Kreatology // Kylie Garner // Fractional CMO

Best Business Books: The Ultimate Entrepreneur Book List

Best Business Books

If you’re anything like me, you’re in a constant state of learning. And with Game of Thrones still a few weeks away and the Netflix catalogue exhausted, I have a little bit of time to fill. So I thought I’d write a Best Business Books list to fill my downtime.

Barely a day goes by that I’m not tuning into a podcast, webinar or reading up on the latest business and marketing trends from my favourite blogs and books.

I even have time blocked out time in my calendar each week specifically for “learning” activities.

Some of my greatest business learnings have been from the humble book! There is such a wealth of information out there with years of experience and knowledge at our fingertips.

So, while you’ve been a busy bee getting things done, I have compiled The Ultimate Entrepreneur Book List: 25 of the Best Business & Marketing Books to tide you over till Game of Thrones starts!

This list has been handpicked from books that have had an impact on me and recommendations from fellow entrepreneurs.

They are jam packed cover to cover with actionable strategies you can implement now and stories to inspire your own business journey.

Whether you’re looking for some mindset mojo or the tools to fast-track your business growth, this Best Business Books list has it all.

The Ultimate Entrepreneur Book List

Rich Dad Poor Dad1. Rich Dad Poor Dad by ‎Robert Kiyosaki‎

This book tells the story of Robert Kiyosaki and his two father figures – his real father and the father of his best friend and how both men shaped his views about money and investing. The book explodes the myth that you need to earn a high income to be rich and explains the difference between working for money and having your money work for you.

Best Business Books2. e-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber

e-Myth author Michael Gerber dispels the myths around starting your own business and how commonplace assumptions can get in the way of running a business. The book walks you through the lifecycle of a business from the startup phase, through the growing pains and to the mature entrepreneurial perspective – the guiding light of all businesses that succeed. He then addresses the overlooked distinction between working on your business and working in your business.

03-Four-Hour-Work_week3. Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris

Forget the old concept of retirement – there is no need to wait and every reason not to. Whether your dream is escaping the rat race, experiencing high-end world travel, earning a monthly five-figure income with zero management or just living more and working less, The 4-Hour Workweek is the blueprint.

Best Business Books4. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries

The unfortunate reality is, most startups fail. But this doesn’t need to be the case!  The Lean Startup is a new approach being adopted across the globe, changing the way companies are built and new products are launched.

 

Book Blueprint5. Book Blueprint by Jacqui Pretty

There has never been a better time to write a book to boost your business! The barriers to publishing have never been lower, with more publishing professionals than ever before offering to transform Word documents into paperbacks. But there’s a catch… simply having a book isn’t enough to transform your business. It needs to be a good book. In Book Blueprint, you’ll discover how to write a book that cements your authority and leads to the media, speaking and partnership opportunities you’ve always dreamed of.

Best Business Books6. Rework by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson

Most business books give you the same old advice – write a business plan, study the competition, ra ra ra. If you’re looking for a book like that, don’t bother reading this one. Rework shows you a better, faster, easier way to succeed in business. And you need less than you think. You don’t need to work you behind into the ground. You don’t need employ 20 staff and you don’t need an office! You just need to stop talking and start working. This book shows you the way.

Best Business Books7. How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie

Achieve your maximum potential and be the best version of yourself! This book has stood the test of time and remains an all round business classic. While still relevant, the latest edition has been updated to see you into the digital age! This is one of the best business books I’ve read.

Think & Grow Rich8. Think & Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

Napoleon Hill presents a systematic nuts-and-bolts approach to developing the skills and mindset required to achieve exceptional success in any field – personal or professional. The book outlines the 13 steps to achieve those goals with numerous self-tests and checklists.

09-The-100-Startup9. The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau

Ready to say goodbye to the “9 to 5”? Imagine that today is your final day as an employee. What if tomorrow you prepare for work by firing up a laptop in your home office, walk into a storefront you’ve opened, phoning a client who trusts you for helpful advice, or otherwise doing what you want instead of what someone tells you to do? All over the world, and in many different ways, thousands of people are doing exactly that. This book will show you how.

Best Business Books10. Remove Blocks & Build Your Business by Per Lillie

Do you feel your business is not growing, as it should? Do you feel that there are roadblocks between your business and the success it should enjoy? Or do you need inspiration for your next growth journey? Remove Blocks & Build Your Business will provide you with the information you need on Roadblocks/barriers – identify what’s stopping your business growth; Reality check – get fit for business growth; Internal growth – manage key elements for boosting performance; External growth – find the best growth options for you; Navigation tools – keep you on the road to growth.

Purple Cow11. Purple Cow by Seth Godin – Best Business Books

You’re either a Purple Cow or you’re not. You’re either remarkable or invisible. Make your choice. Let’s face it, the checklist of tired ‘P’s marketers have used for decades to get their product noticed -Pricing, Promotion, Publicity, to name a few-aren’t working anymore. There’s an exceptionally important ‘P’ that has to be added to the list. It’s Purple Cow.

Crush It!12. Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk

Do you have a hobby you wish you could do all day? An obsession that keeps you up at night? Now is the perfect time to take those passions and make a living doing what you love. In CRUSH IT! Why NOW Is The Time To Cash In On Your Passion, Gary Vaynerchuk shows you how to use the power of the Internet to turn your real interests into real businesses. By the end of this book, you will have learned how to harness the power of the Internet to make their entrepreneurial dreams come true.

Business Model Generation13. Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder

I live and breath the Business Model Canvas and this is a book that has changed the way I plan my business. Business Model Generation is a handbook for visionaries, game changers and challengers striving to defy outmoded business models and design tomorrow’s enterprises. If your organisation needs to adapt to harsh new realities, but you don’t yet have a strategy that will get you out in front of your competitors, you need this book!

Wow Words on The Web14. Wow Words on the Web by Elizabeth Campbell

Wow Words on the Web offers insightful instruction, a step-by-step guide and the sage advice of years of writing experience, plus 77 tips you can easily implement straight away. Words are our life blood and right now content is taking over the online world. It’s an area all businesses need to have a love affair with, otherwise you risk being outshone by your competition or, worse, left behind. Great content should be unique and useful to your readers whether it is a website, blog or social media update. If you want to stand out, generate leads and boost your business, simply turn the page and start writing today.

Best Business Books15. Blue Ocean Strategy by W Chan Kim & Renee Mauborgne

Blue Ocean Strategy challenges everything you thought you knew about competing in today’s crowded market place. Based on a study of 150 strategic moves spanning more than a hundred years and thirty industries, authors W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne argue that lasting success comes from creating ‘blue oceans’: untapped new market spaces ripe from growth. Have you caught the wave?

The Startup Playbook16. The Startup Playbook by David S Kidder

Thinking of going into business? The Startup Playbook will help you succeed. David Kidder shares the hard-hitting experiences of some of the world’s most influential entrepreneurs and CEOs, revealing their most closely held advice. Face-to-face interviews with 40 founders gives you key insights into what it took to build PayPal, LinkedIn, AOL, TED, Flickr, and many others into household names.

Creativity, Inc.17. Creativity Inc. by Ed Catmull

Creativity, Inc. is a book for managers who want to lead their employees to new heights, a manual for anyone who strives for originality, and the first-ever, all-access trip into the nerve centre of Pixar Animation. It is, at heart, a book about how to build a creative culture—but it is also, as Pixar co-founder and president Ed Catmull writes, “an expression of the ideas that I believe make the best in us possible.”

Reality check18. Reality Check by Guy Kawasaki

Reality Check is Kawasaki’s all-in-one guide for starting and operating great organisations that stand the test of time. This book collates, updates and expands the best entries from his popular blog and features his take on everything from effective emailing to sucking up to preventing “bozo explosions”.

Click Millionaires19. Click Millionaires by Scott Fox

The rules have changed. A corporate career is no longer the ultimate dream. It’s a successful lifestyle business you can run from home, the beach or wherever you desire. It’s work you love that still allows you the freedom and income to live the life you truly want. Sound like a tall order? Author Scott Fox teaches shows you how to trade the 9-5 job for an online business you love.

Growth Hacker Marketing20. Growth Hacker Marketing by Ryan Holiday

If you’re looking for one of the best business books on marketing, then this is it. A new generation of megabrands like Facebook, Dropbox, Airbnb and Twitter haven’t spent a dime on traditional marketing. No press releases, no TV commercials, no billboards. Instead, they rely on a new strategy – growth hacking – to reach many more people despite modest marketing budgets. Growth hackers have thrown out the old playbook and replaced it with tools that are testable, trackable and scalable.

All Marketers Are Liars21. All Marketers Are Liars by Seth Godin

All marketers tell stories and if they do it right, we believe them. We believe that wine tastes better in a $20 glass than a $1 glass. We believe that an $80,000 Porsche is vastly superior to a $36,000 Volkswagen that’s virtually the same car. We believe that $125 sneakers make our feet feel better – and look cooler – than a $25 brand. And believing it makes it true.

Hooked22. Hooked by Nir Eyal

Why do some products capture our attention, while others flop? What makes us engage with certain products out of habit? Is there a pattern underlying how technologies hook us? This book introduces us to the “Hook Model,” a four steps process companies use to build customer habits.

Buyology23. Buy.ology by Martin Lindstorm

In BUYOLOGY, Lindstrom, presents the astonishing findings from his groundbreaking experiment that peered inside the brains of 2,000 volunteers from all around the world as they encountered various ads, logos, commercials, brands, and products. His startling results shatter much of what we have long believed about what seduces our interest and drives us to buy.

Traction24. Traction by Gabriel Weinberg & Justin Mares

Most startups end in failure. What failed startups don’t have is traction – real customer growth. This book introduces you to the “Bullseye Framework,” a five-step process successful companies use to get traction. This framework helps you find the marketing channel that will be key to unlocking the next stage of growth.

Life in Half\ a Second25. Life in Half a Second by Matthew Michalewicz

And next on the Best Business Book list is Life in Half a Second. What if there was a proven path to success? A path supported by science and research? A path that led to your goals and aspirations in less time, with less risk? Would you take it? This truthful and hard hitting book is the first “fact-based” formula for achieving success in life and business. Proven through thousands of studies and decades of research, it presents the five doors you must walk through to achieve success in your career, business, or personal life.

26. Million Dollar Women: The Essential Guide for Female Entrepreneurs Who Want to Go Big by Julia Plimsleur

 Number 26 on the Best Business Books list is Million Dollar Women. This book shows you how it’s possible to grow your small business into a multi-million-dollar empire and beyond.

Julia Pimsleur is a coach for aspiring businesswomen. It’s a well known fact that most female entrepreneurs struggle to crack into the big league of business and only three percent of business women achieve the one-million-dollar revenue mark. In her book, Julia shares inspiring insights into how women can forge their own path in the business world and create a scalable global business.

27. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport

If you’re searching for new ideas on how other entrepreneurs find their mojo and brilliant ideas, then Deep Work is the book for you. Deep Work focuses on finding new ways to remove societal distractions like social media and technology and concentrate on what’s important in life.

28. Traction: How any Start-up Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares

Why do most start-up businesses fail? According to Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares, it’s lack of customers and not substandard products. This easy-to-read book is filled with great strategies and tactics to help all would-be entrepreneurs navigate their way in the business world.

29. Zero to One: Notes on Start-up, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters

If you want to build a better future, you must believe in secrets. This one made it to my best business books list because of Thiel’s claims about the digital world we live in. According to Theil, we live in an age of technological inertia. But the irony is we don’t notice because we’re all too distracted by shiny new technological devices.

This book argues that progress can be achieved in all areas of business, no matter what the industry. The trick to a successful business is that business leaders must learn to think for themselves.  

Zero to One: Notes on Start-up, or How to Build the Future offers the reader an optimistic view of the future of America and a different way of thinking about technology, innovation and modernisation in a digital world.  

30. Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight

Of course this one would make it on the Best Business Books List. Phil Knight, the co-founder of Nike, shares the story of his life and the creation of one of the most famous and biggest shoe companies in the world. Shoe Dog is an inspirational story from the man responsible for Nike’s global success.

31. The Virgin Way: Everything I know about leadership by Sir Richard Branson

Today he’s a household name but Sir Richard Branson was only 16 years old when he dropped out of school and started working for himself. Now four decades later, his company Virgin, is a universal name. In this book, Branson discusses how he created his successful brand through strong leadership skills and discusses the importance of family, fun and loyalty.

32. The Millionaire Fastlane: Crack the Code to Wealth and Live Rich for a Lifetime by MJ DeMarco

Another on the Best Business Books list is The Millionaire Fastlane. Particualrly if you want to earn money, and a lot of it. DemMarco explains you need to influence and affect a lot of people. In his book, MJ DeMarco shares his story on how he became a millionaire. MJ says the trick is to find an existing idea, build on it, improve it and make it bigger and better. His book is inspiring, invigorating and will leave you feeling empowered to tackle those entrepreneurial goals.

 33. The Power of Broke by Daymond John – Best Business Books

The Power of Broke discusses how being poor is the best motivator for doing great things. It’s an inspiring business book and Daymond John is an inspiration for anyone starting from scratch. His business book is a bestseller and proves your dreams are achievable, as long as you’re determined, driven and eager for success.

34. Awaken the Giant Within : How to Take Immediate Control of Your Mental, Emotional, Physical and Financial Destiny!  by Tony Robbins

 Tony Robbins wants you to wake up and take control of your life. Anthony Robbins is a leader in the science of peak performance. In this book he shows you his most effective strategies and techniques for mastering your emotions, your body, your relationships, your finances, and your life.

Anthony Robbins is an expert in the psychology of changing your mindset and provides a step-by-step program that teaches fundamental lessons of self-mastery. After reading his book you will feel empowered to take control of your life, find your true purpose, and change your destiny.

35. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

For over 20 years this business book has featured on the New York Times’ best seller’s list. And it’s no wonder. It’s insightful, inspirational and Covey offers a step-by-step guide to living life fairly, with dignity and integrity. All skills to equip us with the power to take charge of life and grasp every opportunity presented to us. It’s a classic book and a must have for anyone striving for success in life and business.

 36. Building a StoryBrand Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen

This is one of the best business books I’ve come across in 2020. Donald Miller knows from experience just how hard it is to cut through noise and distractions to reach customers. In this book, he shares his proven system that helps clarify your message, reach, engage and influence your customers.

StoryBrand explains that without a clear and distinct message, your customers are confused as to what your business can do to help solve their problems. Donald Miller teaches marketers and business owners worldwide the seven aspects of storytelling that will improve connection and engagement with customers and help to expand their business.

 

About Kylie – Author of Best Business Books List

Kylie Garner is a journalist, photographer, blogger, social media and brand strategist. She’s dedicated to helping business owners ROCK their SEO, web, branding and social media.

And, Kylie is a bit of a brand fanatic who lives and breathes all things business, social media and online marketing.

Her goal is to inspire you to discover your passion, dream big and make it a reality by giving you the tools and strategies to transform your business.

Want to book a call and transform your business? Book a call here.

 

 

Hi! I'm Kylie.

Brand & Digital Marketing Strategist, Educator, AIPP Master Photographer and Superstar Mum of two gorgeous boys.

I help businesses grow with Conversion Driven Websites, Marketing Automation and Traffic Generation.