Business & Personal Finance

Donovan Dill, 2017 Entrepreneur in Residence, has successfully completed his residency at the Toronto Public Library.

Donovan ran six, productive workshops across the Greater Toronto Area on topics covering the reality of small business startups and growth; small business financing; services offered by local business incubators to entrepreneurs in their communities; and various elements of the Business Model Canvas. 

At each session, Donovan and his guest speakers interacted with many  entrepreneurs and seasoned business owners. They enjoyed providing the audience with best practices and guidance in relation to starting up and growing a small-to-medium-sized enterprise.  

Donovan's special guests were: David Cowdery (ACCEL, Centennial College); Angelo Del Duca (York Angel Investors); Chris Dudley (Seneca HELIX); Sonya Gill (Take My Sari); Nilay Goyal (LaunchYU, York University); Gray Graffam (TheHub, University of Toronto, Scarborough); Saud Juman (PolicyMedical); Alon Ozery (Ozery Bakery); and Vim Thasan (DynamicFunds).

Thirty-seven aspiring entrepreneurs met with Donovan through the free one-on-one consultations in order to discuss their specific business plans or ideas.

Before leaving, Donovan has provided a list of his favourite business books related to small business start-ups. Check them out!

Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers
Alexander Osterwalder

A handbook for visionaries, game changers, and challengers striving to defy outmoded business models and design tomorrow's enterprises.

Business Model You: A One-Page Method for Reinventing Your Career
Tim Clark

Business Model You uses a powerful one-page tool to teach readers how to draw "personal business models," which reveal new ways their skills can be adapted to the changing needs of the marketplace to reveal new, more satisfying, career and life possibilities.

Design a Better Business: New Tools, Skills and Mindset for Strategy and Innovation
Patrick van der Pijl

This book stitches together a complete design journey from beginning to end in a practical way from the initial spark of an idea all the way to scaling it into a better business.

Designing for Growth: A Design Thinking Tool Kit for Managers
Jeanne and Tim Ogilvie Liedtka

The authors educate readers in one of the hottest trends in business: "design thinking," or the ability to turn abstract ideas into practical applications for maximal business growth.
 

The Lean Startup
Eric Ries

Rather than creating an elaborate business plan and a product-centric approach, Lean Startup prizes testing your vision continuously with your customers and making constant adjustments.
 

The Startup Owner's Manual: The Step-By-Step Guide for Building a Great Company
Steven G. Blank

The Startup Owner's Manual lays out the best practices, lessons and tips that have swept the startup world, offering a wealth of proven advice and information for entrepreneurs of all stripes.

Ten Types of Innovation: The Discipline of Building Breakthroughs
Larry Keeley

Using a list of more than 2,000 successful innovations, including Cirque du Soleil, early IBM mainframes and many more, the authors applied a proprietary algorithm and determined ten meaningful groupings 'the Ten Types of Innovation' that provided insight into innovation.

Value Proposition Design: How to Create Products and Services Customers Want
Alexander Osterwalder

You'll learn the simple but comprehensive process of designing and testing value propositions, taking the guesswork out of creating products and services that perfectly match customers' needs and desires.

Many thanks to all who came and participated in the Toronto Public Library's Entrepreneur in Residence program this year. Be sure to check out the titles recommended by Donovan to help you move forward with your business idea or plan. 

Remember to visit the Toronto Public Library's Small Business web page. It has links to: