Rework by 37signals is a book telling you how to run your business. More specifically, it’s a book about how they got started in business and the choices they made that resulted in them becoming extremely successful. It’s around fours years old now, so I’m a little late to the party, but I’ve been wanting to read it for a while now and have only just had the opportunity.

37signals make online products, the most famous of which is Basecamp. Most people in the design industry will have heard of Basecamp, but if you haven’t it’s one of the best project management tools out there, used by hundreds of thousands of people all over the world.

Now, I started off by saying this book tells you how to run your business, and I mean exactly that. It TELLS you, rather than advising on things that might help. Don’t get me wrong, I like that it’s straight talking - I am too when it comes to things I care about - but I can imagine a lot of people being put off, especially those who’s business is mainly run offline, because it might not all seem that relevant.

I read it over two trips down to London, totalling about four hours reading time - and I’m definitely not the quickest reader in the world. So to put it nicely, it’s easy to digest. To put it not so nicely, it may sound a bit simple to an intelligent business owner looking to gain some real insight. But I enjoyed it. It’s more like reading a giant list of bullet points than a series of paragraphs and chapters, and it kept me engaged for two hours at a time, which is more than I can say for a a lot of books.

It was a bit strange reading it to be honest, because (by the sounds of it) we actually run our business very similarly to how 37signals do. Many of the points raised are ones that me and Chris completely agree with. We’re very friendly and open, we send relaxed, conversational emails and there isn’t a corporate bone in our bodies. We focus on quality not quantity, and we love to share everything we know and teach our clients along the way.

Though in my opinion a lot of it is common sense I do find comfort in the fact that it’s worked for them, and therefore should carry on working for us.

However, I do have a few quibbles. Much of the chapter entitled ‘Go’ should come naturally to anyone who’s actually passionate about what they do - work hard and don’t make excuses. And there does seem to be a slight contradiction between two of the chapters that confused me a little. There’s a section titled ‘Don’t confuse enthusiasm with priority’ that says you shouldn’t get carried away with new ideas right away. If you think of something new that you believe to be fantastic then sit on it a little while before doing anything about it, just to make sure it is actually a good idea. But then the very last section titled ‘Inspiration is perishable’ says the complete opposite; “If you want to do something you’ve got to do it now”. So what should I do? Act now or wait a bit? The whole thing seems a little narrow minded, too. The kind of thing that would spark serious debate in the comments if the chapters were a series of blog entries…

Overall there are many valid points made that any business in the world can take from, even if much of it seems obvious to me. It’s definitely worth a read, especially considering its so accessible and quick to get through. If you take just one thing from it that changes the way you run your business and makes you more successful as a result then it’s more than worth the minimal price tag.

You can buy it on Amazon here.

By Chris Skelton