Business Books to Read in 2023

This year, I read more than 50 nonfiction books, most of which fell into the categories of business and marketing. In celebration of the last business day of 2022, I thought I would share the ones that left a memorable impression.

The 6 Types of Working Genius by Patrick Lencioni (Amazon Rating 4.8 out of 5)

I’ve taken a lot of assessments in my career, and this book offers one of the simplest I’ve come across. It will help you quickly identify the strengths (geniuses) and weaknesses (frustrations) in yourself and your team. With this information, you can restructure your team so people do what they are best at, and you can hire for the areas where you have gaps.

Selling Is Hard. Buying Is Harder: How Buyer Enablement Drives Digital Sales and Shortens the Sales Cycle by Garin Hess (Amazon Rating 4.5 out of 5)

I stumbled upon this book as I was evaluating publishers for my upcoming book, and I’m so glad I found it. While written for companies that sell B2B services with complex sales cycles, the suggestions for improving a client’s buying experience are relevant to all service businesses. For example: Have different marketing materials for the different roles a prospect serves (e.g., one piece for the elder parent and one piece for the caregiver child). If you are an innovator by nature, this book will give you lots of ideas to implement in your practice in the new year.

Write Useful Books: A Modern Approach to Designing and Refining Recommendable Nonfiction by Rob Fitzpatrick and Adam Rosen (Amazon Rating 4.6 out of 5)

I read this book for guidance on how to make my upcoming book more helpful to advisors. If you plan on writing a book for marketing purposes, this is a must-read! And even if you aren’t, you’ll find lots of great tips on making the content you create more, well, useful.

The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks Than Others Do in 12 Months by Brian P. Moran (Amazon Rating 4.7 out of 5)

This book changed the way I think about developing marketing plans. Annual plans are out of date before you know it and rarely get implemented. If you follow the techniques in this book, 2023 will be your most productive and impactful year yet.

$100M Offers: How to Make Offers So Good People Feel Stupid Saying No by Alex Hormozi (Amazon Rating 4.9 out of 5)

Read this book if you struggle with how to add more value to your clients and charge higher fees for your service. I especially recommend it to advisors with hourly, project, flat-fee, or subscription-based fee models. The author will provide scalable ways to increase your value and fees without increasing your workload. With nearly 10,000 Amazon ratings and an average rating of 4.9 stars, I’m not the only one who thinks this book is magic. In fact, I can’t wait to read it again in 2023.

Happy new year!