You Call the Shots: Succeed Your Way– and Live the Life You Want– with the 19 Essential Secrets of Entrepreneurship

The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur: The tell-it-like-it-is guide to cleaning up in business, even if you are at the end of your roll.

Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition

Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion

Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t

Have you read any of these? All of them? What did you think? Leave a comment below!

The sale is over, but the book is still an amazing one to pick up!

If you have big dreams for your blog but have been putting improving it in the ‘one day’ basket – you’re not alone.

31 Days to Build a Better Blog is a downloadable e-book from Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net designed to help you revitalize your blog by giving you 31 tasks that will all help to turn it into the page view powerhouse you’ve always dreamed of.

Each day in the project contains:

1. A Task – something to DO that day.
2. Teaching – each day you’ll be given great instruction on both the WHY and HOW of the task of the day.

This two pronged approach is designed so that you come away from the challenge having not only learned how to build a dynamic a blog but you’ll have actually DONE something with the knowledge.

How to Use the Workbook

While originally designed for bloggers to work through over a month – the feedback that we’ve been hearing from bloggers indicates that 31DBBB is being used in a variety of ways including:

• Intense Training – bloggers setting aside weekends or weeks to go through multiple tasks at once
• 1 Task a Day – the way we designed it – one day at a time
• 1 Task a Week – bloggers taking their time with the challenge and making the tasks week long tasks
• Monthly Cycle – bloggers using the tasks again and again each month as a monthly routine for their blogging.
• Occasional Inspirational Resource – bloggers dipping into 31DBBB on a more occasional basis – using it on days when they have time or lack inspiration.

The great thing about 31DBBB is that you can do it at your own pace and in your own way.

Who is this Workbook for?

31 Days to Build a Better Blog is for bloggers at different stages of their blogging including:

• those who have just started a blog but who don’t know what to do next
• those who have had a blog for a while but it’s stalled in its growth
• bloggers with bloggers block and lacking inspiration

This workbook is NOT designed for bloggers yet to start a blog (PreBloggers). It doesn’t cover setting up a blog. If that’s you check out the ProBlogger book which covers this aspect of blogging.

By the end of the 31 Days you’ll have:

• written a variety of different types and styles of posts
• learned techniques for coming up with new post ideas
• promoted your blog in a variety of ways
• built relationships with readers
• reached out to and developed working relationships with other bloggers
• developed an editorial calendar for your blog going forward
• discovered ways to be more connected to your niche/topic
• designed a plan for the next month of your blogging

All in all the daily tasks are 31 steps to transform you blog into a valuable online asset.

3 New Year Bonuses

Bonus #1: Free Report: 9 Things to Do to Get Your Blog On Track in The New Year
Bonus #2: Podcast with Leo Babauta from Zen Habits
Bonus #3: Podcast with Neil Patel from QuickSprout

There are less than 2 days to get the bonuses, and the half price discount. This book normally sells for $40, here is your chance to get so much more for so much less at just $19.95. I just picked up my copy and plan on starting reading it tomorrow, but I wanted to pass along the great savings and opportunity to you all! Go check it out now! Click here to view more details

This is a video book review of Gary Vaynerchuk’s book Crush It! If you haven’t checked it out, then you should definitely go buy it right now for Amazon either for yourself or as a Christmas present for someone else who could use it! (affiliate link, don’t hate me for it)

Have you read the book? What did you think of it?

Young Guns: The Fearless Entrepreneur’s Guide to Chasing Your Dreams and Breaking Out on Your Own

Quick Overview: This book is about Entrepreneurship and what it takes to be an Entrepreneur in this current economic climate.  Robert’s timely advice and guidance given in this book is a good solid base for anyone who is looking at being or wanting to be a future entrepreneur.

The way I would break this book down if I was using this as a text to study from or a learning guide would be like you see below.  I will also pull out some important points for you from the chapters that I think the author did a great job of illustrating in this book.  Please note these are only teasers you will have to read the book to get the full value of these points.

Phase One: (Thinking Phase)

Chapters 1 thru 3

• The Power of making decisions.
• Resilience
• Enthusiasm and Energy
• Persistence
• Commitment
• The Big Idea

Phase Two: (Getting Started and Moving toward your Dreams Phase)

Chapters 4 thru 8

• Keeping an Open Mind
• Mentors
• Partners
• Gut-Check Moments
• Taking Action
• Communicating
• Staying Balanced
• You Are The Company

Phase Three: (Pushing your business forward and Servicing your Customers Phase)

Chapters 9 thru 11

• Communication
• Relationships
• Ongoing Service
• Follow-through
• Service
• Customer First
• Selling Light and Performing Heavy

Phase Four: (Building your Team and Vendor relations Phase)

Chapters 12 thru 14

• Shared Values
• Reward for Improvement
• Empower the Best, Lose the Rest
• Give People Credit
• Celebrate Failure
• Bouncing Back
• Vendor Relations

Phase Five: (Money Phase)

Chapter 15

• Know When to Show a Loss
• Good Accounting Software
• Stay on Top of Your Books

Phase Six: (Review and Wrap up Phase)

Chapter 16 and Online Resources

• Why Not You?
• Online Resources for Book

My Thoughts: I could see this book being used as a text book for Entrepreneur courses in University’s across the country.  This book is very well written and is a very inviting and easy to read.  I found myself wanting to read it from cover to cover without putting it down but as we all know most of us don’t have that luxury.  Robert is very engaging and spaces his writing out with stories that help to illustrate the lessons he is trying to teach the reader.  The lessons in the book are not only current but they do a great job of bringing some people to the fore front that you might not have known about before you read this book.  Also the Online Resources that Robert adds to the end of the book are great and I think it was a great idea to leave the reader with some resources they can use to not only better themselves but that they could also share those resources with others as well.  I loved the use of the “Reality Checks” sections throughout the book it not only helped you draw into the underline lessons being taught by Robert but it also helped to draw the book together as a whole. Robert’s insight is not only timely but is also written from a person’s view that has been on the ground and started running a business from the ground up.  I have read many business and entrepreneur books in the past from some of the greats like Robert Kiyosaki and others, and Robert Tuchman is definitely on the same level as these other great authors.  I look forward to reading his future books.

About the Book Author: Robert Tuchman is the Founder of TSE Sports and Entertainment, a company that he started out of his one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan at the age of 24.  TSE has appeared in such great entrepreneur magazines as INC.  Robert himself has been a frequent guest on CNN, CBS Morning News, and BET.  He has also had numerous articles published about him in newspapers such as USA Today, The New Your Times, and The Wall Street Journal.  He currently lives in New York.  This brief background on the Author was provided by Alice Northover of the Amacom Company.  Alice may be reached at the following phone number and e-mail address if you would like more information about Robert Tuchman.  Alice’s phone number is 1-212-903-7951.  Alice’s e-mail address is (anorthover@amanet.org).

Buy it at Amazon!

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This is a guest book review written by Chris Schenk. Chris is a SVP of Healthcare at 3-D Technology, Inc., a Vice President of the Board at Military Pride USA a (Military Non-Profit focusing on our soldiers and their families), a Healthcare Technology Consultant, and owns and operates his own Artist / MMA Management company. If you would like to know more about Chris Schenk you can either find him on Linkedin at http://www.linkedin.com/in/ccschenk or you can also follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/chrisschenk.

One thing you can do to brace yourself is to go back to your suppliers—to your telephone provider, landlord, car dealer—and renegotiate.  Go to the people you are paying out to, and renegotiate on the contracts you had made with them.  See if they are willing to pull back at all.  Although they are dealing with the same slow-down as you are, you will find that they are more willing to cut you some slack than lose you as a customer.

I cannot stress enough the need for products you are selling to be presented in more detail.  You must make the clients understand your philosophy and your product. Market better!  Understand where people are coming from: be compassionate with their concerns.  Be willing to work out payment plans for potential clients.

Save money using technology: take advantage of email and video conferencing.  You should email documents rather than sending them via mail.  This will save you in postage and in paper.  Also, instead of driving or flying to meet with a client or vendor, you should videoconference with them.  Both of these will save you time and money.

With today’s adversity constantly pulling on your being, implore as much persistence and fortitude as you can muster.  When you are stuck and everything is working against you, when it seems like you cannot last a second longer, you must persist, for it is at that peak in struggle that you will conquer and turn the tides.

This was a guest post from Robert Tuchman, who is the Founder of TSE Sports & Entertainment, a company he started out of his one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan at the age of 25. TSE has gone on to appear on Inc. 500’s list of America’s Fastest Growing Privately Owned Companies. Tuchman now serves as President of Premiere Corporate Events, a division of Premiere Global Sports. His Book “Young Guns: The Fearless Entrepreneur’s Guide To Chasing Your Dreams and Breakout Out On Your Own” is out now.

Below, you will find our quick interview and some of Chris’ business tips for you to check out. If you are a current college student, and have not picked up your book for the upcoming semester (maybe you start Monday or already started?) then check out Skoobit and look into renting your books this time around!

Start off by telling everyone about yourself – age, location, education, etc.
I was born and raised in Jamaica and came to the US to pursue my college education. I am an alumnus of both University of Miami where I earned my undergraduate degree in 2005 and Nova Southeastern University where I did my MBA in 2007. I just turned 25 in September and I am located in Weston, Florida.

What sparked your interest in starting a business? Was there one event in specific that made the light bulb go off or was it a string of events and then things just came together?
I always wanted to start my own company and to be my own boss probably since high school. I was inspired by the .com startups like Sergey Brin and Larry Page from Google, Jeff Bezos from Amazon and the future of social networking Mark Zuckerberg of facebook. It has always amazed me how powerful the internet is and how far of a reach it has, being accessible to everyone across the world at one time is still mind boggling.

Your business, Skoobit, is in a pretty tough market, textbooks. What made you want to enter the textbook arena and how did the idea of Skoobit come alive?
Textbooks are a pretty tough market especially with textbooks changing on average every 3 years. However with the huge market some outdated textbooks are still used by the smaller Universities which make it a very lucrative market. Skoobit actually came to mind when I was pursuing my undergraduate degree at UM. I was in my last year and I was taking a strategic management class, doing some cases on dell and netflix. After doing these cases I realized that a lot of the traditional business models are changing and eventually the bookstore on campus would be mostly online. To take it a step further I wanted to save students money and I thought that setting up an online book rental company would be a great opportunity similar to netflix. In this case students won’t be stacked up with books they don’t need and if they want it at the end of the semester they will always have the option to purchase the book if they want.

What are a few lessons that you have learned since starting Skoobit and growing it?
I think having access to funding was the most difficult because of what is going on in the market right now and the economy. It was very difficult to get off the ground, but thankfully I got help from my parents who believed in my company. However as the business continues to grow this will definitely be one of the major challenges I will face.

From your experiences, what is one thing that you think every entrepreneur needs to know or remember for when they are starting their business up?
Make sure they are able to finance it, whether it is from personal financing or loans and investors. Secondly, pitch the idea to friends and family and brainstorm your SWOT analysis ensuring you cover your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Your friends and family might also point out something to you that was overlooked, so that is very important, to consult with them and get their advice. Once your strengths and opportunities outweigh your weaknesses and threats and you are able to overcome them you are in good standing and it is a viable venture. Finally make sure your heart and soul is in it, it shouldn’t just be about making money, it should be something you love to do and have the passion for, once the passion is there whatever it is you will make it work.

What’s next for you? Say short term (6 months) and long term (1-5 years). Where do you see yourself, doing what, involved in what, etc?
In the short term my goal is to heighten the awareness of my service showing students how much money they can save by renting textbooks. In the long term I look to building more relationships with schools and publishers so that I will be able to offer my books online for reading because I believe that’s where the market is heading and I want to be able to capitalize on it. Most students prefer to have the physical book now but in a few years or less all that might change, where students would prefer to have the e-books accessible on their computers or listening to audio books.

Now for the fun stuff-

Chris is a regular Dorm Room Biz reader, so if you have other questions you’d like to ask, go ahead and leave them in the comments and I bet he will be more than willing to respond!

I hope you were able to gain something from this interview. If you are an young entrepreneur and would like to participate in an interview on Dorm Room Biz, then please do not hesitate to contact me about yourself and your business.

I got the opportunity to check out an interesting book on the power of words on the Web to boost both sales and credibility. It’s called “Content Rich: Writing Your Way to Wealth on the Web” and it definitely lives up to its name! Jon Wuebben, the book’s plainspoken, copy lovin’ author, takes you from the history of SEO and the Web itself, to the importance of writing for people and the search engines, and finally all the way up to straightforward steps you can take to build websites that attract visitors and sales alike.

What makes this book stand out is that it is not a total handholding fest – the author assumes that as a professional, you have a certain level of intelligence. While the book does go into some of the basics of SEO copywriting, it does assume you’ve been around the online neighborhood a few times. It’s been my experience that the internet reflects some of the best and brightest in the world, why not have books that appeal to that intelligence?

Moving back to the content, Jon does very well at covering all the many different areas where copy plays a role, from general site copy to copy for newsletters and emails. As a consultant, I stress the importance of being a versatile copywriter to all of my clients, colleagues and friends, so it’s refreshing to feel that Mr. Wuebben is on my side in that respect.

Jon’s style best shines through with his examples, as such the one on pages 91 – 99 where he shares a direct response piece he wrote for the front page of a website. It’s one of the best examples I’ve seen of the classic long form salesletter, one of my favorite pieces of copy to write – much to the chagrin of my colleagues (and maybe even some of my clients!)

There’s even a section on SEO copywriting for large corporations – the type that are traditionally reluctant to invest much time and/or resources into online copy. Favorite tip from this section: make sure your technicians and marketers are in sync with the changes you need to make to fully optimize a site. While not everyone online is a Coca-Cola or a Xerox yet, this is a great piece of advice for the time you will need to delegate!

One of my usual gripes about books that attempt to teach copywriting is the lack of case studies. Jon has included three interesting case studies for our convenience – the examples range from a corporate housing website to an insurance company to an educational site about mortgages. In each example, Jon gives the background of the company, their wants, and the opportunities each site has to improve upon. This sets the scene for Jon to present the “after” part of the website, where he and his team have improved each site dramatically.

If this book has any opportunities of its own to improve, I think it is in the section where Jon attempts to show newcomers how to get started into this business. It’s a fairly small section in this book compared to the others, and with a back-story as interesting as Jon’s, I had expe4cted more clarification. Having been writing copy for the Web for 5 years, I was able to fill in the gaps all right, but bright green newbies may have some stumbling blocks that need to be filled with other books. It’s a fairly weak minus in the sea of so many pluses, but it needs to be addressed.

The world of SEO oriented copy is large, but with Jon’s book, I have full faith that each and every one of you is on your way to the lifestyle you desire – and then some!

As always, work hard, play hard, love easily!

Isabella “Niche Lady” Murphy, the Staying Paid Diva

http://www.stayingpaid.com

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A special thanks to Isabella for reviewing the book! She is a copywriting queen as she mentions. If you are every looking for her services, be sure to get at her through her blog or through Twitter on @nichelady.

I’ve got some other books that I’d be interested in having people review, so if you are into reading business, entrepreneurship, or sales types of books, drop me a line and we can set something up! I get requests everyday to review books, so there is always something new!
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TPE Book Cover

If you have not heard about the Toilet Paper Entrepreneur (TPE) book yet either on this website or others, then you must be living underneath a rock! TPE is a brand new book that hits the virtual shelves today on Amazon and other places.  I should note that I have emailed a bunch with the author, Mike Michalowicz and also produced a great podcast with him. My experiences with Mike have been great and this book is no different. I got a review copy a little while ago and wanted to post up a review and my thoughts on the book on the day of its launch.
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I’ll start by saying that the book is hilarious. I mean anytime you take a book about a topic people are passionate about and then relate it to taking the biggest crap of your life and realizing you have no TP, you know it is going to be a good read.

However, this is definitely not your bathroom read. Be sure to be sitting down and have either a highlighter and some sticky notes ready or a notebook to write down all the key points and helpful information that you will take away from the book.

The book does a great job of illustrating key points and enforcing tips and tricks through hilarious stories about plumbing issues, getting it out fast, or enjoying your time in solitude. Each chapter also features different action items at the end which you can take on and accomplish. Doing these tasks will not only keep you up with the progress of the book, but it will, well, uh duh, help your business! So look out for the 3 or 4 action items.

Another great resource in the book are the TPE Tips. These are just quick tips or tricks that are thrown into the mix. They can be anything from free sites to make conference calls at, resources for research, ways to get services for free, and more. Here are a couple that I picked out.

Virtual Meetings – Need to talk and gawk? DimDim.com offers free virtual meeting software. The best part is that you don’t need to install it on anything; it runs right off the Net. No untimely computer crashes! Yeah!!!

And…

Research – While you’re at the library, check out the reference desk. Reference librarians know where to find everything. Best of all, they love a challenge. Don’t pay for research. Do some yourself and get the reference librarians to help with the rest. Find out where your state library is located, because there you will find top-notch research material, including extensive mailing lists and statistical information.

Curious if the book is worth reading or if you should just use the pages as toilet paper? Well, I am publishing this review on launch day for the book..yet in the evening. The reason? I wanted to see how it performed on Amazon on its first day. Well, I am happy to report that the marketing and all the pictures of Mike on the crapper paid off, because by before dinner time this evening, Amazon was already out of stock. Plus it also made it into the top 11,000 in the Amazon.com sales rank.

So, to my friend Mike Michalowicz, I say…congrats on an awesome book and even better book launch! Best of luck with it all!

For everyone else…you can buy the book on the TPE website at www.toiletpaperentrepreneur.com.

I’m all about the underdog, the passionate entrepreneur with a small amount of cash and a huge heart. I refer to these people as Toilet Paper Entrepreneurs, the resourceful men and women who can get by on three sheets. They find a way to make it happen, even if they are at the end of their roll.

The best ideas come from having precious few resources, and yet so often people see this as lack, an obstacle to their success. On the flip side, many businesses throw money at problems the very second the cash starts flowing in, thereby eliminating the magic of necessity.

Toilet Paper Entrepreneurs work miracles with just three sheets – or less – even when they have a warehouse full of stockpiled toilet paper. Here’s how you can too:

1. Cultivate a Powerful Foundation of Enabling Beliefs – Your most important assets are your beliefs. Firmly held beliefs that support your goal are more valuable than an Ivy League education, or even a pile of cash.
2. Work in Your Field of Passion – Building a company is not for wimps. You will need a boatload of passion for your business in order to stick with it long enough to succeed. Your competitors with a get-rich-quick agenda will give up when the going gets tough. Passionate entrepreneurs stick it out and achieve phenomenal success.
3. Slant Toward Premature Action – Do not wait for the perfect conditions to start or expand your business. Taking action early is better than taking action too late. And don’t be nervous about these lean times we are experiencing right now. This is the perfect time to start a business. With everyone waiting until the economy is ripe, the startup competition is almost non-existent.
4. Be Extremely Great at Extremely Little – Don’t fall in to the trap of the “do everything” entrepreneur. Exploit a select few of your top strengths, and outsource everything you dislike or can’t knock out of the park.
5. Use Ingenuity Over Money – Having enough money can be a hindrance, covering up potentially disastrous problems. Use ingenuity and a razor-sharp focus rather than money to create, launch, and troubleshoot. You will come up with a better idea every time.
6. Dominate a Niche – Rather than try to sell to everyone, identify a market in which you can provide better or different products or services, and then dominate it.
7. Marry Long-Term Focus with Short-Term Action – Know your destination, but don’t plan out every step of the journey beforehand. Instead, plan out the next quarter and then track your progress.
8. Be a Little Crazy – Whatever you do, don’t play by the rules. It’s the risk takers, the odd balls, who make opportunities and grasp achievement.

You don’t need angel financing, a college degree, or any experience to build the business you envision. Heck, you don’t even need a garage.

So many myths about launching and running companies hold people back from taking the next step. My goal in writing The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur was to bust through every last one of them, arming the underdogs with essential “three-sheeting” advice that will help them launch their business. And more importantly, grow that business into a multi-million dollar dream-come-true.

Mike Michalowicz is the author of The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, available on Amazon.com and at www.TheToiletPaperEntrepreneur.com.

6 Career Secrets That No One Ever Told You:

1. There is no plan
2. Thin strengths, not weaknesses
3. It’s not about you
4. Persistence trumps talent
5. Make excellent mistakes
6. Leave an imprint

The story that the characters go through to learn the different advice is comical and will have you laughing at some points throughout the book. Some of the drawings are also funny, however, there is nothing overly thrilling coming from the book in my point of view.

Sorry for the short review, but I just don’t think I can say too much about it. It is a good nice easy read if you are interested in something to just pass the time – I read 1/3 of the book in the bookstore before I bought it. Yet, I also returned it 3 days later for Suze Orman’s Women and Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny. Just to make it clear, I did not buy the book for myself, but as a Mother’s Day gift for my mom. However, if it is good, maybe I’ll read it later on just to write a review about it.

Hope everyone has a good week and does well in the blogging and business worlds! Congratulations to those universities that are having their commencement ceremonies! Now, I go back to the overcast weather at the beach and to by other book, Rules for Renegades.