As an entrepreneur, having an active reading list that includes the best business books can help you build a successful company.
Entrepreneurship requires commitment. Aside from being committed to your goals, ventures, and to your team, you also have to dedicate yourself to continuous learning.
Apart from podcasts and workshops, success books are one of the most valuable knowledge resources. So for today’s post, we’ve compiled the best business books that entrepreneurs should crack open. Sit back, relax, and get ready to dive into these brilliant titles.
Management
The Restaurant Manager’s Handbook
If you own a restaurant, you don’t want to miss this multiple award-winning book. This covers vital topics such as restaurant layout, techniques for managing your staff, IRS regulations, and employee training.
There’s an old saying that if the first thing you do in the morning is to eat the live frog, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that it’s the worst thing you’ll do all day. Using this “eat that frog” metaphor, bestselling author Brian Tracy will show you how to do more tasks faster.
The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things
Be a more effective manager with the help of this book by Peter Drucker. Here he identifies the five practices that are essential to the business effectiveness and offers fresh insights into old yet usual business situations.
Recognizing and Rewarding Employees
Positive feedback and recognition can empower your team. Let this title teach you how to motivate them more through practical tips and ways for showing appreciation.
Looking for ways to improve your focus and problem-solving skills? Ivan Harmon got your back. In this book, he’ll take you on a journey through the mind, helping you understand how the brain and memory work.
Get More Done in Less Time: How to be More Productive and Stop Procrastinating
Want to be more productive next year? Then you might not want to miss this one. Combining the scientific and mysterious aspects of reaching goals, this will give you actionable methods to help you beat procrastination.
My Way or The Highway: The Micromanagement Survival Guide
Micromanagement can interfere with performance and productivity. In highly practical terms, management expert Harry Chambers explains how to deal with micromanagers, and how to correct your own managerial behaviors.
Entrepreneurship
The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future
In this awesome guide, Chris Guillebeau shows that turning an idea into a successful business can be easier than you think. If you’re ready to go for your dreams, this book will show you how you actually do it.
From the bestselling author of “The 4-Hour Workweek”, this book is the product of Tim’s podcast – The Tim Ferriss Show. Here he compiled the tools, tactics, and lessons that changed his life.
Do Over: Rescue Monday, Reinvent Your Work, and Never Get Stuck
Let Jon Acuff help you navigate the jumps, bumps, and ceilings that you face in your career. Funny and easy to read, this book shows you how to give yourself a fresh start.
Think Wrong: How to Conquer the Status Quo and Do Work that Matters
Written by innovators John Bielenberg, Mike Burn, and Greg Galle, “Think Wrong” provides new language, tools, and frameworks that drive change. This book will also give you access to free online resources.
In this hilarious memoir, Tina Fey shares the professional lessons she learned to become one of America’s most influential women. Packed with entertaining and funny stories, this book proves that you’re no one until someone calls you bossy.
Eat Move Sleep: How Small Choices Lead to Big Changes
Let Tom Rath help you achieve a healthier lifestyle. Get a wide range of information on the impact of eating, moving, and sleeping. Keeping a healthier lifestyle is easier with this book.
Contagious Culture: Show Up, Set the tone, and Intentionally Create an Organization that Thrives
Looking for ways to enhance your leadership presence and your impact? Then this title is for you. Developed by the award-winning creator of the IEP Method, this guide will help you transform the corporate culture from within.
The Revenue Growth Habit: The Simple Art of Growing Your Business by 15% in 15 Minutes per day
Grow your organization by 15% or more in 15 minutes with the help of Alex Goldafyn, CEO of the Evangelist Marketing Institute. Quick and concise, this shows how collecting testimonials can boost your business.
Fearless Leadership: High-Performance Lessons From the Flight Deck
Author Carey Lohrenz learned what fearless leadership is in a demanding environment- the cockpit of an F-14 and the flight deck of the aircraft carrier. In this book, she’ll walk you through the three fundamentals of real fearlessness and offers advice on how to set a bold vision and bring the team together.
Control Your ERP Destiny: Reduce Project Costs, Mitigate Risks, and Design Better Business Solutions
This is the first title to give comprehensive strategies and techniques that enable companies to take charge of their ERP projects. Here, Steven Scott Phillips describes how to be less dependent on outside consultants, reduce implementation and support costs, and design solutions that fit your company.
If you want to know more about growth hacking, this is for you. By looking at detailed case studies, discover how Uber, Snapchat, Upworthy, and other successful startups managed to unlock massive growth.
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
A classic book on persuasion, “Influence” explains the psychology of how people say yes. Learn about the six universal principles, how to use them to be a skilled persuader, and how to defend yourself from them.
Contracts: The Essential Business Desk Reference
Do you find it hard to understand contracts? Then include this on your reading list. This is more than an A-Z explanation of over 300 terms. It will also teach you negotiation strategies and give you tips on amending and modifying agreements.
Digital Marketing
The 1-Page Marketing Plan: Get New Customers, Make More Money, And Stand out From The Crowd
Marketing is now as easy as 1,2,3 in Allan Dib’s “The 1-Page Marketing Plan”. Get a simple and straightforward approach to how you can create your personalized marketing plan.
Top of Mind: Use Content to Unleash Your Influence and Engage Those Who Matter To You
What does it take to be the leading name in a particular niche? In this book, John Hall will show you how to create a lasting impression on your customers, and give them not just a product but an experience.
Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers into Fanatics
Jackie Huba invites you to see life through the eyes of one of the most successful musicians today. Like Lady Gaga, learn how to turn your product into a phenomenon, and turn your customers into a loyal thriving community.
Messy: How to Be Creative and Resilient in a Tidy-Minded World
There is always a method behind the madness, and Tim Harford shows you how you can make disorder work for you and your startup. Discover how to harness your creativity and resilience in the midst of disarray.
How to Use Facebook for Business – Your Quickstart Guide for Getting Customers Fast
Find out how you can utilize the most influential social media tool today for your business with Wynne Pirini’s help. Tap into one of the largest marketplaces for your venture with simple steps that you can apply immediately.
Take advantage of the cutting edge marketing technology – the webinar. Let Sherrie Rose give you a crash course on how you can use webinars to take your marketing campaign to the next level.
Growth Hacking: Silicon Valley’s Best Kept Secret
Let Raymond Fong guide you through the world of Growth Hacking. Learn state of the art tactics that can help you succeed in entrepreneurship and grow your business from scratch.
Cement your online presence by building your own WordPress website with Sarah McHarry. From picking your website name to applying plugins, this is surely a worthwhile read no matter what your skill level in website building is.
20 Books Every Marketer Should Read in 2017
With a multitude of resources online` and the ever-changing world of marketing, it’s hard to put your finger on which information is valuable for your business. Lucky for you, Linkedin has got you covered. Choose from a wide variety of reliable and updated resources that you can use for your marketing campaign.
Let your business be at the forefront of every inquiry in the digital community with Marcus Sheridan’s help. Find out how one of the most underutilized outlets of marketing, the internet, can do more good for your venture.
Freelancing
The Freelancer’s Bible: Everything You Need to Know to Have the Career of Your Dreams―On Your Terms
This is the best go-to guide for new and seasoned freelancers in the gig community. Learn how to keep your clients happy, grow in your freelancing career and secure your future while working at home.
Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion
The Chairman and CEO of VaynerX, Gary Vaynerchuk, shares his secrets on how to use the internet to turn your passion into a real business. Plus, find out how his earnings grew exponentially by building his personal brand.
How to Win Friends & Influence People
In this book, Dale Carnegie will teach you how to be skillful in nurturing your relationship with others. It covers how to change them without manipulating, make them think the way you do, ways on how to deal with people and how will you make others like you.
This reference gives hacks on how to bring out the friendly attitude in you. It contains practical tips like storytelling exercises that will help build a personal connection with others. Also, it will make you realize that the time and energy you spend with people are worth it.
The Productive Artist’s Business Plan: 7 Steps To Build Your Freelance Creative Life
Instead of a business template, it’s a step-by-step plan on how will freelancers make businesses out of their creative juices. It consists of quests that will make you outline your offers, draft your financial and operational plans, marketing strategies and business action plans.
Devora Zack combined practical suggestions, examples, and humor to prove that networking is achievable. Her book will tell you how understanding different personalities can be used as a powerful tool in networking.
This is a good read to know the gains and pitfalls of working remotely. It also explains how productivity and collaboration are possible without being physically working together.
10 Must Read Fiction Books For The Self Employed
From this blog, you’ll get a list of the recommended fictional novels for freelancers that can be a good source of inspiration. The messages behind these works will transform or challenge your perspectives.
Top 10 Books Writers Should Read
This article is focused on must-reads that will teach you how to polish your writing style, word choice, and understanding of human behavior.
Inspirational
The Promise of a Pencil: How an Ordinary Person Can Create Extraordinary Change
Let this remarkably inspiring story of Braun show you that it’s possible to transform the world. Packed with memorable and powerful lessons, this will help you build the life you’ve always wanted on your own terms.
Positivity will take you a long way, and this book will help you master the art of it. Learn to develop the vital knowledge of inner power to carry you over every obstacle.
Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World
Using surprising studies and stories about politics, business, sports, and entertainment, this book explores how to recognize a good and original idea. Adam Grant will also inspire you to champion novel ideas, buck outdated traditions, and battle conformity.
Written by one of the most influential authors – Paulo Coelho, this inspirational fable will remind you to follow your dreams.
The Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition
Discover the power of persistence in “The Endurance”. Based on the real-life Antarctic expedition led by Ernest Shackleton in the early 1900s, this book is inspiring and thrilling.
We love hearing from you! What are the best business books that changed your entrepreneurial journey? Share it with us below.
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