and other leading book stores.

About the author

Vinil Ramdev is an entrepreneur, business coach and author of several ebooks. He is founder of StartUpGrowthExpert.com – An Online Resource For Entrepreneurs who want to start and grow extraordinary businesses.

In his book “Tipping the Odds for the Entrepreneur: Big Ideas on Success for the Small Business Owner” author Kevin C. Maki talks about some of the most common mistakes that lead to business failure.

The following is an extract from his book “Tipping the Odds for the Entrepreneur: Big Ideas on Success for the Small Business Owner.”

Mistake #1: Lack of Direction

Many entrepreneurs launch a business without specific goals and metrics for assessing their progress toward those goals.  I often repeat the phrases:

• What gets measured gets done; and
• You can only manage what you measure.

A business plan is simply a method for formalizing your goals, timelines for achieving them, and strategies for accomplishing each of the steps required to reach these goals.  If you are vague about what you want to accomplish and in what timeline, it is difficult to get all of the necessary parties aligned to move the business in that direction.  Fuzzy goals lead to fuzzy outcomes.  Specific, measurable goals with timelines for major and minor milestones will allow you gauge your progress and make course corrections when necessary.

An element of your direction should be your competitive advantage relative to your competition.  Why should customers or clients choose you instead of them?  The factors on which sales decisions are made are time, price, product and service quality, convenience and risk.  Your business must have an advantage in one or more of these in order to convince a customer to choose you.  You should be explicit about what you want your advantage to be and how you plan to accomplish this.  You then need to communicate this clearly to your employees and customers.  That is the only way that your customers and employees will know what you are promising to deliver and the only way your employees will know what is expected of them in order to deliver on those promises.

A hotel chain used to run ads with the motto “No surprises.”  In other words, guests could expect a clean comfortable room and friendly, helpful staff.  We often tell our customers that we hope that when they work with us they will experience “No surprises…except good ones.”  Our goal is to under-promise and over-deliver, never the reverse.

About the Author

Kevin C. Maki, PhD is the founder of Tipping the Odds^SM, as well as President and Chief Science Officer of Provident Clinical Research & Consulting, Inc., a company specializing in the design and conduct of clinical research on food and pharmaceutical products.  He is the author or co-author of five books and hundreds of published articles on topics ranging from entrepreneurship to preventive medicine.

Kevin’s book Tipping the Odds for the Entrepreneur: Big Ideas on Success for the Small Business Owner is available for purchase on Amazon and leading book stores.

The book “Losing my Virginity: How I’ve Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way” is the autobiography of Richard Branson, one of Britain’s most celebrated entrepreneurs.

This book contains details about his businesses, personal life, his child hood, his set backs and several of his adventures and misadventures.

Richard Branson explains how he takes life by the horns and chose to trust his gut when it came to business.

Richard talks quite candidly about his set backs in life and also shares stories about his personal life that were not always very rosy. For many of you interested in gossip, there is also a little gossip about some very famous people. This should make the book a very interesting and enjoyable read.

Overall, this is a great book to read. If you are an entrepreneur this is perhaps a must read book. You will realize Richard Branson’s life is perhaps not always smooth sailing; he faced several obstacles as an entrepreneur and pursued his goals in spite of the obstacles.

Once you read the book, you will begin to like “Sir Richard Branson” – Truly an entrepreneurial hero in the modern era.

This book is available on Amazon.com and several other book sellers.

Losing My Virginity: How I’ve Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way