Dr Stephen Fear, our Entrepreneur in Residence and one of the Centre's Ambassadors shares the latest about his series of business book reviews held in the Centre.

 

Books have always formed a big part of my life. Growing up I was a voracious reader, something that has never left me.

Last year, it was suggested to me that I should consider hosting a book review located at the Business & IP Centre, focused on business books.

I started to think about how to do this in a way which would benefit entrepreneurs and small business owners using the Centre, and possibly a much wider worldwide audience online.

My first attempt at getting it right had its challenges due to the UK being hit by heavy snow! Our film crew couldn't get into London so we ended up doing the practice run in a penthouse apartment I own in Bristol with a hand held camera. It was all very much a practice run, but we put it on YouTube anyway, exactly as it was. Clearly it was much too long and the sound was poor but it was our first try so I hope we can be forgiven for that.

Thankfully we have progressed, and the review is evolving into something that I hope will assist the huge community of UK entrepreneurs develop their businesses.

Each month I intend to review two books which I have read and which I feel are relevant to the SME community. Where possible I will have a guest author on the show. In March 2014 I interviewed Susan Gunelius, successful author of many books including, The Dummies Guide to Blogging and Social Media.

So what's next! Well, in July I will be focusing on two more books, the first is essentially a work manual written by chartered accountant Johnny Martin which explains how to raise capital and manage cashflow for SMEs and is called 'Understanding Your Business Finances" and the second is a book by Rasheed Ogunlaru, called 'Soul Trader' which focuses on getting your mindset right for success.

Although very different, in that one concentrates on hard facts, and the other on a rather more spiritual aspect, both are important for anyone seeking success in business. Unless you can clear your mind and focus, absorbing the information from Johnny Martin will be tougher to take in.

Have a look at some of the previous reviews and make sure you keep an eye out for the next one!

If you have a favourite business book that you would like included in a future review, let us know via Twitter or Facebook.  I will do my best to read it and review it in future programmes.