Summer (Business) Reading Recommendations

Summertime is here! And that means choosing a few great books (or magazines) to take along on vacations…to help your business.

Here are a few recommendations:

• Marketing to Women: How to Understand, Reach and Increase Your Share of the World’s Largest Market Segment by Marti Barletta

• How to Run Your Business Like a Girl: Successful Strategies from Entrepreneurial Women Who Made it Happen by Cogswell Baskin

• Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan and Al Switzler. One woman entrepreneur swears the book saved her partnership.

• The Naked Truth: A Working Women’s Manifesto on Business and What Really Matters by Margaret A. Hefernan

If reading magazines is more your style, try:

• PINK Magazine
• Inc.
• Ad Age
• Fast Company
• Enterprising Women

And of course my summer favorite, Gift from the Sea, by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. It always gives me inspiration.

What are some of your favorite summer biz reads?

Subscribe to great magazines that energize you with new ideas.

Begin by visiting your local newsstand or bookstore and browsing through the periodicals. Make some choices about the magazines that relate most closely to you and the life you are living. Then, jot down the titles and subscribe to the ones that speak to you most. But don’t stop there. Get online and find out what’s happening in business, fashion, home living, parenting and more. Try sites like Glam.com and iVillage.com. With a computer at your fingertips, nothing can stop you from accessing great articles and features that will inspire you and help you grow.

There are several magazines—both print and online—that appeal to me. That’s why I make every effort to subscribe to those publications that speak to my heart. Some are business related, while others address family and the personal side of my life. Often, a good read is all I need to get inspired. Pink magazine is a personal favorite of mine, with its tagline--a beautiful career; a beautiful life. It emphasizes the fact that my personal life and my business life are not separate; in fact, they are intertwined. And that’s how I keep it real—by refusing to differentiate the two. Instead, I focus on my passions and my goals, putting first the things that matter most.

There’s no shortage of inspiration at the Real You Web site. In addition to the many great magazines and Web sites you’ll find online and at the newsstand, you’ll be inspired by our stories of women entrepreneurs who are putting the real you in their lives!