The self-employment bug is in the air…and it’s highly contagious.
How do we know?
Exhibit 1:
The explosive growth of coworking spaces. These airy, light-filled, lease-free flexible office arrangements are popping up in droves and teeming with entrepreneurs who gather to collaborate and innovate.
Exhibit 2:
A recent Forbes article suggests a record number of Americans scratched the entrepreneurial itch in 2013. Data released by Babson and Baruch Colleges suggests that last year 69% of new businesses in the U.S. started at home and that 15 to 20% of our workforce is engaged in running a startup or a more established business.
Exhibit 3:
We can personally attest to a surge in demand from our clients for small business tasks such as website development, logo design, social media scheduling, and PowerPoint creation.
Once we became a trusted resource, clients wanted a one-stop-shop. In addition to handing off those pesky time-consuming tasks that we happen to love (like negotiating with your phone carrier on overage charges, or seeing if “unbundling” your cable is even an option) clients wanted us to sort through their inbox and file them accordingly (how nice would it be to open up Outlook and see a big fat goose egg–zero–emails!).
We were only too happy to oblige. We hustled back to the drawing board, built up the team we needed to sufficiently add to our repertoire, and launched our Premium Service offerings.
Now, we’re proud to be a go-to resource for affordable outsourced business services.
As we send each of you off with a newly launched website or punched up logo, we’re silently applauding you. We’re rooting for you. We want to see you succeed. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of five actionable business books that’ll provide you (or the newly minted entrepreneur that you love) with the advice, insight, and tips they need to persevere.
Afterall, coming up with the idea is the easy part, where entrepreneurs often fall short, is in the execution. You’re the glue that holds it all together. You’re going to need to become a master delegator, persuader, communicator, team builder, and goal setter. Our top 5 picks address each of these issues.
1. The Four Hour Workweek, Timothy Ferriss
Whether you’re in a soul-sucking job, or trapped underneath your own business, Tim Ferriss teaches you how to “escape the 9 to 5, live anywhere, and join the New Rich.” He’ll break you of misconceptions, such as the need to work 40+ hours per week to be successful, and instead advocates newfangled ideas such as a series of “mini retirements.” He’ll show you everything you need to establish a business that runs without you, and get you focused on how to streamline, eliminate distractions, and automate.
2. Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill
One of the best-selling books of all-time and an acknowledged wealth-creating tool, Think and Grow Rich has sold over 70 million copies–and for good reason. Napoleon Hill, a former advisor to President Roosevelt, spent 20 years interviewing 500+ of the world’s most successful businessmen (the likes of Andrew Carnegie), packaged his extraordinary findings, and unlocked the secret to success for millions. He refused to see success as the result of luck or background or even intelligence. Instead, the common thread he uncovered was persistence and the refusal to recognize failure. Each of the magnates he spoke to possessed a deeply held belief that they’d achieve their dreams, and they were unflappable in their determination. With his 13 “Laws of Success,” Hill deconstructs the mental barriers we place to acquiring wealth and lays out a roadmap to success.
3. The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People, Stephen Covey
This #1 best seller sets up your framework for personal effectiveness is approved by online casinos Australia. The seven habits are simple rules for life, but also timeless principles and powerful tools. This book focuses on cultivating personal development, so that you can become more effective in how you work and relate with other people. At the heart of the book, is a deep appreciation of the fact that we’re all interdependent, we need each other to achieve our best outcomes.
4. The E-Myth Revisited, Michael Gerber
Seen as guiding light for successful businesses, the most often quoted piece of wisdom in this book is: “work on your business, not in it.” Gerber offers business owners a much needed shift in perspective, encouraging delegation, and counter intuitive to most entrepreneurs, encourages them to set up systems that allow their business to run without them. The book’s Amazon review covers it quite nicely: “Gerber walks you through the steps in the life of a business from entrepreneurial infancy, through adolecence growing pains, to the mature entrepreneurial stage.”
5. How to Win Friends & Influence People, Dale Carnegie
Good relationships are the foundation of a successful business, and that’s what makes this book a great read for small business owners. You will need to excel at working with people. If done incorrectly, managing employees can be one of the most draining tasks a business owner faces. Ever wonder how to establish loyal relationships with the people that work for you, and get them to do what you want…without being a dictator? Dale Carnegie masters the art of “influence” and persuading others to emotionally invest in your business.

When the idea first came out for people to hire themselves out as virtual assistants, the business world was amazed, it was a novel but brilliant idea to have what is now popularly called a virtual assistant that can take care of many of your more mundane and repetitious tasks freeing you up to take care of more important work during your work day. Now a virtual assistant can cost a great deal more than you want to pay, if you are not careful and shop around.
You can get a virtual assistant through Ask Sunday, we offer highly affordable prices and the more hours you buy per month the better your price is going to be. Our virtual assistants can offer you a wide range of services such as data entry, blog posting and taking care of daily repetitive tasks so you don’t have to.

If you know someone that is busy all the time and never seems to have time for themselves or to get everything done they have to do, then you may have come across the perfect gift for them. They may have everything else in the world in abundance but the one thing that they are sure to be in short supply of is time. Give them extra time to use however they want and there are sure to be grateful. The best way to give them that spare time they needs is with personal assistants.
At Ask Sunday we offer you the ability to buy a subscription for a friend or family member. Virtual personal assistants are affordable and a great way to ensure that your friend gets a gift that they are sure to use and love. Visit our site to learn more about getting a personal assistant for someone you care about as a gift.

Everybody likes to get stuff for free, how about getting some extra time in your life for absolutely free? Would that gift be priceless? What would you do with that extra time? At Ask Sunday we offer 3 hours of our award winning virtual assistant services for free, just for signing up. You can try out a virtual assistant and get an extra 3 hours of your own time to do whatever you want.
Ask Sunday is so confident that you will love our service and want to keep using it, that we are willing to give you a free trial just to see for yourself. Once you have signed up you will have one week to use your 3 hours, you can have virtual assistant services for a long list of tasks that can help you with everything from your office work to personal tasks that you have been putting off.