Favourites

Business Books

I love to read business books, and my Personal MBA page will tell you more about that.

If you are looking for ideas on what to read, here are some places to visit:

• My profile at Goodreads;
• The Personal MBA recommended reading list;
• Zappos recommended reading list;
• Full list from the “100 Best Business Books of All Time’
• A book roundup by Seth Godin

Business Websites

I use Google Reader to follow dozens of business related blogs and websites. Here are just a few of my favorites:

• Small Business Trends
• How to Change the World – Guy Kawasaki
• Essays by Paul Graham
• Escape from Cubicle Nation
• Seth’s Blog
• Duct Tape Marketing
• Open Forum

Business Podcasts

Every week I listen to a number of business related podcasts. These are a few of the more interesting ones:

• SmallBizPod (subscribe via iTunes)
• Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders (subscribe via iTunes)
• Duct Tape Marketing (subscribe via iTunes)
• Escape from Cubicle Nation (subscribe via iTunes)
• This Week in Tech (TWIT) (subscribe via iTunes) (more related to technology and internet news rather than general business)

Online Business Tools

I use a lot of online services, both free and paid, to help keep organised and run my business.  Here are some of my favorites:

Free:

• GMail – great service that all small businesses should consider for a total email solution.
• Google Reader – the best way to keep up to date with your favourite websites.
• Google Calendar – without wanting this to be all about Google, it is a great online calendar tool
• Evernote – a brilliant tool for organising information, with too many great features to list here
• MindMeister – a great online mind mapping tool (free and paid accounts)
• MailChimp – an online tool for managing email newsletters and capaigns (free and paid accounts)
• SurveyMonkey and SurveyGizmo – two great tools for building online surveys (both have free and paid accounts)
• Goodreads – a place to store and organise a list of the books you own and want, read reviews and join in discussions

Paid:

• WORKetc – there are lots of good online time management/billing/CRM/project management apps, but this is the one I use (and I can probably get you a discount if you are interested).  Another services I like for time management, and which I have used for clients, is Intervals.

Business Articles

I store all of my business related bookmarks online at the social bookmarking site, Diigo.

All of my bookmarks are shared publicly and you can view them by following this link.

You can also see them by following the Articles link at the top of the page.