If you own or manage a car audio retail or mobile electronics store, you need to learn how to run your business — not just work in it. These are the top books 12v.Biz recommends to get your business and your mindset on the right track for success.

Making the change from employee to business owner

We all get bitten by the car audio bug long before we decide to open a store, so most of us don’t start out as business owners with formal training. We don’t automatically know how to build and run a successful mobile electronics retail business.

It doesn’t matter whether your background is as an installation tech or a salesperson — once you decide to open your own car stereo store or vehicle customization shop, you have to wear a lot more hats and start systemizing your business.

Top books for car audio & vehicle customization owners

Operations & Finance:

Built to Sell — Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You, by John Warrillow
Profit First — Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine
Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits — 4 Keys to Unlock Your Business Potential
Unf*ck Your Business — Stop Business Self-Sabotage by Getting Clear on Your Core Values
The ONE Thing — The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results
The E-Myth Revisited — Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It
How to Grow Your Small Business — A 6-Step Plan to Help Your Business Take Off
Growing a Business — recommended by Ken Ward, Educar

Sales:

Eddy Kay Sales Training — out of print, but ask around the 12-volt industry; people may have a copy to lend. There were also CDs and a video produced by Eddy.
Let’s Get Real or Let’s Not Play — The Demise of Dysfunctional Selling and the Advent of Helping Clients Succeed (recommended by Ken Ward, Educar)

More roles and responsibilities require more expertise

Once you open your own shop, you become responsible for HR, accounting, scheduling, legal, marketing, buying, negotiating, leadership, advertising, branding, tax compliance, IT, cleaning the bathroom — and a whole lot more.

Before starting a business (or even if you’ve been in business for years), these books will help make sure you end up with not just a job, but a successful business that builds wealth for you and your staff — and a sellable business when it’s time to retire your wire strippers.

Working ON your business

Notice anything about the list? Not much about router techniques, the best CNC to buy, or how to tune a DSP. If you’ve been spending more time on topics like that than on learning how to work ON your business, it’s time to start reading.

One thing you’ll see again and again is how often these books talk about building processes, recording data, reviewing the results, and improving the system based on what the data tells you.

Having a proper scheduling system that tracks your installations, automates client reminders, digitizes your check-in process, and records the parts and time used on each work order is a key part of that.

We built the 12v.Biz Toolbox to do exactly that for mobile electronics retailers and vehicle customization shops. Check it out and start your free trial today.

Have a book you think belongs on the list? I’d love to hear about it — email me at tony@12v.biz with your suggestion.

Photo by Elijah Hail on Unsplash.