Business Books for Entrepreneurs and Start-ups (Part 1)

With so many people locked up at home now is a great time to catch up on some of the better business books for entrepreneurs and start ups out there.
Wading through the sea of business book titles on Amazon or at your local online library can take more time than it does to read the book and even then, you can find yourself frustrated.

To help speed the process we’ve curated a few of our own favourite reads into a series of different lists.
The focus of this particular list is Business Books for Entrepreneurs and Start-ups (Part 1). It’s aimed at founders and entrepreneurs who are just getting off the ground although there are many great ideas amongst these titles for the more mature entrepreneur.
Each title has been selected for containing ideas that you can implement in your business and for readability. We hope you are suitably inspired.

1.  The New Business Road Test by John Mullins

Does your idea translate into a viable and profitable business model? Before you dive in head-first pouring your time, effort and money where your mouth The New Business Road Test is a timely reality check that asks not whether ‘you can do it’ but rather ‘should you do it?’ Shows entrepreneurs and business owners how to avoid the mistakes that other frequently make.

2.  The E-Myth: Why Most Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael Gerber

A book that should be a compulsory read for most small business owners. Most small business owners work in their business rather than on their business. Ask yourself “have you really started a business or just hired yourself?” If you’re working more hours than ever and can’t see the way out. If you dream of a business that works not because of you but without you. If you’re ready to take a good hard look in the mirror, this book could be just the answer you’re looking for.

3. The Hard Thing about Hard Things by Ben Horowitz

Whilst Horowitz doesn’t quite rip the tinsel off the Christmas tree, he does bring the less glamourous side of establishing your business front and centre. One of the more grounded and valuable business start-up reads that focuses on the tougher stuff that’s often left out of start-up conversations. Endorsed by various entrepreneurial luminaries including Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Page for a reason.

4. Crush It! Why Now is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk

It really doesn’t matter which book you pick up by Gary Vaynerchuk as long as you start listening to what he has to say about Social Media. He annoys a lot of people and his hustle, hustle, hustle approach may not be for you but don’t let that take away from his unrivalled knowledge and innate understanding of social media. You have to give credit to a man who doesn’t just sell how to do it but actually does it. He started in the wine business and turned a local liquor store into one of the first e-commerce platforms in the USA. He launched The Wine Library on YouTube just months after it launched and has been ahead of the social media curve ever since. Today he heads VaynerX a 1000 person $100M turnover ad agency with some of the biggest brand names in the world in its’ portfolio. He is currently killing it on Tik Tok growing his widespread influence for yet another demographic.

5. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries

The huge following that exists for Lean Startup makes it hard to leave out. It contains some great core principles, even if the methodology as an entirety lacks in places. The two primary innovations it advocates are getting market feedback as early as possible with a minimum viable product and pivoting to change the product or market after getting that first user feedback. As with any business book blind allegiance is never a good thing and there are far too many wannabe young entrepreneurs out there who have an almost cult like adherence to every word.

6. Self Made: The Definitive Guide to Business Start-Up Success by Bianca Miller-Cole and Byron Cole

Written as a complete business start-up tool kit, this practical guide contains straightforward, more-or-less jargon free, advice. As two of the UK’s best known and most successful young entrepreneurs they’ve proven several times over they know what they’re talking about when it comes to launching a business. Here they also show they know a thing or two about writing a book. Definitely one you’ll refer back to.

7. Getting Past No: Negotiating in Difficult Situations by William Ury

One of the world’s leading negotiation specialists and co-founder of Harvard Law School’s “Program on Negotiation” gives his take on still getting what you want when the starting point is a firm “no”. Building on controlling your own response he lays out steps that make it hard for the other side to say no. The aim is for you to get what you want without destroying or dominating the other side, so you can all happily live to play another day.

8. The Power of Broke: How Empty Pockets, a Tight Budget and a Hunger for Success Can Become Your Greatest Competitive Advantage by Daymond John

Many of the most successful businesses were launched in difficult times, both for the markets and their founders personally. Launching a business when you’re broke forces you to innovate. You have no choice but to be creative and use your limited resources wisely. Proof you can build a winning business by leveraging the little you have and not stopping ‘til you reach the top.

9. Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Don’t by Chip and Dan Heath

Being able to express your message in a way that audiences remember and act on is a skill worth having at any stage of your business journey. Made to Stick is an easy-to-read explanation of the art of making ideas unforgettable. Why do some ideas stick, and others don’t? The Heath brothers provide the reader research- based principles that form a blueprint of how to craft “sticky” messages people will remember. In a world in which stories capture the imagination of your audience it’s worth devoting some time to understanding the lessons of “sticky”.

10. Zero to One by Peter Thiel

A pleasant to read antidote to some of today’s superficial business books. Peter Thiel writes with the assuredness of someone who hasn’t just built a billion-dollar business himself but was Facebooks first outside investor and famously taught the how’s and why’s of being an entrepreneur at Stanford. In his own words “successful people find value in unexpected places, and they do this by thinking about business from first principles instead of formulas”.

Inevitably in a list of 10 we’ve had to leave some great books out. Hopefully some will be included in future lists. If you have specific business books for entrepreneurs and start-ups you’d like to recommend please drop us a line with some of the great take-aways you got from it and we’ll read those with the most feedback and include a review in business books for entrepreneurs and start-ups part 2