[Phoenix]

Hi All,

I am trying to find a 'nuts and bolts of business' resource. I know nothing about business and I feel I really should.

What I am looking for is non-fluff, quality, 'this is how it is done' kinds of resources.
Everything from 'Starting', to 'Employing', to 'Financing & Banks', to 'Accounts', to 'Tax', and whatever other categories are involved.
I hear that an MBA is supposed to cover all this, but I just want an introduction to the basics of everything involved.
I do not want 'advice' books, on supposed 'better ways to do business'. Just the commonly accepted basics.

Whenever I search for books or other resources on 'business', the results are pages and pages of 'look at me look at me' crap, every single one of which has a title like 'The new way to do business: why every other thing about business anyone ever wrote is completely wrong, and my special new way is right'. Rrrnngg.

I defer to the bullshit-filtering device that is the RooshVForum...

[AntiTrace]

what is the purpose of this?

are you trying to start a business? trying to get a head up on a business degree? it's alot easier to give advice if we end the desired end state

[Phoenix]

No current desired end state.

In the distant future I may start a business, I currently know zero about business.

[edtf]

Hi Phoenix, I have a book called "MBA in 10 days". it covers all the basics of business that you would learn in an MBA program, but in short and concise detail. PM me if you want the PDF

[Dr. Howard]

get out of date/old year study guides for CPA exams and tax preparers. Dirt cheap because they aren't useful for the exams but still will cover 99% of what you need to know to have a handle on those things from a general business knowledge standpoint.

[Peregrine]

The Street Smart MBA.

[roid]

Go and work in sales team.

[cibo]

Personal MBA
Lean start up
4 hour work week.

These were rated as the among the recommended books by the start up community.

I think there's flaws here and there in each book but together should give you enough to get your head around the major business issues.

Also there is Coursera for the online classes, many taught by well known entrepreneurs.


Cheers

[Phoenix]

Personal MBA looks like the right sort of book.
Reviews say it is a bit too thin on detail though.
I did like the way the author explained business in his video: "a business always comprises 5 parts: value-creation, marketing, sales, value-delivery, and finance'.

Tim Ferris irritates me, so I feel a bit reluctant to give him any money .

[cibo]

(10-20-2014 05:14 AM)Phoenix Wrote:  

Personal MBA looks like the right sort of book.
Reviews say it is a bit too thin on detail though.
I did like the way the author explained business in his video: "a business always comprises 5 parts: value-creation, marketing, sales, value-delivery, and finance'.

Tim Ferris irritates me, so I feel a bit reluctant to give him any money .

I think Tim Ferris is a douche and it took me a while to get past that to even give the book a chance. He hypes the shit out of everything and the book tends to be porn for cubicle monkeys but the advice on balance is good. Though the promised outcomes are a bit out of proportion with reality, the book is a decent summary of the location independent work lifestyle.

Also keep in mind, the books im recommending are kind of an overview. They give you an idea of where to look if you need to dig deeper. If you never heard of value-delivery to begin with, you would not know what to even look for.

[jtbabycarrots]

Without a "why" for learning about business you won't absorb anything.

Find your "why" first.

You might start by reading biographies about those inspirational pillars of business that have come before us.

Each one has a different lesson to teach. Steve Jobs on vision. Bill Gates on execution and monopilization. Richard Branson on the power of the force of will and general badassedness. Ford on manufacturing. The Enron story about how greed happens.

It's like learning music. Build a foundation of knowledge first and then you'll start to see what resonates with you. Then you'll know how to continue your education because you'll know your "why".

[Kitsune]

If you want technical information re. accounting and tax and actual reality of running a business, stay away from anything with a landing page. Stay away from anything you can buy in the 'business' section of your store.

Especially stay away from the four hour work week.

If you want real information, go find a University page with a decent MBA course. Then find their reading list. If you can't find a reading list, then be a utilitarian and go on a student forum/facebook page for the place:

"Hey. I've applied for the MBA/Economics/Accountancy Program for next year. Can anyone give me a reading list so I can get a step ahead."

Once you've got the reading list, look online to see if you can get a free copy on google books or whatever. If you can't, go to amazon and get used copies.

A lot of the expensive books will be newest editions. "2014: Legal Requirements For Businesses" might cost £50 whereas the 2013 version might cost £5 because it's out of date. Get the £5 version.

Then, for some more social engineering, go on another forum where readers of the book will be:

"Hey. I bought the 2013 version a while back. What's new in the 2014 version? Do I need to buy it?"

Most of the new version will be the same as the old version. There'll just be amendments for any new information. People will tell you what's new in the book for free. Or they'll say, "In this law Business Regs. 20103 states that now you need to file this paperwork." Then you can Google it.

I got accounting books, legal books and general business textbooks this way for real cheap (The most I paid for a textbook was about £3 or $5.) They have a lot of technical information so make notes on what is in what chapter. In fact, they often have, "In this chapter, the following is covered." Put that in bullet points on a book mark so that you can come back to it when needed instead of reading the whole thing again.

As far as more inspirational stuff goes, you're better off setting a goal and achieving it. People will sell you dreams, but you need to actually live them yourself to get real-world motivation out of them.

[Phoenix]

Very good advice.
Sifting through the money-grabbing fluff is a monumental task. Good technique, 'path less travelled'.

Edit: one issue will be that I only buy ebooks, and many texts are only available in 'heavy chunk of tree' form.

[jake1720]

I'm finding I'm learning the most by jumping right into sales. Find something and sell it.

Cold call, cold email. Whatever you need. You learn more than any teacher (Those who can't do teach. Not always but generally) can teach you in a classroom.

[Phoenix]

Yeah I'm reading 'secrets of a master closer' at the moment to understand sales. Good book, gets straight into it.

[Tactician]

I remember reading this a while back: http://markmanson.net/read-faster. (I have no idea how good the rest of this site is, I've only read this one article.)

While I didn't get a ton out of that article, the one thing that stuck with me is when he asks, "What is the purpose of reading?"

I think if you know why you're reading something, e.g. what info you want from it, you'll make the best use of your time.

While there's something to be said about reading for the sake of reading or reading for general knowledge, when you're trying to learn something specific reading without a purpose is only slightly better than procrastination.

If you're getting into business, or almost anything really, you'll be reading a ton, so developing an even slightly better approach to reading / learning will pay dividends in the long run.
-
More on topic, I recommend The Personal MBA as a decent primer. It's not extremely detailed, but this can be seen as a good thing because knowing the fundamentals is most important to you right now. You can identify the parts you get and the parts you want to expand upon. A related quote from the book:

Quote:

When you first start to study a field, it seems like you have to memorize a zillion things. You don't.
What you need is to identify the core principles—generally three to twelve of them—that govern the field.
The million things you thought you had to memorize are simply various combinations of the core principles.

[Low Status Beta]

A book I've seen recommend alot, but haven't gotten a chance to read is "E-Myth".