Stuff We Like
Books
Fix This Next
by Mike Michalowicz
Why We Like It: Mike Michalowicz is one of our favorite business authors. He is on a mission to eradicate entrepreneurial poverty, and this book is a great addition to that mission. Fix This Next is a simple but critical tool for pinpointing the ONE change that will level up your business and deserves your best work. Our founder, Ashlee Berghoff, is a certified Fix This Next Advisor.
Who It’s Good For: If you’ve been running your business for a while and feel like you’re trying to solve a million problems at once, this book is for you.
Why We Like It: Atomic Habits is an immensely practical book about how you can work with your brain to build better habits. It shares straightforward systems and frameworks for making real improvement in any area of your life…and you know how much we like systems.
Who It’s Good For: If you have bad habits you’ve been struggling to kick, or good ones you can’t quite seem to incorporate into your life, this book is for you.
Atomic Habits
by James Clear
E-Myth Revisited
by Michael Gerber
Why We Like It: The E Myth was one of the first books our founder read when she started A Squared. It’s a critical book for any entrepreneur to read to understand the deep systems that enable a business to thrive and grow.
Who It’s Good For: If you’re growing a small business, especially if you’re stuck in a place where the business’ survival depends entirely on you, this is the book for you.
Why We Like It: In this book, Mike Michalowicz talks about several of the systems your business needs to run effectively without a single source of dependency (including you). The book is built to help you direct your business to a place where your team is so empowered and your operations are so efficient that you can take a fully unplugged four-week vacation while your business hums along without you.
Who It’s Good For: If you are struggling to empower a team and are afraid of what would happen to your business if you needed to step away, this book will provide you with some very practical tips.
Clockwork: Design Your Business to Run Itself
by Mike Michalowicz
Software
Why We Like It: Toggl is a time-tracking software that offers a pretty robust free version. It will allow you to track your time in a beautiful, intuitive platform and to whatever level of detail you need.
Who It’s Good For: If you need to understand where your time is actually going, project how long projects will take, measure how profitable your client work is, or track your team’s capacity, Toggl is a great tool to consider.
Why We Like It: 17hats is a workflow tool that can automate your entire onboarding and off-boarding processes, especially if you do individual client work. We use 17hats for our own business and can onboard new clients in a matter of minutes. It makes our clients’ lives easier, too.
Who It’s Good For: If you provide any individual services and want to streamline getting contract signatures, invoice payments, and intake questionnaires squared away for new clients, 17hats could be a great option for you.
Note – we recommend 17hats because we use them ourselves, but just so you’re aware, this is an affiliate link.
Why We Like It: Asana is a great project management tool that is easy to set up and use. It helps organize projects by allowing you to delegate, track and oversee tasks. There is even a free version that meets the needs of many entrepreneurs or small business owners.
Who It’s Good For: This is a great introductory project management tool for almost everyone, including teams
Why We Like It: Loom allows you to record videos (with or without a shared screen) to communicate with clients or your team. You can use the tool to document SOPs, share feedback, or answer questions, and it can both save you a lot of time and cut down on the need for meetings. The Chrome plug-in makes it super simple to use.
Who It’s Good For: If you find yourself spending too much time typing out answers to questions or having to get on calls to explain things, you’ll love Loom. We use it multiple times every day.
Why We Like It: LastPass solves the problem of managing login credentials and passwords for your business. It can be especially useful if you’re managing multiple clients across multiple platforms. It safely stores the information and allows you to share it with specified users, as well as revoke access if needed. Their Chrome plug-in simplifies the login process by auto-populating data so you don’t have to hunt down passwords.
Who It’s Good For: Anyone wanting to store, access, and share passwords and login info for various systems and platforms.
Why We Like It: Teachable is a great online course platform. It allows you to create & sell online courses that include your content and branding. It has a polished interface and is easy to set up and use.
Who It’s Good For: If you want to develop and sell online courses but don’t need a website builder or other advanced tools, Teachable is a great option.