I’ve told the “Books” story before, but I will tell it again quickly. As I was reading on the beach one summer, I was approached by my son’s friend who was like a son to me. And he knew me well. “Mrs. Porter are you reading Hemingway, Wilde, Austen, Shakespeare,” he asked. My response, “No, Jimmie. Thanks for that though. I am reading mindless trash.”
I mean no disrespect for the authors who are so incredibly talented. Books like Happy Wife, Broken Country, Atmosphere, OMG … just to name a few. Reading these books this summer on our annual family Gulf Shores, Alabama, trip definitely reduced my stress. But there were a lot of the other things I didn’t realize they did too.
Benefits of Reading
Happy Wife is set in Winter Park, Florida, which was my son’s — and by default my — home away from home for five years. Definitely an enjoyable read in familiar territory.
One book that kept me saying, “Yes. Oh, you go girl,” and a couple of other things because it coincidentally blurred into my work life was, Sunny Side Up by Katie Sturino.
As a start up that then turned into an extraordinarily successful brand quickly with an overly participatory investor, the main character, Sunny, pivoted. She realized her brand strategy and core customers were no longer at the core of her brand.
Finding Inspiration For Life and Work From Books
Thinking about this book lead me to write this blog. Successful start-ups and their business leaders always understand the following as they build and grow their companies:
- Investment — Successful business owners and leaders understand they need to invest in their brand launch AND beyond. It is not just launch and be done. It is the continued investment over time that ensures success. So, make sure to run numbers before your launch. Do you have the capital to launch AND continue marketing? What is your true number to both launch and sustain this brand? Bootstrapping can cause a few negative effects, so be aware:
- Slower growth which equals struggling to scale
- Increased personal financial risk if the business stagnates or fails
- Intense workload leading to burnout and sometimes health issues, which we have seen first-hand recently, of the entrepreneur. Hustle smarter not harder. Which leads to number two.
- Team Members — How much time can you commit to this business? Some of our start-up leaders are working full-time jobs at other companies. But their hearts are somewhere else. Ask yourself this, start-up leader: If you are keeping your day job until this business takes off, do you have the support team in place to fill in the gaps?
- Branding & On-going Marketing Support — We have waxed lyrical about these subjects before. The fact is that the fictional character Sunny got it. She built a brand based on a brand vision and ultimately stayed true to its mission and values. In addition, she consistently communicated with her best target after the product launch. Are you putting on-going support in place too?
Learn a Lesson From Fictional Characters and Real Business Leaders
Books can be blessings. Even mindless trash. Reading provides personal benefits like increased vocabulary, reduction of stress and enhanced cognitive functioning. But, as you can see, reading books can also translate into business learnings and idea generation at the same time. Happy end-of-summer reading, y’all!