NOTE: This post contains affiliate links for the books mentioned. This helps to support our work, at no additional cost to you!
There are 8 essential books for building business systems that I find myself recommending again and again to business owners, ops managers, and systems service providers who are looking to build business systems.
Rather than just reading you what could be a blog post, I’ll also give you my “two cents” on why the best business books in this category are still not perfect.
I’ll share:
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- What is each book about? (I’ll give you the “long story short” version.)
- What is imperfect about each book? (We’ve all read “those” business books. I’ll try to warn you about the less-than-perfect aspects of each of my favorite books to help you decide before you buy.)
- Which should you read next? (I’ll share when in your journey should you read this book. There’s an easier order of operations than what I originally did!)
In this video, I’ll walk through each one by one:
00:00 – Introduction
02:38 – What is System Building?
03:56 – This is Service Design Doing by Marc Stickdorn, Markus Edgar Hormess, Adam Lawrence, Jakob Schneider.
08:02 – Scaling Up by Verne Harnish
13:39 – Idea to Execution by Ari Meisel and Nick Sonnenberg
17:09 – Built to Sell by John Warrillow
22:39 – Boss Life by Paul Downs
24:47 – Systemology by David Jenyns
28:23 – The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt
31:51 – How to Be a Millionaire Real Estate Investor by Gary Keller
35:06 – Recommended Order of Reading
Want to read these books yourself? Use our Amazon affiliate links:
➡ Idea to Execution by Ari Meisel and Nick Sonnenberg here.
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- Best real-world example of system-building in practice.
➡ How to Be a Millionaire Real Estate Investor by Gary Keller here.
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- Best real-world example of teaching a prescriptive system.
➡ This is Service Design Doing by Marc Stickdorn, Markus Edgar Hormess, Adam Lawrence, Jakob Schneider here.
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- Great technical read about the details of service blueprinting, a detailed “zoom in” of how to refine a particular workflow.
➡ Built to Sell by John Warrillow here.
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- Best for an introduction to the framework.
➡ The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt here.
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- Best for the terms and reasons for measuring efficiency.
➡ Systemology by David Jenyns here.
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- Great overview of how to systemize a full business, but both falls into “business book tropes” which hurt its applicability.
➡ Boss Life by Paul Downs here.
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- Best wake-up call for what life is like without systemization; also great to talk you OUT of running your own business.
➡ Scaling Up by Verne Harnish here.
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- Great overview of how to scale a business and how systems fit in.
Bonus Books:
➡ Mapping Experiences by James Kalbach here.
➡ The Book on Managing Rental Properties by Brandon Turner and Heather Turner here.
➡ Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard here.
➡ Badass Your Brand by Pia Silva here.
➡ The Customer Support Handbook by Sarah Hatter here.
Related Resources
➤ The ClickUp BluePrint – FREE Workshop to Define Your Process (and ClickUp)
ProcessDriven helps small teams turn chaos into process. The ProcessDriven Approach™️ combines software expertise with practical process-first strategies that have helped 1,800+ teams build a scalable foundation of business systems.
