10 Best Books for Entrepreneurs
Let’s face it: entrepreneurship is pretty tough. Unlike other professions or industries, there isn’t a single manual or class you can take that makes you a master entrepreneur or guarantees success. Entrepreneurship is unpredictable, flexible, and always changing, which is part of the appeal! But you might still benefit from learning from the experts. While there aren’t entrepreneurship textbooks per se, there are many great books that have been written by successful entrepreneurs over the years. Let’s take a look at the 10 best books for entrepreneurs – we think you’ll glean some helpful tips from just one of these books if you give them a read.
How to Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie
Arguably one of the most influential books of all time, Dale Carnegie’s masterpiece has been in print for over 80 years and is a phenomenal choice for anyone looking to reinvent their entrepreneurship techniques. While it doesn’t necessarily focus on strict business practices, it’s a fantastic book if you want to learn how to make friends and master the social aspects of any startup venture or enterprise. The skills you can learn here are diverse, ranging from how to make a compelling pitch to potential investors to how to lead your startup team to success. As a bonus, the social skills you’ll learn here can translate to the rest of your life as well, boosting your social skills wholesale. This is the number one book you should read if you want to become a better entrepreneur, bar none.
Who Moved My Cheese? – Spencer Johnson
Don’t be fooled by this book’s somewhat silly title. It’s actually about how you can stay adaptable and flexible: prime skills for any aspiring entrepreneur. The book is broken down into four different stories that showcase different entrepreneurs’ personalities (presented in a fable-like setting concerning mice). It’s an ultimately accessible book even though it has some advanced concepts to share in part because of this presentation method. Plus, the end of the book will have you draw a map and physically work out which of the four personality types you seem to be most like. Then you can start working on your most effective startup strategy!
Rich Dad, Poor Dad – Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter
This book is famous in entrepreneurship and investment circles, particularly if you don’t have much in the way of financial education so far. Kiyosaki’s bestseller breaks down financial education basics and advanced topics while remaining accessible and easy to read throughout. It’s also particularly good for folks who feel that they are stuck at their 9-5 jobs and want to make a big change in their lives. The book will go over how to manage your wealth successfully and how to build your funds from scratch, even if you don’t have any savings yet.
The Psychology of Selling – Brian Tracy
Next up is Brian Tracy’s The Psychology of Selling , a book focused on entrepreneurs and designed to help you increase your sales faster than ever before. Within its pages, you’ll learn strategies and techniques to sell both yourself and the ideas that comprise your company, ranging from its overall theme and brand to individual products. This is a particularly helpful book since it’s easy to forget many of the basics of smart selling and instead jump into more advanced entrepreneurship concepts. Go back to the basics and master them first and you’ll find great success with your venture. You can learn those basics right here and even psychology expert Nancy Andreasen approves .
Rich Woman – Kim Kiyosaki
Try Rich Woman if you’re a female entrepreneur looking to get a leg up over the competition. This specialized book is a perfect educational resource for women who may have not been given the same financial or entrepreneur-focused advantages as their male counterparts. It’s also a great book for women who want to attain financial independence from the men in their lives. The topics covered include:
- How to create a budget for yourself
- How to invest in real estate
- How to invest in the stock market
- How to grow your wealth progressively over time
The Startup of You – Reid Hoffman
Want to ensure that your startup has the best chance for success ? Try Reid Hoffman’s The Startup of You , an energizing book that can help you manage your career from the perspective of an entrepreneurial go-getter. This is a particularly nice book if you’re trying to grow your side business from scratch while also working your regular job to make ends meet. It also helps individuals put themselves in an entrepreneurial mindset, which can then help you to avoid pitfalls or roadblocks that are common with folks attempting to make a new career while still feeling stuck at their old ones.
Thinking, Fast and Slow – Daniel Kahneman
This masterpiece of a book is actually focused on the human brain, but that doesn’t mean it’s not valuable for entrepreneurs. In a nutshell, Thinking, Fast and Slow breaks down and explains two different thinking systems that we each use every day without knowing it: the fast and emotional system and the slower, logical system. While both systems appear to be opposing forces at first, this book will teach you how to make the most of both methods of thinking, as well as go over when it’s wise to trust one part of your brain over the other. If you’ve had mixed entrepreneurial success due to being too active or passive, this book will help you find balance in a way that no other can.
The $100 Startup – Chris Guillebeau
Many folks believe that startups are necessarily expensive , but Chris Guillebeau’s The $100 Startup challenges that assertion. It’s a perfect choice if you feel that you can’t pursue your entrepreneurial dreams just because you don’t have enough funding. The book is chock-full of excellent examples of successful startups that got started with only $100 or less. Those same startups are now making tons of cash. It’s more of a motivational book than a “how-to” read, however, so you’ll likely want to supplement this book with others on this list if you really want to reinvigorate your entrepreneurial strategies.
The 4-Hour Workweek – Timothy Ferriss
This book’s title is almost as well known as its content. Timothy Ferriss will take you through a detailed breakdown of how you can become an entrepreneur and enjoy the wonders of life without having to work crazy workweeks. Don’t be fooled; you’ll need to spend a lot of hard effort and a lot of time for you can actually manage a four-hour workweek. But this book will show you how to get there, starting from the very beginning with your mindset and progressing into outlines for how you can build a business that you can eventually run with a minimum of effort. Even better, this book is about more than just making enough money to make ends meet. It’s about growing a fortune that you can enjoy to the fullest with most of your time eventually becoming dedicated to luxury instead of labor.
Click Millionaires – Scott Fox
Last but not least is Click Millionaires , a quick read by Scott Fox that’s geared toward startup founders and entrepreneurs who want to open e-commerce businesses more than any other type. This is a particularly timely book since there are now more e-commerce businesses opening than any other time in history. The book goes over detailed e-commerce entrepreneurial strategies, such as how you can use online marketing and outsourcing to build a sustainable monthly cash flow. It’ll also go over the necessary tools you should pick up to make running your online business that much easier. If you don’t know how to run an e-commerce store already, this is arguably the first book you should pick up, even before any of the others.
Summary
As you can see, there are plenty of great books available for entrepreneurs who want to reinvent their strategies or who want to master their business models. For the best results, we highly recommend you check out at least several of these books, as no single one of them can provide you with all the answers needed for a successful entrepreneurial venture. That being said, some are undoubtedly better for your unique goals than others. Take a moment to check out the reviews and more details for each of the above books. Don’t hesitate to contact us at Seek Capital, as well, if you want investment advice or financial options to get your own business off the ground . We also offer a plethora of detailed guides for entrepreneurs right here on our blog ! Sources https://www.investopedia.com/articles/pf/09/business-startup-costs.asp#:~:text=Startup%20costs%20are%20the%20expenses,%2C%20promotion%2C%20and%20employee%20expenses . https://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/2013/12/16/what-is-a-startup/ https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0611/declare-your-own-financial-independence-day.aspx