Where to buy: www.amazon.com

If you run a home office and are in need of a labeler, have a look at the Brother PT1290 Home and Office Labeler. This handheld device creates professional looking labels in no time at all. The printed labels can be used for things such as office equipment, binders, presentation material, cell phones, DVDs/CDs. The device has two professional looking fonts and 15 different mode patterns to create decorative labels of your choice. The device comes with a 15 character LCD display, which allows users to easily preview the text before printing it off.

Another key feature is the memory ability of the labeler. It can store up to 9 of your favorite labels you use over and over again. .

Overall, if you are looking for a good and not too expensive labeling machine, the Brother PT1290 is perfect for your small business needs. It is easy to use to create labels – type the text, print, peel and stick. The labels are up to ½” wide and made from waterproof and durable laminated material.

Order: Brother PT1290 Home and Office Labeler

Where to buy: www.amazon.com

The book The One Minute Entrepreneurs follows a fictional character through many challenges: from his early dreams of having his own business to later on finding a job and starting his own business. When reading this book, there are many lessons you can learn about starting up, no matter what type of business. I like the fact that this book is both, fictional and non-fictional. It provides basic business principles through a fictional story character and his trials and tribulations as an entrepreneur.

Lessons you learn along the way are: Dream big, take care of your employees and your loyal customers, how to bring in money to secure cash flow, how to provide superb customer service, praise and positive criticism and how to have a good work-life balance to keep yourself, your company, your friends and family intact.

The book also benefits from advice given by well-known entrepreneurs, such as Sheldon Bowles and Michael Gerber.

All in all, this book offers a fun fictional read intertwined with valuable business principle lessons. If you like this style of book, you will certainly enjoy reading it.

Order: The One Minute Entrepreneur

Where to buy: www.nightingale.com

What is it that all good leaders have in common? Yes, it is credibility and trust. Only when you possess credibility will you be the kind of leader others will look up to. The audio series “Achieving Credibility” by James Kouzes talks about credibility and how to gain it. He also covers topics such as reaching your maximum potential by motivating others to reach theirs, how to build a trusted business with strong morals and values, how to solve conflict sensibly. All throughout the series, you’ll hear about the importance of trust, honesty, hope, sensitivity and diversity. When taken seriously, these words can lead your business to great success.

Overall, if you are interested in achieving credibility either as a boss, a manager, or business partner, this series by James Kouzes will provide you with lots of answers and tips on how to be a credible and successful leader. The series runs on 6 CDs.

Order: Achieving Credibility

Where to buy: www.amazon.com

Unmarketing: Stop Marketing, Start Engaging is a common sense book by viral marketer and twitter specialist, Scott Stratten. In his book, he debunks old traditional marketing techniques, such as cold calling, and instead turns his attention to relationship building with customers online and offline.

Scott Stratten gives lots of case study examples, which help you to understand the context of each chapter (there are over 50 of them). His funny and entertaining style keeps your attention from the first page to the last. Learn about viral marketing, strategies to treat your customers well and turn them into long-term prospects. Social media, such as Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin are covered. The book is filled with lots of great advice and top tips on what works in today’s marketing world and what doesn’t.

Overall, if you are interested in reading up on Scott Stratten’s successful, modern marketing approach of engaging with your customers, Unmarketing would be a great asset to your business library.

Order: UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging.

Where to buy: www.amazon.com

More and more people decide to start their own green small business. The book ‘Build a Green Small Business’ is a guide with lots of useful advice from a highly successful green business entrepreneur, Scott Cooney. It covers all the necessary marketing, advertising and networking tips that every small business needs with a green twist. Scott Cooney also gives you a whole range of green business ideas, including green franchises, from green retail & food services (i.e. vegan restaurants), ecotourism, manufacturing and wholesale to events planning and eco-friendly and toxin-free dry cleaning services..

There are lots of green business ideas out there, but it is important to find the right one that suits your interests. Starting and successfully running your own small green business is a big job – from finding funding, budgeting, hiring and managing employees etc. It is important for everybody wanting to start a business to find a business sector that they like and can relate to. Scott Cooney’s book should give you lots of green business ideas and I am sure you will find his expert advice on how to start, run and grow your own green business very helpful.

Overall, if you are thinking of starting a green business, this book comes with lots of invaluable tips and ideas to help you along on your way to become a successful Eco-Preneur.

Order: Build a Green Small Business

Where to buy: www.amazon.com

The Playbook for Small Businesses is a small business guide by entrepreneur Steve Henry. It is not, though, your typical business book. The Playbook intertwines his own personal success story with business principles and textbook style lessons. He shares his business secrets and gives insights into his 30 year small business career in an easy-to-read and entertaining language.

Your best indicator that your business is thriving isn’t only the profits you make, it’s what your customers and employees have to say about you. Steve Henry runs his business (used car dealership) with insight, generosity and faith, which creates a very positive environment for customers and employees, which is reflected in the company’s success.

In his book he discusses – with spiritual sensitivity and using football terminology – business principles such as teamwork and cooperation, restraint and avoiding penalties. Each of his principles comes with ideas and techniques on how to achieve the desired outcome. In addition, he passes on his own personal stories recounting what helped him to get to where he is now.

Overall, The Playbook for Small Businesses isn’t your everyday textbook. It is a book that offers not only fantastic information on how to achieve certain goals, but at the same time gives the reader valuable insight knowledge from an inspirational and true entrepreneur.

Order: The Playbook for Small Businesses

Channels of Profit is a fantastic audio series by Mary Ellen Tribby, expert marketer, on taking your business to the next level. In this series, she teaches you the proven strategies to attract customers with the help of low cost and effective marketing methods for greater profits.

The series comes on 8 CDs plus an 88 page workbook and includes a wealth of marketing topics. The author teaches you the proven techniques to explode your business. With the help and implementation of social media, you can make an impact, establish your own power and attract customers and profit. Learn from her invaluable comments on the power of TV ads, radio advertising and direct mail. Understand how to use your partners, customers and the media to advance your business. To summarize, she gives you a clear message on how to establish your own effective multi-channel campaign that will massively increase your customer base as well as your business’ profit.

Overall, Channels of Profit gives you the wherewithal to take your business to the next level by launching your own, inexpensive, marketing campaigns. Mary Ellen Tribby is an expert in her field and is well worth listening to. Implementing her suggestions and advice will allow you to grow your business into a lucrative venture.

Order: Channels of Profit (12 Easy Ways to Make Millions for Yourself and Your Business)

Win Cleaner One-Click
Where to buy: www.amazon.com

Computers are wonderful things, if they work properly that is. If you find that your computer all of a sudden runs very slowly and freezes up, then a proper clean up of electronic junk and clutter on your machine should be undertaken.

The WinCleaner One-Click is a software product that cleans and optimizes your Windows Registry and gives you extra disk space. It removes broken shortcuts, junk files and thereby protecting your privacy by disenabling third party tracking of your internet and web browsing habits. Start-up problems should also be fixed once you clean your computer with this product.

Overall, the WinCleaner One-Click is a thumbs-up product as it makes your computer reliable and safe to use. Especially if you work with your machine day-in day-out, the last thing you want is a frustratingly slow and unsafe computer to work on.

Order: WinCleaner One Click Professional Clean Version 12

Where to buy: www.amazon.com

Referrals are important to not only get return business, but also to attract new customers to your business. Referral marketing should therefore be part of every business. It solidifies your relationship with existing customers, which then passes the message onto other people through word-of-mouth. Personalizing your relationship with customers will improve your customer service and makes you stand out amongst other competitors. This will lead automatically to increased sales and profits.

The Referral Engine is a book by John Jantsch (author of Duct Tape Marketing). He advocates that every small business should have a system in place to generate and increase quality referrals. He explains what quality referrals are and outlines tools and techniques on how to get them. Once you understand the importance of quality referrals and how to use them efficiently, you are then in a position to generate referrals from ideal customers. Again, he gives an in-depth explanation of the term ‘ideal customers’ and their lifecycle – Know, Like, Trust, Try, Buy, Repeat, Refer. This understanding allows you to take positive action and implement referral strategies within your company. Other topics include using social media and technology to your advantage to obtain more satisfied customers.

Overall, this is a must-have guide to the art of referrals. A very informative book that every small business owner should keep on their bookshelf.

Order: The Referral Engine: Teaching Your Business to Market Itself

Where to buy: www.amazon.com

Nobody likes to fail. Just the idea of it makes many people cringe. But failure doesn’t only have to be negative. On the contrary, it can be a great learning opportunity on the way to success. Failure is about risk taking and making mistakes. Only when you learn from your mistakes and try something else can you truly achieve success.

The Power of Failure is a book about using the power of failure to build a successful future. In order to do that, you need to understand how you can put a positive spin on failure. The author, Charles C Manz, PhD, provides lots of food for thought about how to turn your perceived failure into something much more exciting. He provides lots of interesting tips on learning from your mistakes and gives hands-on advice how to overcome the emotional impact of failure. The book is divided into four chapters: Redefining Failure and Success, Winning Through Losing, Coping with Failure and Collaborating with Failure. I like the fact that the book offers real life stories of failure of very successful and influential people. It wasn’t just plain sailing to success for them as well, but they persevered and took the opportunity to turn failure into success.

Overall, if you are struggling coming to terms with failure, this is a book that can put you back on track. It is written in an easy-to-read style. I would certainly recommend it to anybody interested in the subject.

Order: The Power of Failure: 27 Ways to Turn Life’s Setbacks Into Success