Being an entrepreneur is something that anyone can do. Being a successful entrepreneur, however? That’s a whole other story.
If you are reading this article then you are likely a budding entrepreneur and I first want to congratulate you; by researching a topic such as Best Books for Entrepreneurs, it shows that you are willing to do the research required.
That’s one big problem; most “entrepreneurs” don’t do any research or put in the work required. They throw that tag around their name loosely and don’t do the hard work or research to actually earn it.
It’s a similar story with influencers; most budding influencers don’t do the research to see what makes an influencer successful.
I’ve been an entrepreneur for many years and work purely for myself. All of my businesses these days are on the web, although I grew up building physical businesses. I have a lot of experience in this area.
The books I am going to advise are not any “getting started” or “how to” type guide – instead they are books that I have read over the years that have really helped my mindset and changed the way I operate – for the better.
As a side note; I do want to quickly mention that if you work in digital marketing – specifically affiliate marketing – there is a great program called StatsDrone which can make your life a lot easier. This will connect to all the affiliate programs that you work with and provide daily reports of your data. It is a big timesaver, as opposed to logging in to each program one after the other.
Best Books for Entrepreneurs
See at AmazonLost and Founder by Rand Fishkin
Rand Fishkin is the man who founded Moz and their former CEO. Moz is one of the top websites for search engine optimization and Rand details everything in regard to the startup of Moz.
He covers so much that every budding entrepreneur will go through. From the fun parts such as actually starting up, to the tougher parts such as raising capital, to the even tougher parts such as laying off people.
I’ve read some stories from startup founders before and honestly, I’ve never been a fan of them. So many of those people are busy patting themselves on the back at how special they are. This is not the case with Rand. This is brutally honest, and a must-read for any budding entrepreneur.
See at AmazonThe 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferris
This is an incredible book that I read many, many years ago. There was an updated version released in 2009 with an additional 100 pages and I would advise looking for that edition if possible. There is a lot of neat new additions that I really liked.
Regardless – the concept is the same. It’s all about how to be a more efficient worker, and how to go about changing your business to accomodate your general needs in life.
Ferris teaches a lot of great skills related to time management. I feel like this sort of book is even more of a must-read than before; we have so many people who are leaving school and trying to jump into the world of entrepreneurship. There are a lot of general life lessons in this book that can be learned when you are working those dead-end types of jobs. The ones we get into as soon as we are out of school. Most people are missing that, and this book can help you with that.
For me, the biggest part of it was in regard to time management and delegation. I feel that is an aspect so many people are weak in, and if you feel you may be that way then this is the book for you.
If you are a fan of audiobooks then great news as the great Ray Porter narrates this one!
See at AmazonRunning Lean by Ash Maurya
I do want to give a quick shoutout to The Lean Startup by Eric Ries. That is another great book. It is similar to this one though, and I would advise this one slightly more. If you are serious though you should read both.
This one is a more practical approach and it will really help your mindset. One of the biggest mistakes new business owners make is NOT being lean. Many think they can tighten the belt a bit later and they have to “spend money to make money”.
This is very wrong and it is better to start slow and expand. It goes into a lot of detail about building a customer base, and there are a lot of great things to it Such as building only a minimum value product, to begin with, and testing the response from the customers.
A must-read for any entrepreneur.
See at AmazonThe 5am Club by Robin Sharma
So this one isn’t really for entrepreneurs – but it is still one of the best books I have read in terms of mindset.
I know many entrepreneurs, and many of them don’t have any balance in their life. Especially digital entrepreneurs. They stay up late, they sleep in late, they have no sort of structure.
I’m an early bird. Always have been. This book really helped me in regard to that and establishing a great structure and routine.
Plus trust me – you will be at your most productive when you’re up early in the morning, working away.
There is so much to it to help you maximize your productivity. Even if you don’t want to be up at 5 am every day – it will still teach you guidance to help structure your day in the best manner.
