Business Reviews

‘I have always believed that constant innovation is core to success. The methods Peter Sims provides in the highly engaging Little Bets will help you challenge the status quo and discover extraordinary new possibilities in whatever endeavour you’re engaged in’ Howard Schultz, Chairman and CEO of Starbucks

‘Want a big idea? Start little. Whether you’re an entrepreneur or an artist, Peter Sims shows you how big breakthroughs start with little bets’                                                       
Chip Heath, Author of 'Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard'

‘With examples that range from traditional businesses to stand-up comedians, Peter Sims shows that the path to big success is lined with small failures. Behind every breakthrough idea is often a host of experiments that flopped – and Sims shows how to leverage these “little bets” to produce lasting results. This is a powerful and practical book Daniel H. Pink, Author of 'Drive' and 'A Whole New Mind'

Synopsis:How can errors produce perfection?
How can failure fuel ambition?
How can confusion enhance creativity?

The answer: little bets.

The little bets approach is about using negativity to positive effect. If your plans fall apart, refine them; if you don’t know where best to begin, just begin somewhere. Every decision is a risk: take a chance and see what happens.

In Little Bets, leading business consultant Peter Sims turns problems on their heads and outlines a counter-intuitive path to perfection. Using real-life case studies from the worlds of business, design, warfare and even comedy, he shows that it can be more rational to act first and think later, more efficient to fail and find out what doesn’t work. It’s a flexible philosophy that has both saved corporate giants such as Apple and Pixar and inspired the third-world micro financing industry.

When success is the only acceptable outcome, Little Bets advocates a bold and radical approach in which failure is good, questions are solutions, and excellence is not a means but an end.
Little Bets can-do approach is inspirational, achievable and above all timely.

Peter Sims is a business consultant and the co-author, with Bill George, of True North. He established 'Leadership Perspectives', a class on leadership development at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and cofounded the London office of Summit Partners, a leading investment firm. He was also part of the Deloitte Touche Tomatsu Global Strategy Team and has contributed to numerous publications including the Harvard Business Review.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Little-Bets-Peter-Sims/dp/184794048X

Hot Brands Cool Places Verdict
We have worked with many embryonic businesses here at Hot Brands, Cool Places, and we know many of the challenges and opportunities faced by start-ups. This smart book is full of inspirational ideas of how to play your hunches, how to start over, and how to learn from your mistakes. At a time when more and more people are looking to do things differently this book will give you the inspiration to go forward bravely! Highly Recommended!

Make September the start of something new….

Many of us start the year with a list of resolutions about what we want to achieve. But if it is cold like January was this year; our good intentions often wither as we struggle to keep warm and try to travel to and from work. Starting to do things differently in September however, is a much more practical solution.

Approaching Autumn with the sunshine still around us, the memories of a holiday fresh in our minds, and with many opportunities to learn something new available locally, can make it a wonderful time to start doing things differently.

Read the full article here

Ask and it is Given
Learning to Manifest Your Desires by Esther and Jerry Hicks

Synopsis: Esther and Jerry Hicks' first book presenting the teachings of the non-physical entity Abraham has drawn an extraordinary collection of endorsements from people keen to draw attention to the message that Abraham has to convey.

Endorsements have been received from Neale Donald Walsch, John Gray, Wayne Dyer, Louise L. Hay, Jack Canfield and Christine Northrup.

This book explains how our relationships, health issues, finances, career concerns are influenced by the Universal laws that govern our time/space reality and describes powerful processes that will help people manifest their desires and live the fulfilling life you deserve.

http://www.hayhouse.co.uk/Product/1401904599

The Manic Mum's Guide To Magnificent Parenting
A 7-Week Plan

by Allison Mitchell

Synopsis: Ever felt like you're banging your head against a brick wall? Do you sometimes wish your children would take you more seriously and that you had more time, patience and energy to be the mother you want to be? If you'd love a calm house, you're not alone, and this book is packed full of jargon-free, common-sense techniques, tools and ideas that'll turn you from manic to magnificent in just 7 weeks.
Allison shows you how to:

• be the mother you want your children to have
• increase your patience and lower agitation
• make you and your children feel magnificent about themselves
• get children to listen and do what they're told (yes, it's possible!)
• create a calm, happy household
• find time to enjoy your little darlings!

With only seven chapters to read over seven weeks, this book is easily digestible and full of tasty little nuggets of wisdom.

http://www.hayhouse.co.uk/Product/1848500106

Time Management For Manic Mums

by Allison Mitchell

Synopsis: Where does your day go? Do you feel as though you never have time to breathe in between all those things that need to get done? Swamped with the ever-increasing demands of work and motherhood?

Then this book is the book for you! Allison Mitchell, a sought after 'Mum coach', brings relief to all manic mums with this realistic, no-nonsense approach to managing your time better, Offering simple, fast and easy solutions, this dynamic guide offers tools you need to become a calmer and more organised parent.

By following Allison's time-management programme you can really bring balance to you, your children and your home.

http://www.hayhouse.co.uk/Product/1401915639

10 Career Essentials
Excel at Your Career by Using Your Personality Type
by Donna Dunning

Synopsis: There are many books to help you choose a career, but few to help you excel in the workplace once you are working. Over the course of a lifetime, people can spend 80,000 hours on the job. With this much time invested, author Donna Dunning asserts that your career should be interesting, motivating and rewarding. And in our competitive, rapidly changing society, you need to know how to be effective and competent at work or you may find yourself unemployed or passed over for promotion.

Focusing on day-to-day behaviour and providing practical tips and strategies, 10 Career Essentials becomes your personal career coach by showing you how to work effectively, get recognition and steer your career in the direction you want to go. The ideas – such as optimizing your outlook, exceeding expectations and thriving in uncertainty – may sound simple, but applying them takes skill and practice.

10 Career Essentials provides the key self-assessment tools and tips to stimulate learning and improve your ability to implement your personal career strategy to its fullest.

http://www.nicholasbrealey.com/uk/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=97&idproduct=258

U R A Brand
by Catherine Kaputa

Synopsis:

Discover the secrets of a personal branding strategist

* Uses branding strategies honed from over 20 years of experience working with the very best of the global advertising and branding agencies.
* Contains a Top Ten List of tried-and-true strategies, plenty of exercises, and "brainstormer" tools at the end of each chapter.
* In-depth case studies from dozens of savvy professionals will inspire and educate the reader to think and learn how to create a powerful visual and verbal identity.
* Perfect for everyone who wants to move up the corporate ladder, re-energize a stalled career or start their own business.
* Award-winning author, U R a Brand! won the Benjamin Franklin Best Career Book.

 http://www.nicholasbrealey.com/uk/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=97&idproduct=258

Be Happy!
Release the Power of Happiness in YOU
by Robert Holden, Ph.D.

Synopsis: “Happiness is a spiritual path. The more you learn about true happiness, the more you discover the truth of who you are, what is important, and what your life is for.”

Be Happy! is the follow-up to Robert Holden’s best-selling Happiness NOW! In this book, Robert gives you a front-row seat on his 8-week happiness program—famously tested by independent scientists for the BBC-TV documentary called How to Be Happy. Step-by-step he introduces you to a set of proven techniques, principles, meditations, and insights that will help you be happy now! Key lessons include:
Follow Your Joy — stop chasing happiness and start enjoying your life as it happens.
The Happiness Contract — undo mental and emotional blocks to happiness and success.
The Receiving Meditation — increase your natural capacity for happiness and abundance.
The Forgiveness Practice — give up all hopes for a better past and be happy now.
The Gift of Happiness — use the power of happiness to bless your life and benefit others.

http://www.hayhouse.com/details.php?id=3979

Synopsis: Most anti-smoking campaigns inadvertently encourage people to smoke. The scent of melons helps sell electronic products. Subliminal advertising may have been banned, but it's being used all the time. Product placement in films rarely works. Many multi-million pound advertising campaigns are a complete waste of time.

These are just a few of the findings of Martin Lindstrom's groundbreaking study of what really makes consumers tick. Convinced that there is a gulf between what we believe influences us and what actually does, he set up a highly ambitious research project that employed the very latest in brain-scanning technology and called on the services of some 2000 volunteers. Buyology shares the fruits of this research, revealing for the first time what actually goes on inside our heads when we see an advertisement, hear a marketing slogan, taste two rival brands of drink, or watch a programme sponsored by a major company.

The conclusions are both startling and groundbreaking, showing the extent to which we deceive ourselves when we think we are making considered decisions, and revealing factors as varied as childhood memories and religious belief that come together to influence our decisions and shape our tastes.

Buy Buyology: How Everything We Believe About Why We Buy is Wrong from Amazon.co.uk

Hot Brands Verdict

This book is very readable, packed with interesting information as well as the research. If you are at all interested in brands, the world of advertising and what prompts our purchasing decisions you will find this book fascinating and thought-provoking.  Well worth reading!

Synopsis: With £25,000 in his pocket from the sale of his flat, Conor Woodman travels across four continents, trading in all kinds of products with the aim of doubling his money.

Economist Conor Woodman used to buy and sell companies for hundreds of millions of pounds in the City of London. But even before the economy crashed, he’d had enough. He wanted to trade real things that he could touch and smell not just type numbers into a computer. So he’s chucked in the job, sold his flat and is off in search of adventure and fat profits on a round-the-world trip.

He’s taken £25,000 from the sale of his flat to invest in all kinds of products – animal, mineral and vegetable – which he trades across four continents and 16 countries. His aim is to make some serious money, but if it goes wrong, he could lose the lot.

Despite his City contacts, international trade proves hard for Conor. Unperturbed, his eventual deals include selling 4,000 bottles of South African chilli sauce to India; horse trading with cut-throat dealers in Kyrgyzstan and investing £5,000 in Chinese jade, confident he can treble his investment by selling to a rich Taiwanese collector.

Synopsis: Get the business leader's guide to using Twitter to gain competitive advantage.

Since 2006, forward-thinking companies like Apple, JetBlue, Whole Foods, and GM have discovered the instant benefits of leveraging the social media phenomenon known as Twitter to reach consumers directly, build their brand, and increase sales. Twitter is at the leading edge of the social media movement, allowing members to connect with one another in real time via short text messages called "tweets" that can be received either via the Twitter site or by e-mail, instant messenger, or cell phone. Many companies have started building entire teams within their organization dedicated solely to responding to tweets from consumers about their brand. And this is just the beginning.

In Twitter Power, Internet marketing and Web innovation expert Joel Comm shows businesses and marketers how to integrate Twitter into their existing marketing strategies to build a loyal following among Twitter members, expand awareness for their product or service, and even handle negative publicity due to angry or disappointed consumers. The book also presents case studies of companies on the forefront of the Twitter movement, to help you develop your own social networking strategies. Twitter Power is the result of extensive testing and participation in the social networking community and is a must-have for any business that wants to keep up with the social media movement. Twitter Power features a foreword by Tony Robbins.

Hot Brands Verdict
Without doubt Twitter has had a phenomenal growth in public awareness in a very short period of time. In this fascinating Book Twitter Power Joel Comm examines the growth of Twitter and how Twitter can be used in a business context. His very comprehensive content includes the following:

An introduction to the Social Media Landscape
What is Twitter and Why is it So Powerful ?
Getting Started the Right Way on Twitter
Building a Following on Twitter
The Art of The Tweet
The Magic of Connecting with Customers on Twitter
Leveraging Twitter for Team Communication
Using Twitter to Help Build Your Brand

And much, much more, including A 30-Day Plan for Dominating Twitter
and a Directory Of Twitters.

If you are intrigued by the potential of Twitter, you will find this book fascinating, it really is a very helpful A-Z of how to get the best out of Twitter. Highly Recommended as an essential guide for every one interested in social media.

Buy Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time from Amazon.co.uk

Hot Brands Verdict:If you are looking for inspiration and want to learn from an expert, Mike Smith has been involved in the creation of several one billion pound businesses including FirstDirect and Egg. This is a very down to earth approach drawing on Mike’s extensive experience.

The detailed and helpful content includes how to move from dream to reality, how to use customer insight to generate ideas that meet customer need, how to get funding and how to create an action plan. Once you are successful and as your organization grows he shows how to create a powerful culture, how to build talented teams and how to inspire great leadership. Most businesses have rocky moments and there is a useful chapter on how to assess and manage that risk. The final chapter is a summary of the principles raised in the earlier chapters. This is a really useful and practical A-Z of how to take a business idea and make it successful.

www.findyourlightbulb.com

Hot Brands Verdict :This is a great book, Julie, a successful entrepreneur and mother offers the word “ParentPreneur” as a way of describing entrepreneurs who are also parents. In this book she provides a winning formula for everyone looking to embark on their own business adventure-or take their existing business to the next level-while still making time to balance a family life. She describes five key traits that give parents an edge in their careers, whether they are running their own business or working in a larger organisation: resourcefulness, perseverance, patience, passion and vision.

Julie has herself developed a multi-million-dollar business while raising her young children, she includes a wealth of practical advice on launching, growing and running an entrepreneurial business. One of the very interesting points she makes, is the similarity between parenting and being an entrepreneur is that you are building a legacy. As parents we want to raise children who are happy responsible citizens.

As entrepreneurs, many of us create companies that we hope will make a contribution to our customers, our employees, and our community. If you are a parent, or an entrepreneur, or want to run your own business, this book is inspiring, packed full of ideas, good advice and resources.

www.parentpreneuredge.com

Hot Brands Verdict This is an engaging, practical down to earth guide to running your own business. It covers business plans, raising finance, financial planning, getting ready to open, working capital, growing your business, premises, staff, branching out, preparing for exit and much more.

Martin Web presenter of Channel 4’s Risking it All has guided many new businesses through the start-up process. This book is a very reassuring hand holding guide to how to do it. Its also a very honest account of what can happen if you don’t get it right as Martin talks through his own experiences.

Full of practical examples and illustrations of key actions and ideas, this is a great book to get you started thinking about running your own business.

www.amazon.co.uk

 Hot Brands Verdict

Famous for his appearances in BBC’s Dragons’ Den, Duncan Bannatyne is also one of Britain’s most successful and unconventional entrepreneurs. We really enjoyed this book it’s a down to earth account of his childhood growing up in post-war Clydebank, and its like watching a  fascinating documentary as Duncan charts his life, from his early beginnings to his creation of very successful businesses.

It tells of his successes, his failures, his principles, and all the time its like being in an intimate conversation with him. It is a fascinating look at the life of the man we have come to know through Dragons Den, as well as a behind the scenes look at Dragons’ Den.

Available from >> www.amazon.co.uk