Recommended Business Books


The Myth of Excellence

Fred Crawford & Ryan Mathews
More retail consolidation, an uncertain economy, and rapidly changing consumer attitudes and behaviors make retail land seem full of giants. But Ryan Mathews has discovered through years of consumer research that it’s a myth retailers have to be excellent at everything to thrive, including: price, product, service, access, and experience. He told the 2002 Future of the Industry audience that Christian retailers and suppliers are particularly well-positioned to meet consumers where they are: looking for values more than value and wanting honest, fair stores to do business with. This book reveals the compelling reasons why. A foundational book for many of the CBA retail training programs. A must-read!


Save $4 - CBA Member 75035: $11 – Click to add to shopping cart
Non-member 75035N: $14– Click to add to shopping cart

Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping

Paco Underhill
A witty, and eye-opening report on the ever-evolving consumer culture and the method underlying our madness when it comes to shopping. It's based on hard data gleaned from thousands of hours of field research in malls, department stores, and supermarkets across the USA. In Paco's quest to discover what makes the contemporary consumer tick, he explains shopping phenomena that often go unnoticed by retailers and shoppers alike.
Featured in the Prospective Retailer Seminar and PCR Module 8: Merchandising & Display.


Save $4 - CBA Member 75047: $11 – Click to add to shopping cart
Non-member 75047N: $14– Click to add to shopping cart

Citizen Marketers : When People Are the Message

Ben McConnell & Jackie Huba
McConnell & Huba popularized the term "customer evangelists" in their first book Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customers Become a Volunteer Sales Force. In this follow up work they explore the ramifications of today's burgeoning social media. As everyday people create content on behalf of companies, brands or products they are turning traditional notions of media and marketing upside down. What are they saying about you? How can you tap into this new world of information sharing? Read the book for many examples and case studies, then build a strategy for you business!


Save $4 - CBA Member 75052: $20– Click to add to shopping cart
Non-member 75052N: $24– Click to add to shopping cart

Call of the Mall
Paco Underhill
Best-selling "retail anthropologist" Paco Underhill has a genius for retail and has run hundreds of research assignments in malls across the country. He has visited them, observed his fellow mall-ers, looked for his car in mammoth parking lots, chatted up the staffers, hunted for jeans with adolescent girls, and gone anniversary shopping with guys. The result is a bright, ironic, funny, and shrewd portrait of the mall. Call of the Mall examines how we use the mall, what it means, why it works when it does, and why it sometimes doesn't. Visiting the mall with Underhill is a surprising and insightful tour through the American crossroads. Why We Buy changed the way we watch ourselves shop. Call of the Mall will deepen our understanding of how we live, work, play, and spend.


Save $5 - CBA Member 75041: $15 – Click to add to shopping cart
Non-member 75041N: $20 – Click to add to shopping cart

Guerrilla Retailing: Unconventional Ways to Make Big Profits From Your Retail Business

Jay Conrad Levinson, Elly Valas, Orvel Ray Wilson, CSP
Whether you're trying to beat back the chains, ward off Wal-Mart, or open your own hometown retail store, this book will show you how to pick the right location, hire the right people, and attract the right customers. You'll learn how to build traffic, maintain margins, increase sales and develop loyal, repeat customers.


Save $5 - CBA Member 75043: $10 (Was $20) – Click to add to shopping cart
Non-member 75043N: $15 (Was $25) – Click to add to shopping cart

The Employer's Legal Handbook, 7th Edition

Attorney Fred S. Steingold
The all-you-need guide to your legal rights & responsibilities. Everything an employer needs to know to comply with workplace laws and regulations, run a safe and fair workplace, and avoid lawsuits. The following topics are covered in plain English without the legalese: hiring & firing, smart personnel practices & policies, employee wages & benefits, taxes, workplace health & safety, discrimination, workers' compensation, independent contractors, and how to work with a lawyer.


Save $10 - CBA Member 75040: $29 – Click to add to shopping cart
Non-member 75040N: $39 – Click to add to shopping cart

The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It

Michael E. Gerber
In this new and totally revised edition of the over 2-million copy bestseller The E-Myth, Gerber dispels the myths surrounding starting your own business and shows how commonplace assumptions can get in the way of running a business. Next, he walks you through the steps in the life of a business -- from entrepreneurial infancy through adolescent growing pains to the mature entrepreneurial perspective: the guiding light of all businesses that succeed -- and shows how to apply the lessons of franchising to any business, whether it is a franchise or not. Finally, Gerber draws the vital, often overlooked distinction between working on your business and working in your business. After you have read The E-Myth Revisited, you will truly be able to grow your business in a predictable and productive way.


Save $4 - CBA Member 75042: $11– Click to add to shopping cart
Non-member 75042N: $14– Click to add to shopping cart