I was hoping to speed-read Beyond Booked Solid, but found it difficult. Michael Port has a holistic approach towards business, and so many factors figure in. If you speed-read this one, you may find yourself confused. Port is not about money. He’s about finding satisfaction in life, making money from what you love to do, and leveraging what you got, to give you time to do more of what you love.

That said, it doesn't mean that Port writes a lot of spiritual hewey. If we were to best categorize Beyond Booked Solid, we’d find it in the Business-Person-Self-Help section with the likes of Timothy Ferriss and Seth Godin, from whom he derives much inspiration.

Besides key ideas of great impact, such as:

Building a bigger, better business is a matter of mastery… Dabbling is for amateurs.

Port also dishes out exercises, action templates and actual business building blocks, to further allow you to understand your own business.

Systems Vs. People and Collaborating Vs. Delegating

Michael Port is a people person. He advocates systems every step of Beyond Booked Solid, but stresses the impossibility of working systems without people. That may sound like an obvious fact, but what port is really talking about is systems that make your team’s and your own lives easy. The systems you create must serve you, not the other way around. They aren’t put in place to control your team, but for your team to have complete control over heir work.

The same idea is apparent when Port pits delegation against collaboration. To Port, delegation means dropping your responsibilities on someone else, and forgetting about them. This means, you have no clue what goes on, in that department of your business, and as a result, you can’t refine it’s system. Of course, this depends on the size of your business and your desired level of involvement, but Beyond Booked Solid is aimed at the small business owner.

Collaboration, in Port’s view, is all about iner-company communications. Quite similarly to The Cluetrain Manifesto, the word “conversation” comes up many times, and so do its principles, of concentrating on human interaction, in order to achieve success. Port goes so far as to demonstrate systems of communication, encouraging the asking of questions and creating a dialogue between you and your team, and your team with each other, in order to get the maximum from everybody’s talents, without sucking them dry.

But I Don’t Have a Team!

Yet!
I don’t have a team, yet, either, but there are preparations to be made, for that point when I’m booked solid and want to go beyond. Until then, Beyond Booked Solid has a few nifty exercises to get you in check.

For those of you who are on the threshold of hiring- You need this book! Not only does Beyond Booked Solid have a chapter dedicated to hiring, but it outlines a general approach and philosophy, if you will, of leadership. You may find this idea a little dramatic, when hiring a coder, or a secretary, but I could tell you horror stories that were a direct result of poor leadership. The animation team that never met, even though they were siting in the same room! The insurance phone-sales team that had to beg for bathroom breaks! The idiot project director who said “Don’t ask each other questions- you’re disturbing each other’s work. From now on, all questions will be directed to me.”

You can not afford to make these mistakes in any size business, let alone a small one.

Do I need to read Book Yourself Solid, in order to read Beyond Booked Solid?

It’s true that Beyond Booked Solid is a direct continuation of Book Yourself Solid (Port's first book), but you don’t have to read one to understand the other. You don’t even have to actually be booked solid! I do, however, strongly advise on already having a business for at least half a year. Having that bit of experience, even if it has yet to be fruitful, will give you a deeper understanding of what Port is talking about. To someone who has yet to start a business, Port’s pro-speak (even though meticulously simplified) may be intimidating and thus daunting.

Michael Port lays out a profound and human-oriented business plan. If you want to create a business that you’ll love working in, Beyond Booked Solid is a solid start. (couldn’t resist a cheesy pun )

Tags: Michael Port, Beyond Booked Solid, Book Yourself Solid, book Review, leadership, Working with people, Hiring, Business-Person-Self-Help, Business systemizing, Collaborating Vs. Delegating