8 Essential Books for Building Business Systems

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:

#1 – What is each book about? (I’ll give you the “long story short” version.)

#2 – 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.)

#3 – 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.

• Best real-world example of system-building in practice.

➡ How to Be a Millionaire Real Estate Investor by Gary Keller here.

• 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.

• 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.

• Best for an introduction to the framework.

➡ The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt here.

• Best for the terms and reasons for measuring efficiency.

➡ Systemology by David Jenyns here.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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)