Audiobooks May Just Be an Entrepreneur’s Best Friend

Posted on 16. Sep, 2009 by Natalie in Business Resources, Entrepreneurs

I have a reading list a mile long of business books that I’ve heard are good that I’ve been meaning to get to.

I also have quite a large pile of half-read books strewn around my apartment that I’ve also been meaning to polish off.

I’m positive that there are a ton of useful tidbits of information waiting for me inside these books that I could use to grow WomanzWorld and my other online businesses – but there never seems to be enough time to get to them all. And my list of books I’m planning to read keeps on growing.

I’ve recently become convinced that the answer to my problem is audiobooks.

In the last few months more and more of my friends and colleagues have jumped on the audiobooks bandwagon.

One friend recently told me that spending hours and hours reading through business books is now considered “old school.” She said she loves to listen to audiobooks of the latest Seth Godin or Guy Kawasaki book in her car.

Another friend told me that listening to audiobooks reminded her of being read to as a child.

Whatever the reason, it seems that information in audiobook format seems to be “sticky” enough that readers both enjoy the process of listening to the content while actually retaining a good memory of what they’ve heard.

And it seems that audiobooks are gaining in popularity.

A recent study sponsored by the Audio Publishers Association revealed that about 21% of all American households had at least one family member who listens to audio books, and the percentage keeps rising.

Sales of audio books are forecasted to be about $2 billion per year – and as a result, most major publishers are starting to routinely promote their best-sellers in audio book format.

The new iPods even come with an “Audiobooks” setting that allows you to play them at a slower, normal, or faster speed. Some studies suggest that if you play the content at twice the normal speed, you’ll actually retain the information even easier. I have another friend who swears by this.

This week, I’m making my first foray into audiobook territory with Michael E. Gerber’s “Awakening the Entrepreneur Within.” This audiobook (based on the best-selling printed book written by the same author who wrote “The E-Myth”) promises to reveal how to shape your entrepreneurial dreams into a viable, economically successful company.

Check back for my Coles Notes on this 7-part audiobook series on how ordinary people can create extraordinary companies, and also whether the audiobook format made it easier to take in the information.

I may even try listening to it twice as fast just for the heck of it!

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