First Business

A chapter from Zoom by Daniel Roberts and Fortune contributors. With Zoom, Fortune magazine extends one of its most successful franchises, 40 Under 40, to bring you original insight on the best-kept secrets of top entrepreneurs, business leaders, and rising tech stars.

There is an illusion propagated by Hollywood and the media that other people have somehow worked out this 'life thing' better than us. Look around the people you work with and you will see individuals who seem unshakable, brimming over with self-esteem and personal power. But how do you know it is what it first appears? Even the strongest and most successful people have deeply negative self-talk that they keep hidden under a protective outward-facing veneer.

Stephen R. Covey and the Merrills have shown millions of listeners how to balance the demands of a schedule with the desire for fulfillment. The principles they introduced in First Things First are distilled for everyday listening. Let First Things First Every Day be your guide to the rich relationships, the inner peace, and the confidence that come from knowing where you're headed, and why.

Thing First details UX Consultant Joe Natoli's no-nonsense approach to creating successful products, powerful user experiences and very happy customers. He shares countless lessons learned from more than 30 years as a UX consultant to Fortune 500, 100, and US government organizations—including a few he's learned the hard way.

Author Matt LeMay explains agile in clear, jargon-free terms and provides concrete and actionable steps to help any team put its values and principles into practice. Examples from a wide variety of organizations, including small nonprofits and global financial enterprises, bring to life the on-the-ground realities of agile across industries and functions.

Over 543,000 new businesses are started every month. Most fail. Many never get a paying customer. This book gives you a proven system on how to start a business online in just one hour a day and get your first paying customers in one month (or less). The secret is ”agile entrepreneurship” - the new way to entrepreneurial success. In the tech industry, the agile approach made possible the Airbnbs, Instagrams, and Ubers we can’t imagine living without. If agile software founders can build companies worth billions in a garage, imagine what agile entrepreneurship can do for you!

Whenever the words business plan are mentioned most people freeze! What follows are the words I don't know how to write one.... This is why I have taken the lid off and written in plain English what needs to be considered and included in a business plan. This book has been written to help those who are writing plans for the first time or for those who write business plans infrequently. (Even seasoned business plan writers will learn one or two things, I promise!) I have included two different types of business plan templates.

The transition from line staff to management is fraught with difficulty. Sixty percent of new managers either fail outright or underperform in their first two years, while 51 percent of managers said they were unprepared for their first managerial role. In this quick-reference guide, master trainer and professional coach Joan Underwood shares practical insights and proven strategies for conquering the three most common challenges associated with this transition: managing self, managing others, and managing processes.

Strategic Leaders Are Made, Not Born provides an important foundation for every leader who is seeking to be more strategic in how they live and work. Each day, all of us face an overwhelming wave of daily tasks that can keep us from focusing on what we care about most. This audiobook provides leaders with critical tools for this journey.

Hiring Your First Employees and Contractors emphasizes the benefits of starting with contractors and only evolving to hiring employees when absolutely required. The entrepreneur and small firm manager is provided concrete benchmarks and approaches for hiring contractors and employees, with the emphasis always on how to extend the entrepreneur's reach so as to focus on improving core values and core competencies.

Justin Breen considers himself a results guy; he’s great at making things happen, but not so great at generating awesome ideas. But that hasn’t stopped him from creating an epic business and life! What Breen lacks in idea generation, he makes up for in his ability to recognize when an amazing idea is presented to him. The concepts that rule his life and success evolved from conversations with innovators. Learn the 30 transformational ideas Breen has gathered from some of the world’s top business leaders. Each chapter concludes with simplified takeaways.

Your First Startup: The Startup Business Guide, From Idea To Launch by Wayne Walker is the essential guidebook that will help you successfully transition from traditional employment to entrepreneurship. Have you always wanted to start your own business but didn't know where to begin? Your First Startup is the perfect guide to help you turn your business idea into a reality. From developing your initial concept to launching your product or service, this comprehensive guide will walk you through every step of the startup process. In this groundbreaking new book, you'll descover: Business idea...

A social media expert with global experience with many of the world's biggest brands - including Nike, Toyota, and Motorola - Simon Mainwaring offers a visionary new practice in which brands leverage social media to earn consumer goodwill, loyalty, and profit, while creating a third pillar of sustainable social change through conscious contributions from customer purchases. These innovative private sector partnerships answer perhaps the most pressing issue facing business and thought leaders today: how to practice capitalism in a way that satisfies all needs.

Most first-time employees don’t know how to successfully navigate their first job opportunity. They get hired, hopefully get trained, and get a paycheck. Their first job becomes a line item on a résumé and nothing more. You need a plan to thrive at your first job. Master Your First Job is the remarkable path to get from your first day to your first promotion. In this book, you’ll learn how to build a personal brand at work, give and receive good feedback, get your first raise, get your first promotion, and use your first job to advance your career.

In The Big Idea, Deutsch draws not only on his own tremendous focus and expertise, but on that of dozens of the successful entrepreneurs whom he has interviewed, to help you create your own enterprise. From the "Gut Check Moment" to "Mom Power", The Big Idea takes aspiring entrepreneurs along every step of the way. The Big Idea is your road map to the American dream.

With the advent of numerous job search websites, finding and applying for jobs might be easy. But when it is time to face the first interview, the thought will probably be scary. In this powerfully effective listen, entrepreneur and author T. Muralidharan shows how to be successful at that first interview.

Opposites attract – or they repel. Retired from the military, Red O’Brian is starting a new chapter in his life by opening a tattoo shop on the Oregon coast. He figures his small business will be a perfect fit for the quirky beach town of Diamond Bay. But there’s one obstacle in his way – Daisy Hunnicutt. The conservative Town Services Manager is sure that a tattoo shop will bring nothing but crime and trouble to the small town she loves. When Daisy denies Red’s business permit, Red goes to battle – for his business and his heart. Daisy has no interest in dating an alpha male, ...

Ray Zinn founded his semiconductor company without venture capital and ran it for 37 years, 36 of them profitably - an enviable record. He went blind weeks before his company went public, yet he led it for another 20 years. Tough Things First, the distillation of Zinn's astonishing career as CEO of Micrel, is a comprehensive, inspirational head-to-toe training program for entrepreneurs and leaders.

In his audiobook, Frank J. O’Connell shares his personal stories, business strategies, his passion for mentoring, and proven methods for management. Jump First, Think Fast details Frank’s many business successes – as well as some failures – in an honest and forthright way. Jump First, Think Fast is for those who want to think differently about business and learn how to find their place, trust their instincts, and enjoy the ride from a successful CEO’s stories, lessons, and life moments.

Take Your Shoes Off First is a fast and entertaining listen that illustrates how easy it is to limit what is possible in your life - without knowing you are doing it. You will be pulled into a thought-provoking story about an executive who finds a better path forward through a challenging situation by embracing one simple idea. As he learns to see himself and the world more clearly, you will be inspired to do the same.