Takin' Care of BusinessThis book is a small valuable gem. I breezed through it within an hour, but it gave me multiple light bulb moments.
Traditionally, let’s start from (a couple of):

CONS

1. No Kindle version.
C’mon! We have the 21st century here! Who am I, a caveman, to read the paperback version?

2. No summary at the end of the chapters.
What’s going on here? Maybe the authors work only with smart people who don’t need a bullet-point summary after a lesson? Well, I’m dumber than that. I badly needed such a summary.

The book may be short, but it’s packed full with ideas and actionable disciplines. It’s easy to breeze through the book and forgot 95% of the awesome advice it contains.
In the end, I had to go over the book once again and make such bullet points by myself.

Does it look like suspiciously few cons? Well, it’s a great book. It has many more

PROS

1. The opening.

Brian Buffini starts the book by quickly sharing his rags to riches story. But he doesn’t leave you with the impression of being a winner in shiny armor. Instead, he shares his top 10 mistakes in business.
It’s been refreshingly vulnerable.

2. The beginning.

The whole book is packed with great ideas and practices. But the first chapter is packed full and then some.

“An economic downturn or recession is ultimately a great thing for your business—if you can survive it.”

That’s the core message of the book and it was never more actual than during the recent coronavirus pandemic.
A good message, if you ask me.
Right behind this big inspiring message follow a string of neatly tailored ideas:
-the three fundamentals every business must have in place in order to succeed;
-an image of a business as a three-leg stool;
-a simple rating system, which predicts your yearly revenue;
-and the light bulb at the end: which element is the most important.
Spoiler alert! You may get the idea from this quote:

“Customer service is your job; sales & marketing is your business.”

3. And it gets better with every chapter.

An explanation of why relational marketing is so superior to transactional marketing.
Simple tips that will help you create your contacts database and sort and qualify your contacts.

4. Takin’ care of sales.

There wasn’t a single selling tactic in this whole chapter. It was all about methods to build relationships with your customers. This is really what sales are about.

5. Content.

Two other stool’s legs are as thoroughly examined as the first one. Why customers refer? Finance 101 for small business owners – it’s all analyzed and explained in very few words.
You don’t get overwhelmed. You get the specific practical tips to instill in your own business.
Brian and Joe’s advice is very actionable. You will get everything spelled out, including the list of daily, weekly, monthly quarterly and yearly disciplines to follow to take care of your business (sales & marketing).

6. Short and to the point.

There is no fluff in Takin’ Care of Business. Yet, it contains plenty of personal anecdotes from the authors’ business life. Those stories aptly illustrate business principles Brian and Joe are teachings.

7. True stories.

BTW, authors don’t just use their stories. Each chapter ends with a story of one person and business. They are both role-model type of lessons and warning-signs lessons.
Human beings absorb knowledge by sharing stories. Including them was a very smart move.

8. Nice design.

That was the icing on the cake. Not only the book was practical and laid out. It was visually appealing too. The formatting and images in the book were top-notch. You couldn’t have discerned this book from any traditionally published bestseller.

Summary

Takin’ Care of Business is beautiful. Inspiring. Practical. Simple. It contains no fluff. It’s full of actionable tips.
And it works. Tens of thousands Buffini & Company customers who make 8x more than average realtors are enough as a proof of concept for me.

Takin’ Care of Business Book Review

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *