Best Business Books Back in late December a jeweler asked me to post
my choices of 10 best books for jewelers. I don’t know why he picked
on me but I’ll shimmy my way up to the plate.
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“Geller Blue Book to Jewelry Repairs” by David Geller. O.K. so
this is plagiarism. But so far no one has told me sales have
decreased by using my repair pricing guide. (Only sales increases).
Order from me. -
“The E-Myth” Why small businesses don’t work and what to do about it. By Michael Gerber. Every jeweler will see themselves in this book.
All about technicians who start businesses. Leads you down the path
of how to work ON your business instead of in it. $15. Order from me,
Amazon.com or any bookstore. -
“How to make your business run by itself” By Susan carter. This
is a must to accompany the E-Myth. This takes off where Michael
Gerber stops. Shows you step by step how to make a Policy & Procedure
manual. This is how to get things done without you. $29.95. You can
order from me or amazon.com. I might have found this originally in
Barnes & Noble. -
“The Successful Business Organizer” by Rhonda Adams. $29.95.
Great book on how to “think” through running a business. Lots of
layout forms to help guide you in what needs to be done. Has a great
info and you can order the book there and she has 4 others that look
great. www.rhondaworks.com. -
“Guerrilla Creativity”, The Power of Memes by Jay Conrad
Levinson. His newest, all about what you’re marketing says to your
customer. He says you can say more to a customer with an image or
sentence than all of the ads in the world. Jay says we should all ad
this to our marketing plan. He’s the man who invented the Marlboro
Man, the Jolly Green Giant, and Pillsbury Doughboy. Look at those
images and you don’t need any introduction. A slogan will also tell
it all. After reading his book I changed my slogan. It used to be
“Profitable pricing for the bench jeweler”. It was O.K. but that’s
not really what I do. I changed mine (and will as my stationary and
business cards run out) to “Making the world a richer place…one
jeweler at a time.” -
“The Ultimate Marketing Plan” by Dan S. Kennedy. He’s the King of
Marketing on a shoestring. Paperback. -
“How to market a product for under $500.00” by Jeffrey Dobkin.
This book shows you step by step, keystroke by keystroke on how to
make up a winning sales letter. Wink helped me with my first one and
this book is almost like having Wink. I’ve used this book on many of
my writings (can you tell?). -
“Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill. Probably 4 trillion
copies sold. This should be the first book if you intend to be an
entrepreneur. Paperback. -
All of The Guerrilla Marketing" style books by Jay Conrad.
“Guerilla Marketing Weapons”, “Guerrilla Marketing Excellence ”, etc,
etc. -
“Retail Business” by Jim Dion & Ted Topping, big paperback,
$20.00. I just bought this today and have read about 2 chapters. Man
this twenty dollar book is IT! A lot of it is I have
gathered plus more. Choosing location, buying, and sales management,
crunching the numbers. Easy to read.
That’s my list. Post your own. Most are available at Amazon.com and
I have bought many books used on Amazon.com and have been very
pleased. You just have to be BETTER than the national average.
What does that mean? Survey shows that better than 80% of all
business books bought aren’t read past chapter 1.
Be better than the average.
David Geller