7 Books Every Business Owner Should Read—Plus 3 More We Think You’ll Like!
Every year, another 11,000 new business books hit the shelves. Stacked on top of each other, they would create a tower more than nine stories high. That’s just the books published in a single year. Who has time to read that many books? Or even the very best 10%?
Most harried business owners say they don’t have time to read at all—beyond a few email newsletters and what shows up in the mail every day.
That’s too bad, because the right books can be a pretty good substitute for business experience. If you’re starting a company, there’s a lot to learn—operations, marketing, recruiting, finance, and accounting, not to mention manufacturing your product or delivering your service. A couple of bad decisions can sink a great business before it has a chance to get off the ground. The right books can help you avoid those mistakes.
A smart business owner can learn a lot by reading just a couple of books a year (if they’re the right books). And the right books may help you with information, strategies, and ideas that can take your business to the next level.
If you don’t already have a list of business books you’re aching to read, here are a few ideas to get you started:
#1—The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything by Guy Kawasaki
It’s too bad that new business don’t come with an Owner’s Manual. If they did, they’d cover the information you find in Art of the Start. Kawasaki’s book is packed with advice for successfully building a business, from business ideas to raising capital, plus advice on branding, networking, and recruiting. If you’re thinking about starting a business, or if you’re already hung up your shingle, this is a good book to read for ideas and advice to make sure it goes well.
#2—The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael Gerber
You’ve probably heard the phrase, “Work on your business, not in it.” If so, you’ve already got a sneak-peak at the wisdom in this excellent book. Using the story of Sarah, an entrepreneur with a struggling pie bakery, Gerber outlines how to develop systems that make a business more effective, and perhaps more importantly, scalable. I highly recommend this book to any business owner who feels stuck, or has come to the realization that running a business is a lot harder than they thought it would be.
#3—Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip and Dan Heath
What makes an idea or story memorable? How can you get customers to pay attention to you and your business? This insightful book answers those important questions and teaches the secrets to more effective communication. An easy and entertaining read guaranteed to benefit anyone with an idea to communicate. This is one of my all-time favorite books.
#4—Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout
We live in a media-intensive society where getting customers to pay attention and care about your business is not just difficult, it’s almost impossible. This little book will help you correctly position your product in the marketplace, then develop a message for your product that will get into your customer’s consciousness and stay there. Make this required reading for anyone involved in marketing your product.
#5—Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… And Others Don’t by Jim Collins
Although this book has been criticized over the past couple of years (note it’s praise for Circuit City and Fanny Mae), the concepts that define a great business are still worth thinking about and developing in your organization: ideas like the hedgehog concept, getting the right people on the bus, the fly-wheel, and Level-5 Leadership. This book is full of solid concepts that will get you thinking about how to make your business great.
#6—Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen
The biggest challenge for most small business owners is often as simple as getting things done. This book outlines a simple process for assessing what needs to happen and staying focused until the job is done. This book won’t help much with motivation, but if you need a process to get through your list of things to do each day, we recommend this organizational gem. Another excellent book on the same topic is Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan. Both a great reads for those who want to get more done.
#7—Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin
This book, about making yourself critical to your organization’s success, is a passionate manifesto about becoming the go-to person on any project. It’s about learning, and creativity, and delivering what needs to be done. It’s about taking risk, which is often less risky than avoiding it. Once you read this book, you’ll want to share it with all the members of your team.
In addition to the seven (actually eight) books listed above, here are three more most business owners will enjoy. They’re a little different from the first list, and in some ways, easier to read. But they’re full of insights and thinking that can change the way you think about your business.
#8—Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool’s Guide to Surviving with Grace by Gordon MacKenzie
It’s hard to call this a serious business book, but despite the colorful pages and funny stories, that’s exactly what this book is. This is probably the best book every written on creativity. The book, like it’s author, is quirky and weird—and it perfectly captures what creativity is all about and how to foster more creativity in your business (and life).
#9—Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
This little book, written by software entrepreneurs, is all about establishing a culture in a small business environment. It’s full of ideas about hiring (and not hiring), customer interaction, employee management, and idea generation. It weighs in at 273 pages, but can be read in less than two hours—and you’ll walk away from the book energized with dozens of ideas for your own business.
#10—Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time by Howard Schultz and Dori Jones Yang
I challenge you to try to read this book without getting an overwhelming urge to start a new business (or getting excited about the one you have now). This is the story of Starbucks, from its humble beginnings as a small coffee shop to its remarkable growth over 25 years. Through it all, Schultz’s passion for a great product and his desire to take care of customers and employees shines through. An inspiring story packed with leadership lessons.
Have you already read the books above? Another great resource for finding just the right business book for you is, The 100 Best Business Books of All Time: What they Say, Why They Matter, and How They Can Help You by Todd Sattersten and Jack Covert. No matter where you get your book list, a few minutes a day reading is the best way to find that million dollar idea that will make all the difference in your business venture.
Rob Marsh is the General Manager of Logoworks by HP.
Courtesy HP, whom is responsible for content
Most harried business owners say they don’t have time to read at all—beyond a few email newsletters and what shows up in the mail every day.
That’s too bad, because the right books can be a pretty good substitute for business experience. If you’re starting a company, there’s a lot to learn—operations, marketing, recruiting, finance, and accounting, not to mention manufacturing your product or delivering your service. A couple of bad decisions can sink a great business before it has a chance to get off the ground. The right books can help you avoid those mistakes.
A smart business owner can learn a lot by reading just a couple of books a year (if they’re the right books). And the right books may help you with information, strategies, and ideas that can take your business to the next level.
If you don’t already have a list of business books you’re aching to read, here are a few ideas to get you started:
#1—The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything by Guy Kawasaki
It’s too bad that new business don’t come with an Owner’s Manual. If they did, they’d cover the information you find in Art of the Start. Kawasaki’s book is packed with advice for successfully building a business, from business ideas to raising capital, plus advice on branding, networking, and recruiting. If you’re thinking about starting a business, or if you’re already hung up your shingle, this is a good book to read for ideas and advice to make sure it goes well.
#2—The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael Gerber
You’ve probably heard the phrase, “Work on your business, not in it.” If so, you’ve already got a sneak-peak at the wisdom in this excellent book. Using the story of Sarah, an entrepreneur with a struggling pie bakery, Gerber outlines how to develop systems that make a business more effective, and perhaps more importantly, scalable. I highly recommend this book to any business owner who feels stuck, or has come to the realization that running a business is a lot harder than they thought it would be.
#3—Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip and Dan Heath
What makes an idea or story memorable? How can you get customers to pay attention to you and your business? This insightful book answers those important questions and teaches the secrets to more effective communication. An easy and entertaining read guaranteed to benefit anyone with an idea to communicate. This is one of my all-time favorite books.
#4—Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout
We live in a media-intensive society where getting customers to pay attention and care about your business is not just difficult, it’s almost impossible. This little book will help you correctly position your product in the marketplace, then develop a message for your product that will get into your customer’s consciousness and stay there. Make this required reading for anyone involved in marketing your product.
#5—Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… And Others Don’t by Jim Collins
Although this book has been criticized over the past couple of years (note it’s praise for Circuit City and Fanny Mae), the concepts that define a great business are still worth thinking about and developing in your organization: ideas like the hedgehog concept, getting the right people on the bus, the fly-wheel, and Level-5 Leadership. This book is full of solid concepts that will get you thinking about how to make your business great.
#6—Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen
The biggest challenge for most small business owners is often as simple as getting things done. This book outlines a simple process for assessing what needs to happen and staying focused until the job is done. This book won’t help much with motivation, but if you need a process to get through your list of things to do each day, we recommend this organizational gem. Another excellent book on the same topic is Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan. Both a great reads for those who want to get more done.
#7—Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin
This book, about making yourself critical to your organization’s success, is a passionate manifesto about becoming the go-to person on any project. It’s about learning, and creativity, and delivering what needs to be done. It’s about taking risk, which is often less risky than avoiding it. Once you read this book, you’ll want to share it with all the members of your team.
In addition to the seven (actually eight) books listed above, here are three more most business owners will enjoy. They’re a little different from the first list, and in some ways, easier to read. But they’re full of insights and thinking that can change the way you think about your business.
#8—Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool’s Guide to Surviving with Grace by Gordon MacKenzie
It’s hard to call this a serious business book, but despite the colorful pages and funny stories, that’s exactly what this book is. This is probably the best book every written on creativity. The book, like it’s author, is quirky and weird—and it perfectly captures what creativity is all about and how to foster more creativity in your business (and life).
#9—Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
This little book, written by software entrepreneurs, is all about establishing a culture in a small business environment. It’s full of ideas about hiring (and not hiring), customer interaction, employee management, and idea generation. It weighs in at 273 pages, but can be read in less than two hours—and you’ll walk away from the book energized with dozens of ideas for your own business.
#10—Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time by Howard Schultz and Dori Jones Yang
I challenge you to try to read this book without getting an overwhelming urge to start a new business (or getting excited about the one you have now). This is the story of Starbucks, from its humble beginnings as a small coffee shop to its remarkable growth over 25 years. Through it all, Schultz’s passion for a great product and his desire to take care of customers and employees shines through. An inspiring story packed with leadership lessons.
Have you already read the books above? Another great resource for finding just the right business book for you is, The 100 Best Business Books of All Time: What they Say, Why They Matter, and How They Can Help You by Todd Sattersten and Jack Covert. No matter where you get your book list, a few minutes a day reading is the best way to find that million dollar idea that will make all the difference in your business venture.
Rob Marsh is the General Manager of Logoworks by HP.
Courtesy HP, whom is responsible for content
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