Books We Recommend

People have asked us what books we read and would recommend to them. We maintain a small collection of books at our office for reference and most of them are dog eared, coffee stained and well read.

Disclosure: Please note that the links below are affiliate links that will take you to Amazon. Fast Easy Accounting earns a commission if you decide to make a purchase after clicking through the link, at no additional cost to you. Randal DeHart have personally read these books and recommend them because they are relevant and useful to our website's audience. Please do not spend any money on the books mentioned unless you feel you would like to read them or that they will help you and your construction business. As an Amazon Associate, Fast Easy Accounting earns from qualifying purchases.

• The E-Myth Revisited - Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It
  by Michael E. Gerber

Michael Gerber's The E-Myth Revisited should be required reading for anyone thinking about starting a business or for those who have already taken that fateful step. The title refers to the author's belief that entrepreneurs - typically brimming with good but distracting ideas--make poor business people. He establishes an incredibly organized and regimented plan, so that daily details are scripted, freeing the entrepreneur's mind to build the long-term success of the business. You don't need an M.B.A. to understand or follow its directives; Gerber takes time to explain buzzwords and complex theories. Read in a clear and well-paced manner, listening to The-E Myth is like receiving advice from an old friend.typically brimming with good but distracting ideas--make poor business people. He establishes an incredibly organized and regimented plan, so that daily details are scripted, freeing the entrepreneur's mind to build the long-term success of the business. You don't need an M.B.A. to understand or follow its directives; Gerber takes time to explain buzzwords and complex theories. Read in a clear and well-paced manner, listening to The-E Myth is like receiving advice from an old friend.

• Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? Inside IBM's Historic Turnaround
  by Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.

Gerstner quarterbacked one of history's most dramatic corporate turnarounds. For those who follow business stories like football games, his tale of the rise, fall, and rise of IBM might be the ultimate slow-motion replay. The book's opening section snappily reports Gerstner's decisions in his first 18 months on the job-the critical "sprint" that moved IBM away from the brink of destruction. The following sections describe the marathon fight to make IBM once again, "a company that mattered."
One of Gerstner's first tasks was to redirect the company's attention to the outside world, where a marketplace was quickly changing, and customers felt largely ignored. He succeeded mightily. Upon his retirement this year, IBM was undeniably "a company that mattered." "Who Says Elephants Can't Dance?" is a well-rendered self-portrait of a CEO who made a spectacular change on the strength of personal leadership.

• Execution - The Discipline of Getting Things Done
  by Larry Bossidy, Ram Charan, Charles Burck (Contributor)
  
  Disciplines like strategy, leadership development, and innovation are the sexier aspects of being at the helm of a successful business; getting things done never seems quite as glamorous. But as Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan demonstrate in Execution, the ultimate difference between a company and its competitor is, in fact, the ability to execute.
  
  Execution is "the missing link between aspirations and results," and as such, making it happen is the business leader's most important job.

 

 

 

• Get Better or Get Beaten
  by Robert Slater
  
  Do business like Jack Welch! When Jack Welch took the reins of General Electric in 1981, he reformulated GE in his image -- tough, smart, competitive, and relentless. First published in 1994, Get Better or Get Beaten became a bestseller as managers sought to understand and mimic the success of the man lauded by Fortune as "...perhaps the most admired CEO of his generation."
  Now, on the eve of his planned April retirement, the new Get Better or Get Beaten, Second Edition shows you how to compete "Welch style" in today's technologically advanced business arena.
  Look to this fast-paced book for:
  - Jack Welch's latest views on management and leadership
  - Examples of how Welch transformed GE into an e-business
  - Insights into Six Sigma and other successful GE quality initiatives
  - and more
• Jack - Straight from the Gut
  by Jack Welch, John A. Byrne
  
  It's hard to think of a CEO that commands as much respect as Jack Welch. Under his leadership, General Electric reinvented itself several times over by integrating new and innovative practices into its many lines of business.

  In Jack: Straight from the Gut, Welch, with the help of Business Week journalist John Byrne, recounts his career and the style of management that helped to make GE one of the most successful companies of the last century. Beginning with Welch's childhood in Salem, Massachusetts, the book quickly progresses from his first job in GE's plastics division to his ambitious rise up the GE corporate ladder, which culminated in 1981. What comes across most in this autobiography is Welch's passion for business as well as his remarkable directness and intolerance of what he calls "superficial congeniality"--a dislike that would help earn him the nickname "Neutron Jack."

  
  
• First Break All the Rules - What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently
  by Marcus Buckingham, Curt Coffman
  
  Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman expose the fallacies of conventional management thinking in First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently. In seven chapters, the two consultants for the Gallup Organization debunk some dearly held notions about management, such as "treat people as you like to be treated"; "people are capable of almost anything"; and "a manager's role is diminishing in today's economy." "Great managers are revolutionaries," the authors write. "This book will take you inside the minds of these managers to explain why they have toppled conventional wisdom and reveal the new truths they have forged in its place."

 

 

 

• Good to Great - Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Other's Don't
  by Jim Collins

Jim Collins asked the question, "Can a good company become a great company, and if so, how?" In Good to Great, Collins concludes that it is possible, but finds there are no silver bullets. Collins and his team of researchers began their quest by sorting through a list of 1,435 companies, looking for those that made substantial improvements in their performance over time. They finally settled on 11--including Fannie Mae, Gillette, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo--and discovered common traits that challenged many of the conventional notions of corporate success.

Making the transition from good to great doesn't require a high-profile CEO, the latest technology, innovative change management, or even a fine-tuned business strategy. At the heart of those rare and truly great companies was a corporate culture that rigorously found and promoted disciplined people to think and act in a disciplined manner. Good to Great is one of those books that managers and CEOs will be reading and rereading for years to come.

 

• A New Brand World - Eight Principles for Achieving Brand Leadership in the Twenty-First Century
  by Scott Bedbury, Stephen Fenichell (Contributor)
  
  Bedbury, who headed advertising and marketing divisions for Nike and Starbucks during their phenomenal growth, coaches on establishing a memorable brand. Observing consumers overwhelmed by countless choices, he argues that now's the time to build a brand that evokes trust from its customers.
  
  "Unless your brand stands for something, it stands for nothing," he declares, as he explains methods for companies big and small to articulate their essence and ethos to core customers, potential customers, and employees. Bedbury elaborates his belief that "the brand is the total of everything a company does" with lively anecdotes from the experiences of Harley-Davidson, Microsoft, and others. He calls for advertising and marketing that will inspire rather than merely inform (i.e., "Just Do It").
• Inside The Magic Kingdom - 7 Keys to Disney's Success
  by Thomas K. Connellan
  
  Look in Mickey's Briefcase . . . Now, an outsider takes you inside the incredible Disney service culture and presents simple, powerful concepts in a fun, memorable way that may change the way you conduct business. Based on hours of interviews and discussions with present and former Disney employees, Inside the Magic Kingdom discloses the secrets behind Disney's success and explains why, of its more than 30 million guests each year, over two-thirds are repeat customers.
  This upbeat, easy-to-read book illustrates clear, solid principles with examples that are well-known to Disney insiders but virtually unknown to outsiders until now. Outlines the seven keys to Disney's success. Now the principles that drive the culture and phenomenal success of Disney are disclosed in this fun, easy-to-read book. You will learn many insider secrets that will spell success if implemented in any business.
• McDonald's - Behind the Arches
  by John F. Love

McDonald's: it is the world's premier entrepreneurial success story, a company whose growth worldwide continues to be astonishing. In tough financial times, McDonald's proved that ingenuity, trial and error, and gut instinct were the keys to building a service business the entire world has come to admire. In the years since McDonald's: Behind The Arches was first published, McDonald's has been a trendsetter in advertising, focusing on different ethnic groups as well as the physically disabled.

McDonald's created McJobs, a program that employs both mentally challenged adults and senior citizens. Also, because its franchisees have their fingers on the pulse of the marketplace, McDonald's has evolved successfully with the health food revolution, launching dozens of new products and moving toward environmentally-safe packaging and recyclable goods. Inspiring, informative, and filled with behind the scenes stories, this remarkable saga offers an irresistible look inside a great American business success.

• How To Make Your Business Run Without You!
  by Susan M. Carter

How To Make Your Business Run Without You is a how-to resource for small business owners and entrepreneurs to effectively streamline operations that will pave the way for more business, bigger profits and a business that virtually runs itself. Through step-by-step chapters, Author Susan Carter advances readers from the high-risk potential of 'owning their own jobs' to the freedom and control of 'owning their businesses.' A must-read for any owner or self-employed professional who is eager to move from start-up status to ongoing success.

 

 

 

 

• The Myth of Excellence - Why Great Companies Never Try to Be the Best at Everything
  by Fred Crawford, Ryan Mathews
  
  Crawford is the managing director of the consumer products, retail, and distribution practice at the Cap Gemini Ernst and Young consultancy. Mathews is a futurist specializing in demographics and lifestyle analysis at FirstMatter, another consulting firm. To research purchasing behavior, they surveyed 5,000 consumers, but the responses they got surprised them and prompted their title's contrary proposition.
  
  They developed a new model of "consumer relevancy." They explain in detail the importance of price, service, quality, access, and experience for the consumer. They then suggest that for companies to be successful, they need to dominate on only one of these five factors. On a second of the five, they should stand out or differentiate themselves from their competitors; and on the remaining three, they need only to be at par with others in their industry. With dozens of examples, Crawford and Mathews demonstrate the validity of their premise.
• Raving Fans - A Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service
  by Kenneth H. Blanchard, Sheldon Bowles (Contributor)
  
  Kenneth Blanchard continues his trend of writing easy-to-read books with BIG ideas for making your business better. Raving Fans is a book of stories relating to how fictional companies have created an environment of delivering excellent customer service. A guy that has just been put in a management position requiring a turnaround goes on a fictional trip with his "angel" to visit businesses that have figured out their vision and their system to deliver customer service extraordinarily. Based on three simple principles (Decide, Discover, Deliver), each company has created a group of Raving Fans (not just customers, but fans) who wouldn't consider shopping anywhere else for what one of these companies offers.
  
  

 

 

• Differentiate or Die - Survival in Our Era of Killer Competition
  by Jack Trout, Steve Rivkin (Contributor)

There are no two ways about it with Jack Trout. Either you've got a product or service that you can say is different, or you don't have much at all. In today's global marketplace and at its lightning-fast rate of change, there's no point in inventing and presenting a product only to sit back and hope that consumers everywhere will discover its greatness. It's not merely about what you or your product can do; it's about what you do differently from everyone else. Coauthors Trout and Steve Rivkin say it all in their no-holds-barred title, Differentiate or Die.

 

 

 

 

• Extraordinary Guarantees - Achieving Breakthrough Gains in Quality and Customer Satisfaction
  by Christopher Hart
  
  Many leading firms have achieved both these results by offering extraordinary guarantees. You too can boost organizational performance and quality to new levels by following the practical advice provided in the book, Extraordinary Guarantees. Guarantees were once considered nothing more than a marketing gimmick. But as more and more quality leaders have begun to offer ironclad pledges of total customer satisfaction, the guarantee is now being recognized as an unparalleled tool for gaining a major, often unbeatable, competitive edge-and a host of other benefits.
  
  
  

 

 

• Competing on Value
  by Mack Hanan, Peter Karp (Contributor)
  
  Presents a new approach to selling that emphasizes not competing based on the best price, but the highest value--i.e., demonstrating to current and prospective customers that using your products or services will either cut their costs or improve their revenues. This book discusses VALUE. Value is not what you put INTO your products and services; it is what the customer GETS OUT. Three qualifiers of value are how much, how soon, and how sure--these are what the customer needs to know. In summary, this is highly recommended for every company that sells products or services.
  
  

 

 

 

• Practice What You Preach - What Managers Must Do to Create a High-Achievement Culture
  by David H. Maister
  
  Maister, a professional service consultant, surveyed 6,500 employees at 50 worldwide companies to evaluate the relationship between company financial performance and employee satisfaction and loyalty. He found a direct and dramatic correlation. Here, he offers detailed commentary from CEOs, managers and staffers, and analysis of the survey results. Bosses in all kinds of companies will benefit from his solid advice, which should be required reading for executives and upper-level managers.

 

 

 

 

• Leadership
  by Rudolph W. Giuliani, Ken Kurson
  
  This highly anticipated book from New York's once controversial, now beloved former mayor opens with a gripping account of Giuliani's immediate reaction to the September 11 attacks, including a narrow escape from the original crisis command headquarters, and closes with the efforts to address the aftermath during his remaining four months in office. However, he argues, he did not suddenly become a great leader on September 11, and "had been doing [my] best to take on challenges my whole career."
  
  Throughout, he displays the hands-on management that marked his administration, including his willingness to respond swiftly and in-person to crises, to prove that he could be relied on when the city needed him most. While some critics found his style too aggressive, he has a compelling counterargument: "Before September 11, there were those who said we were overly concerned [about security]," he observes. "We didn't hear that afterward..."
• Why We Buy - The Science of Shopping
  by Paco Underhill
  
  To determine why people buy, Paco Underhill and his band of retail researchers have camped out in stores over the course of 20 years, dedicating their lives to the "science of shopping." Armed with an array of video equipment, store maps, and customer-profile sheets, Underhill and his consulting firm, Envirosell, have observed over 900 aspects of the interaction between shopper and store. They've discovered that men who take jeans into fitting rooms are more likely to buy than females (65 percent vs. 25 percent).
  
  They've learned how the "butt-brush factor" (bumped from behind, shoppers become irritated and move elsewhere) makes women avoid narrow aisles. They've quantified the importance of shopping baskets; contact between employees and shoppers; the "transition zone" (the area just inside the store's entrance); and "circulation patterns" (how shoppers move throughout a store). Moreover, they've explored the relationship between a customer's amenability and profitability, learning how good stores capitalize on a shopper's unspoken inclinations and desires.
  
  Underhill, whose clients include McDonald's, Starbucks, Est?Lauder, and Blockbuster, stocks Why We Buy with a wealth of retail insights, showing how men are beginning to shop like women, and how women have changed the way supermarkets are laid out. He also looks to the future, projecting massive retail opportunities with an aging baby-boom population and predicting how online retailing will affect shopping malls. This lighthearted look at shopping is highly recommended to anyone who buys or sells.
• Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal With Change in Your Work and in Your Life
  by Spencer Johnson, Kenneth H. Blanchard
  
  Change can be a blessing or a curse, depending on your perspective. The message of Who Moved My Cheese? is that all can come to see it as a blessing if they understand the nature of cheese and the role it plays in their lives. Who Moved My Cheese? is a parable that takes place in a maze. Four beings live in that maze: Sniff and Scurry are mice--nonanalytical and nonjudgmental, they want cheese and are willing to do whatever it takes to get it. Hem and Haw are "little people," mouse-sized humans who have an entirely different relationship with cheese. It's not just sustenance to them; it's their self-image.
  
  Their lives and belief systems are built around the cheese they've found. Most of us reading the story will see the cheese as something related to our livelihoods--our jobs, our career paths, the industries we work in--although it can stand for anything, from health to relationships. The point of the story is that we have to be alert to changes in the cheese, and be prepared to go running off in search of new sources of cheese when the cheese we have runs out.
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
  by Stephen R. Covey
  
  The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change was a groundbreaker when it was first published in 1990, and it continues to be a business bestseller with more than 10 million copies sold. Stephen Covey, an internationally respected leadership authority, realizes that true success encompasses a balance of personal and professional effectiveness, so this book is a manual for performing better in both arenas.

 

 

 

 

• Principled-Centered Leadership
  by Stephen R. Covey
  
  Covey, the author of the New York Times number 1 bestseller The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, has struck a chord with millions of readers with his insights into human nature and values. Now he tells them how to apply his theories to everyday life, focusing primarily on the world of business.

 

 

 

 

 

 

• The Power Principle - Influence With Honor
  by Blaine Lee, Stephen R. Covey
  
  This self-help book reflects Lee's views on various types of power and how to develop principle-centered power in your life, which he defines as power that inspires loyalty and devotion, transcending time, and place. Such power is based on trust and respect and survives even after one dies. Lee describes three types of power: coercive, which relies on the premise of control and uses fear as its instrument; utility, which is based on fairness, the exchange of what you can do for me with what I can do for you; and principle-centered, which is based on what you can do with others. The author tells us that his purpose in writing this book is to encourage us in our work with people, and he recommends that we choose principle-centered power as the primary way to influence others in our key relationships. Such power requires us to grow, to challenge our assumptions, and often to change our whole orientation in life.
• The Richest Man in Babylon
  by George S. Clason
  
  I often give this book out as a gift whenever a person younger than me asks for my advice on money. I always present this book to them saying, "if you read it and do as it says, it will work magic." It contains excellent, time tested advice, and would make a good gift for someone in their early 20s who is on their own for the first time, and struggling.
  
  The book is a series of parables about money written in the 1920s by George Clason. They were written as individual essays of a few thousand words, but the theme throughout them is consistent -- save 10% of your money, give 10% away, use 10% to reduce your debt load, and live on the remaining 70%.
  
  The stories in the book are entertaining; they are reminiscent of some of the parables in the Bible, such as the Prodigal Son or the story of the Workers in the Vineyard. I think this is intentional on the part of the author; certainly, readers in the 1920s had an appreciation for "old fashioned stories with a moral" that people today seem to have lost. I enjoy the book greatly, though, and any thoughtful person who reads the book should find it interesting, especially if they are trying to get their finances in order.
• The Wealthy Barber
  by David Chilton
  
  In this revised and expanded edition of one of the biggest-selling financial-planning books ever, David Chilton, president of Financial Awareness Corporation, shows readers how to achieve the financial independence they've always dreamed of. With the help of his fictional barber, Roy, and a hefty dose of humor, Chilton encourages readers to take control of their financial future and build wealth slowly, steadily, and with sure success.

 

 

 

 

• The E-Myth Manager - Why Management Doesn't Work and What to Do About It
  by Michael E. Gerber
  
  More than ten years after his first bestselling book, The E-Myth changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of small business owners, Michael Gerber - Entrepreneur, author, and speaker extraordinaire fires the next salvo in his highly successful E-Myth Revolution. Drawing on lessons learned from working with more than 15,000 small, medium-sized, and huge organizations, Gerber has discovered the truth behind why management doesn't work and what to do about it.
  
  Unearthing the arbitrary origins of commonly held doctrines such as the omniscience of leader (Emperor) and the most widely embraced myth of all. The E-Myth Manager offers a fresh, provocative alternative to management as we know it. It explores why every manager must take charge of his own life, reconcile his vision with that of the organization, and develop an entrepreneurial mindset to achieve real success.
• Think and Grow Rich
  by Napoleon Hill
  
  Is it true that by simply changing your thoughts, you can completely change what you have in life? How could it be that simple? It is, but first, you have to believe.
  
  Most people want to see something happen, then believe in it. To be successful, you have to do the opposite. Believe in it first, then you will see it. That's is one of the key messages in this book written almost 70 years ago. It reads like it was written yesterday.
  
  The title says it all. "Think and Grow Rich," but it is NOT just a book about making money. I am sure many people from all walks of life could benefit from this work, regardless of their opinion of wealth and riches. The message is clear: You may have whatever you want in life if you can discover the secret within its pages.
  
  I first read this book when I was a teenager. I am not sure it made much of an impression on me. I picked it up recently, and I can't believe how much it has changed. Of course, that's nonsense. The book is the same; only my mind is now ready to see what the secret is.
  
  Get this book and see if you can unlock the secret to finding 'riches' for yourself.

This Is Only The Tip - Of the Iceberg. Everything we publish in our blog posts, articles in other websites, and anything you can find on the web is nothing compared to what is available to you as our client. We show only the basic tools to open your mind to the possibilities that are available to you. The best finish carpentry tools in the hands of a golf professional without proper carpentry training will not produce anything near to what a skilled finish carpenter can. The same can be said about the best construction business consulting and accounting tools in the hands of a skilled finish carpenter. And I say that with respect and admiration for everyone in construction.

When You Become A Client - Then we can tap into our resources of knowledge and strategy banks. We use the reports hidden in your QuickBooks in order to diagnose and understand your construction business and develop plans and help you implement a path to success for you and you alone because every contractor has unique Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (S.W.O.T. Analysis) that when understood can lead to a Strategic Roadmap which cannot help but make a lot of money.

 

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Randal DeHart, PMP, QPA is the co-founder of Business Consulting And Accounting in Lynnwood Washington. He is the leading expert in outsourced construction bookkeeping and accounting services for small construction companies across the USA. He is experienced as a Contractor, Project Management Professional, Construction Accountant, Intuit ProAdvisor, QuickBooks For Contractors Expert and Xero Accounting Specialist and Bill.Com Certified Guru. This combination of experience and skill sets provides a unique perspective which allows him to see the world through the eyes of a contractor, Project Manager, Accountant and construction accountant. This quadruple understanding is what sets him apart from other Intuit ProAdvisors and Xero accountants to the benefit of all of the construction contractors he serves across the USA. Visit http://www.fasteasyaccounting.com/randal-dehart/ to learn more.

Our Co-Founder Randal DeHart - Is a Certified PMP (Project Management Professional) with several years of construction project management experience. His expertise is construction accounting systems engineering and process development. His exhaustive study of several leading experts including the work of Dr. W. Edward Deming, Michael Gerber, Walter A. Shewhart, James Lewis and dozens of others was the foundation upon which our Construction Bookkeeping System is based and continues to evolve and improve. 

 

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