Posts

, , ,

5 top books for equestrian business

5 top books for equestrian business

Today is World Book Day (well, if you read this on March 7th, it is!). With this in mind, I thought that to celebrate this fab event, I’d write about five books for equestrian business. These books are NOT equestrian. They won’t be able to teach you your fetlocks from your forelocks, but if you run an equestrian or equine business, you’ll know that anyway. These business books should help your business, your mindset, your marketing and more.

If you follow me on social media, you’ll know I’m a bit of a bookworm. Whether I’m reading a book or listening to one when I walk the dog, I like to learn as I go… but the subjects can be quite varied! Mostly, I listen to and read books about business and mindset. Sometimes a bit about branding and marketing too. But business is the general genre. So here, on World Book Day, I thought I’d share my five top books for equestrian business..

Here are my five top books for equestrian business…

Gary Vaynerchuk – Crushing It

In all honesty, this blog was always going to include at least one Gary Vee book. I went for Crushing It because it’s one I’ve listened to most recently (and is also the most recent of his books). Actually, not just listened to, I have the hardback book too! Crushing It is a kind of continuation from a previous book, Crush It, but can also be read and enjoyed alone. If ‘Crush It’ was a blueprint for how to achieve entrepreneurial success and leverage all you have, ‘Crushing It’ shows you using examples. Gary interviewed many entrepreneurs for this book, including lots I knew before (and many I’m pleased I know about now). It’s inspiring, interesting and packed full of ideas and real life examples that you can apply to your business too.

How to get to the top of Google – Tim Cameron-Kitchen & Exposure Ninja

If you’re even a little interested in Search Engine Optimisation, content marketing, and Google, have a read (or a listen!) to this. I downloaded this on Audible and have listened to it more than once. I love knowing how things work, and SEO is something that I have more than a passing interest in. To get an all in one, plain English, crash course appealed to me. I didn’t have hugely high hopes when I started. Part of me was concerned it would be too basic, and a larger part that it would be WAY too complicated… but it wasn’t either. The background was covered but more advanced ideas and strategies around SEO and getting to the top of Google were explained in a way that was really easy to understand and apply. As an extra perk of this book, you can actually have a free assessment of your website. I should say that I have the Audible version of this and I also found it really easy to listen to. A bit like a friend was chatting to me about SEO. It’s always important to listen to the voice of the narrator to make sure you gel with it. That sounds crazy, but trust me on this!

Chillpreneur – Denise Duffield – Thomas

If you haven’t read Denise’s other books (Lucky Bitch and Get Rich, Lucky Bitch) do… I feel that Chillpreneur is a great extension of this. You might think that these books revolve around money and being lazy – they don’t. To me, hearing a different view point from a self made multimillionaire was really interesting and something I enjoyed and took inspiration from. It’s more about stacking the odds in your favour – whatever form that takes – and making sure you’re leading a life that you really REALLY want. Not just going along with the tide and feeling rather unhappy about things. This is Denise’s latest book and one that I will be reading again very shortly.

Building a StoryBrand – Miller Donald

This book is seriously good. It explains the process businesses go through to build a story brand, where the client is always the hero and the business is always the guide. It’s a fascinating look at how all good stories, whether fictitious or real, are built around this brand story idea. The ones that succeed understand the pattern – the ones that don’t… not so much. Building a StoryBrand talks about the seven universal story points that all humans respond to. If you’re looking to improve your brand story, to guide your customers on the right journey for them, improve loyalty and a WHOLE lot more, this is for you!

Brand Brilliance – Fiona Humberstone

Not only is this book incredible to read, but it is a thing of beauty too. But you’d expect that from The Brand Stylist, wouldn’t you? This book is all about branding, colours, design, the way you position your brand, and how you stand out (for the right reasons!) is a busy world. This book is beautifully produced and although some of those topics might sound overwhelming, I promise you that the way they’re presented in this book makes them very accessible. Brand Brilliance will inspire you and get you thinking about your brand and what it stands for, but in a way that’s so, so useful!

So there are my five top books for equestrian business. To be honest I could have written a short book on books I recommend, but I do think these ones are really, really great! They cover different aspects of business, and would be a superb additions to your business library. What books would you recommend? What are your top books for equestrian business? Pop over to my Instagram and comment on the post with the image above!

Rhea Freeman Newsletter Link

/by
, , , ,

Save money on business books – Monday musts

pile of business books

If you had a listen to my Small & Supercharged podcast about how to learn on a budget, you should have heard one of my book buying tips. I wasn’t planning to go into it again, but when someone posted on my Instagram feed stating that they had just saved £80 because of this tip, I had to share. It’s completely legit, I promise. But it could save you a lot of money on business books. Well, any books in fact… are you ready?

How to save money on business books

There’s no hiding that I am a big fan of business books. I read a lot and I listen a lot too. I love them. But a book habit can get a bit expensive, if you consume them at the rate that I do. Of course, good books are worth their weight in gold, and the value of the book vs the cost is a whole different blog, but I’m talking about the straight up cost. Now, a few years ago, I stumbled across a few options on Amazon that made buying books a whole lot cheaper. I have bought books for 1p (plus postage). And good books at that. It’s not a dark art, but it might be an area that you may not have explored before. And that’s what this blog is all about.

Let’s walk it through…

So, the best way to show you what I mean is a real life example. So let’s start with Gary Vaynerchuk’s Crushing It, shall we? If you have a look at the link, you’ll see the cost for a shiny new copy of Crushing It is £9.34 (Jan ’19) with free postage if your book order comes to over £10. So if I was being picky, I’d add the postage charge to make my hack seem even better value, but I’m not going to do that. So let’s say this new book costs £9.34. To be honest, for this book, that’s a real bargain.

But before you press Buy Now, take a stroll with me. Under the title of the book you’ll see other buying option. There’s a Kindle version, audiobook, hardcover and paperback. Now, under paperback, see the ‘Used’ option, and see it’s from £3.67 (Jan ’19)? Click on there. This will take you through to a list of used books and their various conditions. So if you spend an extra penny, you can get a ‘Like New’ book for the sum of £3.68. And the postage is £2.80, so we need to add that on. This comes to £6.48. Ok, it might only be a saving of £2.86, but it takes no more time, and could add up to quite a lot.

The thing is, many people aren’t happy to have pre-read business books. Me? I don’t really care! I tend to go for ‘Like New’ or ‘Very Good’ in the condition stakes, and on a number of occasions I did think they probably were new. And that means I can buy more books with that saving!

I do appreciate it’s only a few pounds saved, and if you want to buy new books all the time – DO IT – it’s fine! But if you’re on a budget or really like a bargain, this is quite fun.

Here are a few more business book bargains…

Just to prove the point a bit further, I’ve had a little look at some other book bargains in the business book category. These are all books I like and have read. And these are all correct as of Jan ’19… prices will and do change…

Gary Vaynerchuk – The Thank You Economy – new £14.54. Used (Very Good condition) inc postage £6.65.

Gary Vaynerchuk – #AskGaryVee – new £13.65. Used (Very Good condition) inc. postage £4.31.

Natasha Courtenay-Smith – The Million Dollar Blog – new £11.43. Used (Like New condition) inc. postage is £6.03.

Seth Godin – Purple Cow – new £8.69. Used (Very Good condition) inc. postage is £4.87.

Michelle Mone – My Fight To The Top – new £7.99. Used (Very Good condition) inc postage is £2.89.

Now, before you think all your business book costs have been slashed forever, this only applies to some books. I look at every one I buy and I have a good hit rate, but some cost the same if you buy this way. That said, it’s very easy to see if that’s the way it’s going as all prices are clearly displayed!

Have you bought books like this? I’d love to know – come and find me on Instagram and share!

Rhea Freeman Newsletter
/by
, , , ,

How to learn on a budget

how to learn on a budgetAs you know, I’m a bit of a learning junkie. I love learning don’t just focus solely on business. As I write this, I’ve just finished a book on psychology, have started a book on photography (yep, really!), then I have a book on public speaking (in preparation for my TEDx talk) and then I have Arianna Huffington’s ‘Thrive’, which I started, but then stopped as it was picked as the Small & Supercharged Book Club’s book. As you can see… it’s a diverse mix! In this blog, I’m going to share some ways to learn on a budget. Why? Because I see huge value in upskilling and believe everyone should seek out knowledge. But I also appreciate that not everyone has the budget for some of the methods, hence I’ll be chatting about how to learn on a budget.

Finding the time to learn

Obviously reading books is one way to learn, and I do a lot of it. I know the next sentence makes me sound rather sad, but I rarely watch TV. Although watching something mindless has its place, I just felt it was a waste of my time to be doing it too often. So I diverted to books. So, after the children are in bed, I will read for a bit, and I love it.

It doesn’t all revolve around books!

Of course, learning doesn’t start and end with books. I don’t like to think about the money I spend on books too much (!) but I have to say I have found a way to buy a lot of them for next to no money (and I mean, I have picked some up for 1p plus postage!) but I’ll cover book buying on another blog and share some of my tips. Don’t get me wrong, I do buy a lot of new books too, but if it’s an older book, there are bargains to be had! If you like to learn by reading, there’s a plethora of free material out there. You can learn a HUGE amount on a budget. Actually, you can learn masses for free. I mean, this blog is one example… and there are plenty of other blogs too, obviously. In addition, many people have freebees created to grow their mailing lists, and a lot of these are really useful. If you’re also interested in other ways to learn, there’s lots out there… and lots for free or low cost too.

So free is best?

There’s nothing wrong with paying for learning materials, coaching, courses, etc. Far from it. In fact, I pay for all of them! I also believe that paid content is actually better, but that’s another discussion. My point with this article is that even if you have no money or are on a really tight budget, you can learn amazing things for free. It’s a real ‘how to’ guide for how to learn on a budget.

What’s the difference between free and paid for content?

There are lots of differences between paid for and free content and, in my experience, you have to ‘work harder’ for free content. By this, I mean you’ll need to kiss a few frogs to find the Prince of content. You’ll find it might take you longer to extract what you need… and it might be spaced out over a few blogs/type of content. You might also find that the content is produced in a less logical fashion. For example, if I was doing, say, a course on how to get into magazines, I would create it in such a way that it guided people through the process, gave examples, templates and helped show the possibilities using a range of media. It would all be in one place and flow. You can find out how to get published in magazines online. You can Google it, you can poke around this website, and there’s lots of information there, but you’ll need to read, filter, curate it and come up with a plan.

There’s plenty of ways to learn on a budget… here are a few free/low cost ways to learn on a budget…

Ways to learn on a budget

  • Blogs – yep, the humble blog. Many thought leaders, entrepreneurs and experts have their own blogs – it’s the most basic form on content marketing and helps their SEO as well as their ‘status’, so many have blogs.
  • Groups – there are many free groups (like my Small & Supercharged group on Facebook) that allow business owners to engage, ask questions and learn from each other. These can be so SO useful and I’ve see amazing things happen inside the S&S group in this way.
  • Newsletters – subscribing to newsletters from people you feel can teach you something (hint, hint – I would love it if you’d sign up to mine – you’ll get PR, marketing and social media tips as well as general news from me and my clients… and I promise not to bombard you!), isn’t a bad idea. My advice here would be to pace yourself! If you sign up to too many in one hit you’ll realise that your inbox is full of stuff you won’t ever have the time to read…
  • Podcasts – if you enjoy learning on the go, podcasts are for you! Actually, I often have one on in the background if I’m doing admin or something that is more of a process rather than creative. I also listen to podcasts when I walk the dog. There are some great ones out there – I work with Sam at Haynet on the Haynet Podcast and really enjoy listening to Sam’s (we do alternate episodes!). For more podcast inspiration, hope over to iTunes and select your genre and see what you can find.
  • Books and audiobooks – yes, these are paid for if you want to own them, but the cost varies hugely.
  • Videos – I LOVE YouTube and find the never ending stream of videos a joy. You can find videos about anything on YouTube, you can subscribe to channels you like and people you enjoy, and YouTube will even tell you when they’ve uploaded if you like. Again – shameless plug, but my YouTube Channel is here if you fancy subscribing!

 

I’m not going to include courses, retreats, coaching, masterminds and live events here because although I believe they are all hugely valuable when used correctly, they are an investment. If we’re looking at value, they can deliver a huge ROI, but as we’re looking purely at the pounds, shillings and pence, it would be wrong to include them here.

How do you like to learn? What’s the best way you learn for free? I’d love to know.

/0 Comments/by