I’ve literally just put 24 Assets by Daniel Priestley down and found the book to be really insightful.
Essentially the book, 24 Assets does what it says on the tin. (If you don’t want to read the review you can just nab it here [affiliate])
It gives you 24 different assets that your business should possess which will enable your business to ‘effortlessly hire talented people, attract loyal customers, create cool products and make lots of money’. Sounds great, right?
Whilst the book itself is quite short (under 200 pages with pictures, diagrams and blank pages), creating and generating the 24 assets will take time. But, as Daniel Priestley himself says in the book,
Great companies sell for large sums of money because it’s hard to build one. If it was easy, no one would pay to buy a successful company, they’d just create it from scratch themselves.
Daniel Priestley, 24 Assets
Divisions of the 24 Assets
Whilst I don’t want to overstep and give away too much of the book, the 24 Assets are divided into:
- Brand Assets
- Market Assets
- Product Assets
- Systems Assets
- Intellectual property assets
- Culture Assets
- Funding Assets
As a startup myself, the first 5 Assets are currently the most important to me. However, it was still good to think about the last two and to map out a quick, rough process for when I get there.
For you, the focus could be on just Brand and Product for now. However, having the others in the back of your mind is going to be useful for the future.
It’s also important to note the difference between tools and assets because the two can quite often get easily confused.
A tool is something that helps you in your business, they are available to everyone to use. This could be, for example, YouTube or WordPress.
An asset is something that is unique to your business, for example, the blogs you produce on WordPress, the videos you upload to YouTube, the valuation of your business and so on.
Whilst having the right tools to help you be more efficient and tech-forward is important, it’s easy to obsess over getting the right tools rather than obsessing over developing and creating the best assets. Obsessing over tools won’t get your business very far.
Daniel Priestley strongly believes that by methodologically developing each of the 24 Assets for your business, as long as the business was a good idea in the first place, you will end up with a highly profitable business, whether that is a lifestyle business or a performance one.
Lifestyle business as described in the book
“A small dynamic team with low overheads and high-energy culture…. the owner receives better income than they could get at a corporate job… more freedom, greater impact, less stress…often centred around a Key Person of Influence’”
Performance business, as described in the book:
“A dynamic team of [50-150] professionals working with high-quality business assets….There’s healthy profit from well-developed strategic assets….owners can either hold on and enjoy the profit or exit for a life-changing amount of money.”
There are other business types that he speaks about, but more of a you-don’t-want-to-end-up-here warning or the ultimate but potentially unattainable Unicorn business or Corporation business. Most people are and should aim for the two mentioned above.
How I am using the book, 24 Assets
When I started reading the book, I read it as I would read any book – skeptical.
However, the first few chapters quickly drew me in. Then, as soon as the book started talking about each of the 24 Assets, I immediately opened up Notion, and created a page for each Asset. I took notes on:
- what to do
- whether I’ve already started the process for that asset or not,
- and what action steps I need to take, be that now or in the future, to develop the asset.
I would recommend you doing the same. Then to do an analysis to identify any gaps or areas for improvement for your business, and slowly start to become world class in each.
If you would like to purchase the book, you can do so through this affiliate link. It is at no extra cost to you but it helps me out.
If you want to see how well your business lines up with the 24 Assets, you can take Daniel Priestley’s scorecard here. It’s free!
Hyped! Health Marketing 