Small Business Management

Negotiation has always been at the heart of solving problems at work. Yet today, when people in organizations are asked to do more with less, be responsive 24/7, and manage in rapidly changing environments, negotiation is more essential than ever. What has been missed in much of the literature of the past 30 years is that negotiations in organizations always take place within a context - of organizational culture, of prior negotiations, of power relationships - that dictates which issues are negotiable and by whom.

Far from a dry listen, The Lean Law Firm is the first book published by the ABA to employ the novel to teach business lessons. Follow the engaging story of lawyer Carson Wright, who suddenly finds himself responsible for saving a small law firm, as his mentor Guy Chapman imparts the lean techniques that transformed his factory from the brink of bankruptcy to new heights of profitability. As you hear the The Lean Law Firm story unfold, you’ll see how your own firm is really just a system.

Written by a successful serial entrepreneur, Twelve-Minute Risk Management teaches quick, actionable steps to protect your business from a range of risks, like cybersecurity, fraud, reputation risk (social media), and workplace violence.

Make achieving your goals and finding success possible with this one-of-a-kind guide by Robert Irvine, popular host of Food Network’s Restaurant: Impossible.

Richard Koch has made a career out of spotting "Star businesses" - and has made millions from them. Star businesses are ventures operating in a high-growth sector - and are the leaders of their niche in the market. Stars are rare. But with the help of this book and a little patience, you can find one - or create one yourself.This is a vital book for any budding entrepreneur or investor (of grand or modest means).

The authors of the best-selling Competing on Internet Time (a Businessweek top-10 book) analyze the strategies, principles, and skills of three of the most successful and influential figures in business - Bill Gates, Andy Grove, and Steve Jobs - offering lessons for all managers and entrepreneurs on leadership, strategy, and execution.

Sara Davies is known for her no-nonsense, down-to-earth entrepreneurship, and this book reveals her secrets to success in just six minutes a week. Filled with stories from Sara's own career, her 52 invaluable lessons span the year, teaching you everything you need to know to launch, run and grow your business.

You already know the Starbucks story. Since 1992, its stock has risen a staggering 5,000 percent! The genius of Starbucks success lies in its ability to create personalized customer experiences, stimulate business growth, generate profits, energize employees, and secure customer loyalty - all at the same time. The Starbucks Experience contains a robust blend of home-brewed ingenuity and people-driven philosophies that have made Starbucks one of the world's "most admired" companies, according to Fortune magazine.

Running a successful architectural firm is a juggling act. You need expertise in your area of architecture to provide services to clients. You also need the know-how to run a small business. You've probably been well prepared by your education and experience for the technical ins and outs of an architecture firm. Yet what training has prepared you to run a business? The E-Myth Architect fills this knowledge gap, giving you a complete toolkit for either starting a successful firm from scratch or maximizing an existing firm's performance.

Adam Braun began working summers at hedge funds when he was just 16 years old, sprinting down the path to a successful Wall Street career. But while traveling as a college student, he met a young boy begging on the streets of India. When Braun asked the boy what he wanted most in the world, he simply answered, "A pencil." This small request became the inspiration for Pencils of Promise, the organization Braun would leave a prestigious job at Bain & Company to start with just $25 at the age of 24.

In his much-anticipated memoir, The Company I Keep: My Life in Beauty, Chairman Emeritus and former CEO of The Estée Lauder Companies Leonard A. Lauder shares the business and life lessons he learned as well as the adventures he had while helping transform the mom-and-pop business his mother founded in 1946 in the family kitchen into the beloved brand and ultimately into the iconic global prestige beauty company it is today.

Traditional workplace conversations - which are based on a parent-child model - stymie growth and erode commitment. The Showkeirs advocate instead authentic conversations that are based on an adult-adult model. These conversations tell the truth, let go of the illusion of control, and view people as in charge of their own motivation. The result is a conversation revolution that creates greater commitment, real accountability for results, and improved organizational performance.

Stephen Lynch takes you through the proven strategic planning and business execution processes you need to drive better business results. This is not just theory. Stephen works in the trenches. As Chief Operating Officer of Results.com - the Business Execution Experts - he knows what it's like to run and grow a business.

In 1986, fresh out of college, Paul Downs opened his first and last business: a small company that built custom furniture. With no idea how to run a business or how to build custom furniture, Downs spent a year teaching himself the business, and in 1987 he hired his first employee. That was when things got complicated.

Patagonia, named by Fortune in 2007 as the coolest company on the planet, has earned a reputation as much for its ground-breaking environmental and social practices as for the quality of its clothes. In this exceptionally frank account, Chouinard and Stanley recount how the company and its culture gained the confidence, by step and misstep, to make its work progressively more responsible, and to ultimately share its discoveries with companies as large as Wal-Mart or as small as the corner bakery.

Acting on values—doing good for the benefit of all—can substantially benefit the bottom line, but many business leaders mistakenly believe that doing the right thing lowers profits. This belief is the greatest barrier holding businesses back from being more financially and competitively successful—and delivering more good for the world. Not only can it be a winning business strategy to act on values, as Daniel Aronson suggests in The Value of Values, but it is also a savvy choice, increasing a company’s power, profit, and competitive advantage.

While playing hooky from a conference in Boston a few years back, three former colleagues from Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management hopped in a car and headed on a road trip. They pulled into a shoe store in Maine and noticed that the sales help was unusually pushy. After a few questions, they discovered the store had a "secret shopper" program, in which employees would be marked down if they were not sufficiently aggressive with customers. A lightbulb went off.

The Landlord Entrepreneur shifts the focus from dealing exclusively with residential real estate to building a dynamic property management business. By following the step-by-step instructions in this new guide, anyone can create a fully functioning, professional property management company in only 10 days. With Chavis's modern take on real estate, you will learn the five phases of property management and the skills needed to successfully move through them - as well as the hacks and tricks to build your profitable business from the ground up.

Seth Godin, one of today's most influential business thinkers, writes best-selling books like Purple Cow and All Marketers Are Liars. And in between those annual books, he delivers a daily stream of ideas on one of the world's most popular blogs.

In 1965, John Brink left the Netherlands for Canada equipped with only a single suitcase and $25.47 in cash. He had no connections, he didn’t speak the language, and he’d never finished elementary school, yet he was convinced he could make his dream to build his own sawmill come true. With a tenacity bordering on obsession, John achieved his dreams...and then some. In this lively autobiography, John distills a half-century’s hard work to share 10 simple takeaways.