You can spend $250,000 to get an MBA or spend a weekend reading these classics. Your choice.
As a Man Thinketh by James Allen
Best Quote: "A man only begins to be a man when he ceases to whine and revile, and commences to search for the hidden justice which regulates his life. And as he adapts his mind to that regulating factor, he ceases to accuse others as the cause of his condition, and builds himself up in strong and noble thoughts; ceases to kick against circumstances, but begins to use them as aids to his more rapid progress, and as a means of the hidden powers and possibilities within himself."
Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki
Best Quote: "Mankind is divided into rich and poor, into property owners and exploited, and to abstract oneself from this fundamental division and from the antagonism between poor and rich means abstracting oneself from fundamental facts."
Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson
Best Quote: "What you are afraid of is never as bad as what you imagine. The fear you let build up in your mind is worse than the situation that actually exists."
The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr., and E. B. White
Best Quote: "Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell."
The One Minute Manager by Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson
Best Quote: "If you can't tell me what you'd like to be happening, you don't have a problem yet. You're just complaining. A problem only exists if there is a difference between what is actually happening and what you desire to be happening."
How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff
Best Quote: "The secret language of statistics, so appealing in a fact-minded culture, is employed to sensationalize, inflate, confuse, and oversimplify. Statistical methods and statistical terms are necessary in reporting the mass data of social and economic trends, business conditions, 'opinion' polls, the census. But without writers who use the words with honesty and understanding and readers who know what they mean, the result can only be semantic nonsense."
The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino
Best Quote: "I will live this day as if it is my last. This day is all I have and these hours are now my eternity. I greet this sunrise with cries of joy as a prisoner who is reprieved from death. I lift mine arms with thanks for this priceless gift of a new day. So too, I will beat upon my heart with gratitude as I consider all who greeted yesterday's sunrise who are no longer with the living today. I am indeed a fortunate man and today's hours are but a bonus, undeserved. Why have I been allowed to live this extra day when others, far better than I, have departed? Is it that they have accomplished their purpose in life while mine is yet to be achieved? Is this another opportunity for me to become the man I know I can be?"
Source: Inc.com
FAQs
A: The first step is to define the service model, ideal customer, pricing, supplies, insurance needs, and repeatable cleaning process. A simple documented system helps the owner sell consistently and deliver consistent service from the beginning.
A: Systems turn owner knowledge into repeatable processes for hiring, training, quality control, scheduling, customer communication, and financial review. Strong systems make growth less dependent on the owner and improve consistency across teams.
A: Useful KPIs include recurring revenue, job profitability, labor percentage, customer retention, employee turnover, route efficiency, complaints, re-cleans, average ticket, lead conversion rate, and cash flow.
