business books

12 Must-Read Books for Entrepreneurs in 2021

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Regardless of how far you’ve made it as an entrepreneur, you are always learning due to the unforeseen circumstances and challenges that are constantly coming your way. You have to be able to adapt and think quickly on your feet to solve anything that may appear.

A way to hone and sharpen these skills is by none other than the simple act of reading. Taking even just 5-minutes out of your day to read a page of any of the 12 recommended books below (listed in no particular order) can drastically improve your skills and make you an entrepreneur that is to be reckoned with.

1. Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore

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Moore goes on about how to go about marketing and selling any unusual, out-of-the-norm products to any mainstream customers, focusing on the new service or product that requires them to change their behaviours in uncomfortable ways.

His theory mentioned in the book is called “The Technology Adoption Lifecycle”. It breaks down people into 5 groups and how they each adjust and alter themselves to the disruptive product/service:

  • The Innovators (2.5%): 

  • Early Adopters (13.5%)

  • Early Majority (34%)

  • Late Majority (34%)

  • The Laggards (16%)

They’re all categorized due to the nature and actions they take upon themselves with the product. The innovator will typically buy the newest product to be up-to-date with the newest technology - they want the product for the sake of being the first one to own it. Early adopters look for new technology for strategic purposes. As for the early majority, when they see a product that becomes trending, they’ll start to use it as the new standard. 

Moore goes more into detail about the other categories in his book, focusing more on “crossing the chasm” between the early adopters and the early & late majority of customers as they are crucial to keeping these kinds of customers loyal to the company. 


2. How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie

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As the title suggests, Carnegie gives you multiple tips and techniques on how to not only win your friends over but also how to influence those around you. 

Carnegie starts off by telling you to give up on the idea of winning an argument. In fact, avoid any arguments in general since 90% of the time both opposing sides will still think they’re the ones in the right and even if you do win an argument? You still lose as the opposing party has felt inferior to you - which is never a great feeling.

Another lesson he gives is: never telling someone they’re wrong. Rather, discuss with them and ask them questions about why they think what they think.

These are just some examples of what Carnegie has to offer in his book in what makes a great and successful entrepreneur.


3. Start With Why by Simon Sinek

“People don’t buy what you do they buy why you do it.” - Simon Sinek

Sinek’s book takes a dive into his insights on how to attract loyal customers, a company culture and create a larger and much more positive impact on the world. He does so by mentioning the story behind the purpose of one’s business, answering the question: WHY?

His theory lies in two different ways to influence humans and their behaviour (including their buying decisions): Manipulation OR Inspiration. 

When it comes to manipulation, this will allow a person to actually take action as it can be seen as pressure from others to buy the product, however, even if this method is a way to get sales going, it isn’t very effective in the long-term. 

A better tactic is to inspire, by starting with why. He suggests that by communicating with your market audience and letting them know why it is that you do what you do is the key to capture customers and inspire them. This way, you create loyal customers who are actually interested in your business and what it is that you have to offer.

Sinek’s book helps improve on leadership skills, and the ability to inspire colleagues, peers and customers alike - everything a great entrepreneur needs.

4. The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau 

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Guillebeau brings about what it’s really like to start a business, mentioning its challenges while also laying out for the entrepreneur how to start a new and successful business with a small team of up to 5 people using real-life case studies.

He mentions 3 main lessons:

Lesson 1: Make use of any and all of  your current skills
Don’t spend the entirety of your bank account on learning new skills, rather focus on the ones you already have and see what you can do to make use of them to help further your business.

Lesson 2: Starting small, focus on good marketing
Get creative. Find marketing strategies that won’t break the bank such as blogging, collaborate with other small businesses - anything really to get your name out there.

Lesson 3: Take action over planning
Basically, do something, as “overplanning can lead to a quick death for many small businesses.” And if anything comes up along the way, then deal with it then and adjust accordingly as taking no action can put your business at a much higher risk.

5. The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss

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Tired of working a generic, boring 9 to 5 job? In this book, Ferriss gives you the nitty-gritty on how to create a  business while doing what you’re passionate about and turn the profits you make into a life of luxury to live like The New Rich.

Rather than being effective, be efficient, Ferriss says, as he mentions the 80/20 rule - 80% of the results will come from 20% of the action. In doing so, you can live like a millionaire without actually being one.

This new lifestyle he proposes allows for you to do whatever you want, whenever you want, wherever you want - if you focus on flexibility and mobility. He gives you the tools such as delegating tasks to virtual assistants and simply redefining your mindset towards work.

6. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

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Covey states 7 habits for a much more effective and successful business and personality. Though your idea may be great, if you aren’t likeable, it’s just not as easy to gain customers.

Here are the 7 habits:

  • Be proactive - take initiative. Do what you think is best.

  • Keep in mind, there’s always an end to a beginning - start by visualizing what it is that you want, what your end goal is and create a plan accordingly.

  • Priorities - what brings you closer to your goal? Do those things.

  • “Win-win” strategies - allow for opportunities where you can create a growing relationship with others where you can both benefit off of.

  • Listen, understand then learn when to speak - always listen first, understand the other, then speak when the opportunity arises.

  • Harmonize - think and find ways to match the energy levels of yourself and those around you so you can achieve more.

  • Recharge - Don’t forget to take time to rest, this way you’re able to do more and be more effective in the long-term.

The habits all help develop your interpersonal skills, as well as other skills that require interacting with others, such as teamwork and communication while maintaining a balance each and every day.


7. The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker

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Drucker shows how you can go about developing your own personal effectiveness. That, in a knowledge-driven world, people need to work on improving their effectiveness.

Here are 5 ways in how to begin doing them:

  • Manage your time

  • Build strengths

  • Set priorities, focus on what it is that will allow for you to achieve your goals

  • Focus on results and contributing yourself

  • Make decisions that get good outcomes

Drucker’s book, though written over 50 years ago is still relevant to this day as these insights still apply to become an effective executive and what one should apply throughout their daily life.


8. The Hard Things About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz

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Horowitz gives it to you down and dirty. He doesn’t sugarcoat anything on how hard it is to actually start and run a business. He wrote this particular book and in all of its brutal honesty to let entrepreneurs and aspiring business owners know what really happens when your business begins to fail and how to go about fixing it. 

He begins the book by telling a story of himself and how he became a business owner, starting as an engineer at another company to starting up a business with his new business partner Marc Andreesen. While the rest of the book is spent giving you, the reader tips on how to effectively run a business, taking the reality of things - the real problems and challenges it takes to run a business.

Horowitz even mentions the strong mentality he had to build as a CEO: “It’s like fight club management: the first rule of the CEO psychological meltdown is don’t talk about the psychological meltdown.”

9. The Lean Startup by Eric Reis

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Have a great business idea? Reis’ book has a rather detailed approach in how to make that idea into one that is sustainable and will create paying customers for your product or service. 

The book begins with 2 categorized assumptions:

  • Value Assumption: the belief of customers finding value in your growth, the assumption that you’re doing is going to work

  • Growth Assumption: how you’ll actually attract customers and make a profit with your business over time.

Ries then takes these two assumptions and converts them into a plan - a hypothesis if you will and then guides you into finding quick, cheap ways for you to be able to test any hypothesis that comes up such as building a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) or a promotional video with a website. Anything to get your business going. In doing so, it allows for the uncertainty of starting a new business to become more certain and going forward, to create a long-lasting company with increasing profits.

10. The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick

This is the book for you if you’re a new startup company, introducing a new product or service to the existing market already out there. It’ll teach you strategies and tips on how to talk to new customers and gain any feedback that may be of actual value to you and your business.

It teaches you “How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you,” since you’re more likely to present your idea to a close family or friend and they will be more likely to be kind and encourage you rather than give you the hard and honest truth about whether or not your idea will really work in the real world.

Always begin by talking to customers about their lives, rather than immediately mentioning your idea. This way, you can actually see how their life and any problem they have may align with the context of your product and how to solve it.

11. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

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Kahneman’s book goes deep into the mind of the consumer, looking into the psychology behind one’s decision-making and judgment. A key read to better market your business and increase profits. 

He does so by separating the psychology into 2 different systems:

System 1 - Fast Thinking

  • “Operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control.”

System 2 - Slow Thinking

  • “Allocates attention to the effortful mental activities that demand it, including complex computations. The operations of System 2 are often associated with subjective experience of agency, choice and concentration.”

And analyzes each one, explaining to you so you can better understand how and why you make decisions as well as aid in identifying which system you, yourself are using and what you should actually be using. 

12. Zero to One by Peter Thiel

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“Focus on businesses that create something new.” - Peter Thiel

Thiel’s book addresses entrepreneurs, challenging them to take the world (as the title suggests) from 0 to 1 - as opposed to what it is in reality, the opposite. Basically, to create new solutions and products to also create something of value. But before jumping head first into it, he gives tips on the dos and donts of creating a new product or service.

He also mentions how, rather than creating new ideas, businesses strive to take existing products and improve them, even just by a little bit. 

So, if you’re looking to take the risk of creating something new that no one’s ever heard of out on the market, then definitely give Thiel’s book a read.

CONCLUSION

If you’re starting your own business then definitely look into at least one or a couple of these books to gain some insight into what it takes to run a successful business and be a glowing CEO. Each book is set to guide you with crucial information, as well as tips and tricks to improve yourself, your skills and your business on your entrepreneurial journey in hopes that you do make it.

Did anyone of these books pique your interest? If so, which ones? Let us know!

Written by Tina Phong

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If you need help turning your book into an audiobook, we offer audiobook production services that will help you reach a wider audience and increase your book sales. 

Learn more here and listen to some of our audiobook samples.

 
 

The Top 32 Business Books of All Time

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If you want to improve your business and grow look into some of these amazing entrepreneurial books listed below (in no particular order). Each page is packed with information, advice and real-life experiences from business leaders who have ‘made it’, which you can directly apply to your journey as well.


1. All Marketers Are Liars by Seth Godin

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Godin speaks to how marketers actually think and how they go about creating stores - or rather lies - impacting the lives of many without thinking of the consequences. While he exposes marketers, he also includes useful tips on how to build your brand and tell a story, to better market your business.

2. Beating the Odds by Eddie Brown

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Brown takes you on a journey on how he created Brown Capital Management through many economical crises’ such as 9/11 and the financial recession in 2008. How a young boy who lost his mother at a young age, went through difficult struggles to pave his own path growing up, and becoming the CEO of his now billion-dollar company.


3. Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue

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Based on the 2008 financial crisis, a young woman speaks to her immigrant experience. A story more relevant than ever in our present political climate as she goes on about what it is to be an immigrant in the USA and the courage she shows. 

4. Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuck

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Vaynerchuck shows you just how to build up your own web presence and turn it into a brand, creating your own business while making sales through the internet. After all, he grew his family’s business into a $4-million dollar company to a $60-million one by working the internet.

5. David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell

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Gladwell dives into how we as humans, think about the challenges that life has to offer while giving insight on what it means to face discrimination, suffer from a loss of a parent - or anything really that has to do with having to struggle. Reading this will teach you about things you didn’t think you needed to know like: avoiding any ‘elite colleges’ like Harvard.

6. Female Innovators at Work by Danielle Newnham

This book is meant for women who own their own businesses, including case studies and interviews from other successful women CEOs from different areas across the vast and diverse market talking about their journeys and the challenges, successes and lessons learned along the way to where they stand now.

Also check out 18 Podcasts by Women Entrepreneurs.

7. Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher and William Ury

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Despite it being 30 years since its first publication, this book has continued to be circulated among business owners, teaching each individual how to go about negotiating and resolving any conflicts on any levels based on Harvard’s Negotiation Project. 


8. Girl Code by Cara Alwill Leyba

Leyba gives you a look into what it is like not only being a female entrepreneur but also dealing with other female entrepreneurs as well, and how hard and difficult it can be - however, it shows the positivity of when women are there to support one another and the great outcome of it. Leyba helps you build confidence, empower women, connect with yourself, what you do and why you do it particularly with business. She also aids in how to deal with jealousy, burnout, self-care and truly find out what being successful means to you.


9. Good to Great by Jim Collins

Collins does the research for you, gaining intel and any relevant information that tells you exactly how big companies such as Coca-Cola and Intel took the huge leap towards their success, becoming big-name companies. Him and his team of 21 researchers did extensive research,  analyzing thousands of articles, transcripts of up to 2000 pages and stored 384MBs of data and compiled all of that information into this book to share with anyone interested in how to compete against their business rivals. 


10. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth

Duckworth’s book goes about teaching business owners to create more grit in themselves and the environment around them. Being resilient, strong, passionate and persistent are just some of the things that are the key to being successful. Keeping in mind that those who do “make it” don’t necessarily come from a wealthy background or come up with the best ideas, and they’re the ones who typically work hard and put in the effort to improve every single day.

11. Hooked by Nir Eyal

Eyal goes into the step-by-step process on how to build and sell whatever product it is that you have to offer by explaining to you consumer habits. 

12. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

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The book is as the name suggests as Carnegie teaches you new people skills that will lead to how people can make their business and personal lives successful. An essential to the ongoing competitive market. 

13. In the Company of Women by Grace Bonney

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Like Newnham’s book, Bonney includes stories of successful women entrepreneurs of different fields, backgrounds, races and places giving inspiring life advice on how visibility is what makes a successful female leader to this day. 

14. Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy

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Written by one of the co-founders of Ogilvy & Mather is simply a classic for any entrepreneur out there looking for a read on how to go about their business endeavours. 

15. Purple Cow by Seth Godin

Another Godin book on marketing, mentioning how people built their businesses in the past and played it safe while doing so. Instead, he says to focus on one key aspect: be remarkable. Stop advertising and trying to get the word out there, rather start creating and building your product to make it stand out from the rest.


16. Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

The co-authors wrote what you can call a playbook for dreamers who want to start their own successful business while calling you out on any excuses you have that prevent you from truly starting your own startup, telling you and showing you a technique that ‘simple-is-better’.


17. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki

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Kiyosaki tells his own story of how he grew up with two dads: his biological one and his dad’s best friend otherwise known as the ‘rich dad’ and how they influenced his decisions and thoughts on money and investing. He also tells you how you can have money work for you rather than having to work for money your whole life - that you don’t necessarily need to be rich to start earning a high income.

18. Start With Why by Simon Sinek

Gives you an insight into the minds of business owners, how they think, act and communicate, leading them to having their business be a complete success and become leaders who inspire those in the business world.

Check out how to find a mentor


19. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

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Everyone knows the name ‘Steve Jobs’, the founder of Apple and Issacson took it upon himself to write a biography about him as a means to inspire you to go out and venture on a startup yourself, building up your own business with your own creations that you have to offer the world, while also giving you a business plan to truly be successful.

20. The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss

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You’ll learn how to live a life of The New Rich as you get out of your boring 9 to 5 job and do something you’re actually passionate about. Ferriss gives you tips and tricks on how to live life like a millionaire without actually being one.

21. The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki

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Kawasaki was one of the first marketers for the big tech company, Apple and shares how he made his ideas into reality. From creating the right team, building a brand for the name, getting consumers interested and invested in the product (or namely the brand). Kawasaki teaches you how to start a business. 


22. The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz

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Horowitz can be a rather familiar name within the business as he is one of two very prominent businessmen in Silicon Valley. In this book, Horowitz offers crucial advice while also telling you the hard truth about what it really is like to start and run your own business.

23. The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish

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Is an autobiography written by Haddish herself, an actress-comedian about her rags-to-riches story in how she made it from the bottom, with absolutely nothing, to someone who followed their dreams and is now a successful woman who made it.

24. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries

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Ries offers different strategies for any new business to test, adjust and adapt their new products regardless of the size of it to truly achieve their goal. Basically, rather than having to come up with your own plan, Ries gives you one to show you whether or not your new innovative product or service is truly profitable.

25. The Power of Broke by Daymond John

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Daymond John discusses how being broke and having a limited budget can drive one to success as he tells the story of his own experience, being broke and starting his own business as well as becoming a voice for those with little to no money who want to set out on their entrepreneurial journey.


26. The Power of Visual Storytelling by Ekaterina Walter and Jessica Gioglio

In this book, it gives you a guide on how to create marketing programs based on visual storytelling, using video marketing, infographics, photos, presentations and any other form of a visual to further boost your business. 

27. The Startup Owner’s Manual by Steve Blank and Bob Dorf

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Just like any manual, this one is a how-to-guide on how you can run your very own startup business. Giving you all the tips and tricks, with visual aids and statistics on how to truly build a successful company.

28. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

Gladwell himself explains the theory of “the tipping point phenomenon” and how it has impacted people all over the world when it comes to selling products or simply by sharing ideas with others. It basically talks about how any small change can lead to bigger and better things.

29. The Virgin Way by Richard Branson

A biography about Richard Branson himself, in how he made it as a successful businessman. The book talks about leadership, family while having fun and being passionate about what you do, as well as listening - all key attributes to creating an international brand such as the Virgin Group.

30. Trust Me, I’m Lying by Ryan Holiday

Holiday teaches you the outs and ins of how media really works. Showing you how he does it himself through blog manipulation, and distorting information in any way that he can that still makes it believable.


31. Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes

Some of you may have heard of the name Shonda Rhimes, a producer in Hollywood known for her works Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal. She wrote her own book on how she went from being this shy introvert who never took any opportunities handed to her, to someone who said ‘yes’ to everything that came her way. This particular book is targeted towards those who simply need a push to break out of their shell and shake the world.


32. Zero to One by Peter Thiel

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Last but not least, Thiel’s book offers insight into how to go from nothing to being something. Filled with positivity, actionable tips and an outlook on the future of the thriving tech industry, he tells you how to be more innovative and open up your mind to new and unexpected opportunities.


CONCLUSION

Each book has its own thing to offer, and these are just some of many other amazing reads when it comes to becoming a successful entrepreneur. Some will teach you how to make it as a woman, people skills, strategies, marketing and so much more - everything required to start and run your business with little to no hitches. Have you read any of them? Or are you interested in reading any of the ones listed above? Let us know your thoughts and comments!

Written by Tina Phong

If you need help turning your book into an audiobook, we offer audiobook production services that will help you reach a wider audience and increase your book sales. 

Learn more here and listen to some of our audiobook samples.