Tag: book review

Top Business & Investing Books On Sale

Looking for some reading material or the fall season? Here is a list of business and investment books that are on sale through Amazon as Kindle edition. If you are interested in any of them, you should probably buy them right away, as these sales don’t last long.

Here are the books:

Strategize to Win
By Carla A. Harris
A Wall Street veteran offers proven strategies for success.
Sale price: $1.99 Retail: $12.99

The Pocket Small Business Owner’s Guide to Building Your Business
By Kevin Devine
Each step of the entrepreneur’s journey.
Sale price: $1.99 Retail: $10.99

Boost Your Career
By Sander Flaum and Mechele Flaum
How to climb the corporate ladder.
Sale price: $1.99 Retail: $12.99

The Serving Mindset
By Farnoosh Brock
Practical guide to making sales pitches.
Sale price: $1.99 Retail: $16.99

The 7 Principles of Public Speaking
By Richard Zeoli
Improve your communication skills.
Sale price: $1.99 Retail: $10.99

10-Minute Focus
By Daniel Walter
Guide to maintaining your focus and maximizing productivity.
Sale price: $0.99 Retail: $4.99

Chasing the High
By Michael G. Dash
How to manage the highs and lows of business.
Sale price: $0.99 Retail: $6.99

Getting to Yes
By Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton
Master the art of win-win agreements.
Sale price: $1.99 Retail: $12.99

Your Living Trust & Estate Plan
By Harvey J. Platt
Tips on creating a living will and estate plan. Sale price: $1.99 Retail: $11.99

 

Target Funding: A Proven System to Get the Money & Resources You Need to Start of Grow Your Business

by Fred Fuld III

The book, Target Funding: A Proven System to Get the Money & Resources You Need to Start of Grow Your Business by Kedma Ough is by far the the most thorough book I have ever read on getting money for startups and small businesses.

As someone who has created a couple of businesses, I know how hard it is to raise money. Target Funding is a complete guide to finding sources of funds, whether it be for an invention, a technology venture, a startup, a small business, and even franchises.

The book goes into great detail on funding if you fit into a special category, such as veterans, people with disabilities, minority, and women.

Startups are not just for young people. If you are over 50, you may be eligible for ROBS, Rollovers for Business Startups. Never heard of them? Then you better check out page 120 in the book.

How about an IDA, an individual development account, for setting aside funds for starting or expanding a business. If you haven’t heard of this, go to page 277.

Ough has done an outstanding job compiling all this information. I highly recommend  Target Funding.

 

Digital Transformation: Survive and Thrive in a Era of Mass Extinction

by Fred Fuld III

Whether you are an investor or you manage a business, you need to read the book Digital Transformation: Survive and Thrive in a Era of Mass Extinction by Thomas M. Siebel.

In case you are not familiar with Siebel, he is the founder and CEO of the artificial intelligence software company C3. He was named Glassdoor Top CEO last year and is a three-time recipient of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Siebel discusses in detail, but in easy to understand language, the digital transformation that is taking place in the business world.

He covers four major areas of technology, why they are important, and how they should be incorporated in businesses. The flexibility of elastic cloud computing, along with hybrid-cloud and multi-cloud is discussed. He also describes why all big data must be used with real time deductions that can be put into place.

Siebel covers the Internet of Things and how important it is to make all devices a computer. Finally, he talks about incorporating natural language processing, deep learning, and supervised learning in artificial intelligence.

Time is of the essence with digital technology. If you want to get on the bandwagon, get Digital Transformation. I highly recommend it.

WTF Is Happening: Women Tech Founders on the Rise

WTF Is Happening: Women Tech Founders on the Rise

By Nisa Amoils

              YOUR NEXT BIG INVESTMENT IS WOMEN-LED TECH

While technological innovation is exploding and female pioneers are making remarkable strides across a wide range of emerging tech fields, inequity remains. However, the exciting new book by veteran tech investor, Nisa Amoils, provides a new appreciation of the extraordinary strides being made in disruptive technology by female entrepreneurs who are building a new world.

In WTF Is Happening: Women Tech Founders on the Rise, Amoils profiles thirteen female founders whose remarkable work today will make a profound difference in the way we all live tomorrow. You will find candid interviews with innovative female entrepreneurs in which they share their experiences in their own words. However, from robotics and virtual reality to drone technology and autonomous flight, these women are receiving only a small fraction of the available funding, an inequity that harms both innovators and investors alike.

WTF Is Happening offers powerful, evidence-based stories about young technologies and industries in their infancies led by women paving a path into our future—women who will very likely outperform for their investors. Further, WTF Is Happening also highlights statistics that prove that companies with at least one female founder did a better job creating value for investors.

“I wrote WTF Is Happening simply to shine a light on some amazing women tech founders. I want to raise awareness and to encourage others to follow in their footsteps, because you can’t be what you can’t see,” says Amoils. “The good news for investors and students of STEM alike is that there were so many candidates for inclusion that I had a hard time narrowing it down.”

So, whether you’re a VC searching for new cutting-edge technology, an investor looking for opportunities outside of their usual network or a young woman who’s considering entering the STEM fields, WTF Is Happening is your invitation to help shape the future.

This book is an invitation to young women who may not have thought about working in STEM fields, or starting their own tech companies. It’s an invitation to female entrepreneurs and investors to see themselves and their partners reflected in the stories. Most importantly, this book is an invitation to investors who are seeking exciting companies, calling upon them to see the amazing world female technologists are creating.

Aside from the well-published social benefits to society, there are investment opportunities with women-led companies which are often under-shopped and undervalued. Throughout her career as a tech investor, Amolis has watched female tech entrepreneurs struggle for VC funding as the money flows elsewhere. Readers will realize, investors who aren’t looking hard are leaving money on the table. In it you’ll also discover:

  • The Gender Funding Discrepancy: why female entrepreneurs only received 2% of VC funding in 2018
  • Tech predictions for the next five years
  • Insider tips for stages of funding
  • 12 reasons why women aren’t going anywhere in the future of tech
  • Women Tech Founders offer the lessons they wish they knew to tomorrow’s STEM superstars
  • 5 key lessons for the future women leaders of tech from today’s female founders and innovators
  • The dynamic women making blockchain more accessible
  • How investors are leaving money on the table

 

For the past decade Nisa Amoils has been a venture investor primarily focused on new technologies. She is a former securities lawyer and on the Boards of several companies and institutions including Wharton Entrepreneurship. She writes for Forbes and Blockchain Magazine and is a regular on CNBC, MSNBC, Fox, Cheddar and others. Prior to investing, she spent many years in business development at companies like Time Warner and NBC Universal and worked with many startups  She holds a business degree from the University of Michigan and a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania. 

The book, WTF Is Happening: Women Tech Founders on the Rise, is available on Amazon and other booksellers. 

Blowing Up the Public Company Governance Model to Maximize Long-Term Shareholder Value

by Fred Fuld III

The book, Governance Arbitrage: Blowing Up the Public Company Governance Model to Maximize Long-Term Shareholder Value by Henry D. Wolfe is an interesting take on how publicly traded companies can improve shareholder value by improving their board of directors.

Does anyone remember the corporate raiders from years ago, such as Carl Icahn? They were looked on as the bad guys, at least by corporate management. However, their goal was not to just change the board of directors, their ultimate goal was to make that change in order to fully realize shareholder value.

Wolfe recommends that corporations use the private equity governance model for boards of directors, which would increase the value of the board and thereby increase the performance of the business, with the ultimate result being a growth in shareholder value.

Probably the most important chapter in the book is Chapter 5 Director Selection, where he describes how directors need to be chosen not only for their thinking-like-an-owner mentality but also for their investor sophistication.

If you want to know how the performance of a publicly traded company can improve and long-term shareholder value increase, I recommend you read Governance Arbitrage.

Happy Money

If you are stressed about money, or have any other negative feelings that are money related, you need to read the book Happy Money: The Japanese Art of Making Peace with Your Money by Ken Honda.

Many believe that money paves the road to happiness, but Honda explains how achieving happiness can be the goal and money will flow.

The book is filled with great advice, along with humor, that will keep you turning pages.

If you need to improve your relationship with money, you need to read  Happy Money.

Forging an Ironclad Brand

by Fred Fuld III

Do  you own your own business or manage a business? If so, do you have a brand? If not, or if you do and you’re not promoting it, you better read the book, Forging an Ironclad Brand: A Leader’s Guide by Lindsay Pedersen.

The author goes into detail, but in an easy-to-understand way, what a brand is and the reasons why you need a brand and need to promote it. She also shows how to expand, extend, and enhance your brand.

The eight steps she provided in the second section, The How of Brand, is probably the most important, with Step Number 2 being the critical one.

Figures and graphics are included to make the concepts more understandable. In addition, there is an extensive glossary.

Forging an Ironclad Brand is a book you will need to get for your business and refer to on a regular basis.

 

The Art of Preventing Stupid

If you own a small business (like me), or even run a medium size or larger business, you need to read the book, The Art of Preventing Stupid: How to Build a Stronger Business Strategy Through Better Risk Management by Matthew Neill Davis, Esq.

Businesses can’t avoid problems completely, but they can prepare for them and they can do many things to prevent problems as much as possible. Davis explains how businesses can do this, and one of the key ways is to avoid the stupid mistakes. The other strategy a business owner can utilize is to know how to deal with problems before they arise.

These strategies are covered thoroughly in the book. Probably the most important chapter is Chapter 6, The Preventing Stupid Method.

The book has many easy to understand tables and figures, and ends the book with actual case studies. In addition, the author provides bullet point summaries at the end of each chapter.

So if you want to prevent major problems (including bankruptcy) with your business, and how to deal with problems when they do happen, you should read  The Art of Preventing Stupid.

From Monk to Money Manager

“Money is not the root of all evil. Money is the root of everything, good and evil. Ignoring half the truth blinds us to the truth.”

From Monk to Money Manager: A Former Monk’s Financial Guide to Becoming a Little Bit Wealthy – And Why That’s Okay

Doug Lynam used to be a monk, and he’s now a financial advisor. He’s a sort of unicorn to most people, but that’s what makes this book so important. For too long religion and money have been held separate. But as Lynam says, “The cold, hard truth is that in this modern life we need money. We can’t live our lives and serve others without it.”

Lynam joined a monastery, in part, to escape the world of money and ended up spending more time worrying about money than almost anyone in the outside world because the monastery was going broke – and he had to fix it. Another irony, directly related to the first, is that he learned he is good at helping people with their financial problems.

The lessons Lynam learned as a monk made him realize that the most powerful way for him to have an impact in the world was to leave the monastery and advise people about their finances full time.

What makes this book different is Lynam’s unique background and experiences that have brought him to where he is today and the helpful mindsets he shares. This is a different kind of ‘financial book’ because of the connection of money problems to the personal and spiritual components. Lynam helps people uncover what those are to avoid them all getting tangled together.

Lynam wrote From Monk to Money Manager: A Former Monk’s Financial Guide to Becoming a Little Bit Wealthy – And Why That’s Okay (Thomas Nelson, March 26, 2019) as a mass-appeal book intended to hook adults of all ages, religions, and political persuasions because the discussion of ethics and money impacts you regardless of your beliefs. He believes the lack of money is the key driver for most of the suffering in the world, and if we can face that problem squarely, honestly, and with good minds and hearts we can mitigate some of the worst problems in the world.

More specifically, the book is aimed at anyone who wants to learn how to become wealthy while remaining an ethical person. Even more precisely it helps anyone who wants to:

•       Retire on time and with dignity
•       Live debt free
•       Pay for college
•       Stop living paycheck to paycheck
•       Afford quality healthcare
•       Own a home
•       Start a business
•       Conquer their emotional money baggage

Doug Lynam, author of From Monk to Money Manager: A Former Monk’s Financial Guide to Becoming a Little Bit Wealthy – And Why That’s Okay, is Director of Educator Retirement Services at LongView Asset Management in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is a self-proclaimed Suffering Prevention Specialist.

Every Woman’s Pocket Guide to Financial Sovereignty

by Fred Fuld III

If you are a woman who wants to learn all the basics about personal finance, it doesn’t matter what stage you are in life, you need to read It’s Good to be Queen: Every Woman’s Pocket Guide to Financial Sovereignty by Roselyn Wilkinson.

The book covers all aspects of money in an easy to understand format. Wilkinson doesn’t just describe the “what” and the “how”, she also gives the “why”.

The book details everything from budgeting, to insurance, to debt, to investing. Chapter 11 discusses the option of finding a financial advisor and how to find a good one.

Readers will also enjoy the humor of a few cartoons scattered through the book.

I recommend It’s Good to be Queen: Every Woman’s Pocket Guide to Financial Sovereignty by Roselyn Wilkinson to any woman who doesn’t have considerable knowledge about finance and money and wants to learn more.