How can an active entrepreneur stay in the know about business trends and support when they’re already too busy?
BF+DA Venture Fellow alumna Claire Russo of Luru Home said it well: “It is easy to work in your business rather than on your business, to justify closing a sale over reading up on e-commerce best practices. If you can’t pull back from your company’s day-to-day operational tasks however, your lens remains focused on the micro, rather than zooming out to take in the macro perspective.”
BF+DA Venture Fellow Founder Kyle Bergman of The Great Fantastic is all about the bigger picture and has read more than a few entrepreneurial books to keep re-framing his business. His brand’s mission is to create the world’s comfiest apparel using sustainable materials and practices to create the company’s main product called Swoveralls (think sweatpants+overalls). Cool, functional, and extremely comfortable – Bergman says his “Swoveralls are quite simply the comfiest thing you never knew you needed.”
So if they don’t know they need them, how do people find out about them? Thanks to BF+DA mentoring and lots of reading and tapping into community, Bergman intends to find out.
We caught up with The Great Fantastic who shared some business-related books he’s read recently that are useful to expand the entrepreneurial mind.
So tell us about these books?
The books I’d like to share with the BF+DA community are Get Backed, Traction, and All Marketers are Liars. I won’t go into too much detail for each book, but instead share a key takeaway that I had, which either helped inspire me, created a different (and valuable) perspective, or a combination of the two:
Get Backed – Even if you’re not 100% sure outside funding is the path you want to take, I think every entrepreneur can gain so much from this book as it’s more of a tool-kit that can be referenced again and again versus a one-time read. Actual pitch decks, founder stories, and templates anyone can use to help create effective communication channels (ex: “How to write the perfect follow-up email”) are just a few of the highlights in this book.
Key Takeaway: No entrepreneur has an easy road. Get Backed not only shares anecdotes but also real data as to the amount of investors pitched, the length of the fundraising process, and the amount actually raised. It’s reassuring in a way to know that every start-up at one point was grinding in an uncertain, risky environment just like you are.
Traction – I’m right in the middle of this book right now, and just like Get Backed, it’s more a tool-kit or manual than a book you read once. Traction breaks down 19 different ways you can create momentum within your business. Each strategy shared is supported by someone (usually an entrepreneur) that is crushing it with that tactic.
Key Takeaway:Understand your blind spots and biases. Some suggestions/tactics to gain traction might be irrelevant to a specific industry or brand but know this – if they seem irrelevant to you, then your competitors are probably thinking the same thing, so if you look at it from a different angle, it may be an unbelievable point of differentiation and competitive advantage.
