Top 8 Books You Should Read About Starting a Business
The best ideas to create a successful business can be quite hard to obtain these days. Sometimes we find ourselves asking whether starting a business with our own unique product will fly or not. There are also those nights when we lay awake in bed weighing our option of quitting our day jobs to become our own boss - a solopreneur.
Need inspiration? A lot of successful people may not share their secrets, but these eight authors reveal what you should know in their books. By checking one or more of these, you might just find the right idea to kickstart your dream business.
1. Lucky or Smart? by Bo Peabody
Was he a smart entrepreneur? Or was he just lucky? Bo answers this question with the idea that smart people don’t always become entrepreneurs. However, entrepreneurs can become smart if they recognize where they have been lucky. Bo has a remarkable grasp of business startups and venture capital. If you're looking for honesty and integrity in dealing with the venture capital business, this book is your choice.
2. The Barefoot Executive by Carrie Wilkerson
This is a book of a home-based entrepreneur who talks about finding your target market, developing effective marketing strategies, and building your brand with simple to follow charts and tables. If you seek the knowledge to gain an online presence for your startup business, then read The Barefoot Executive.
3. Start With Why by Simon Sinek
Simon Sinek is one of the highest-paid motivational speakers and authors. He analyzes and breaks down business strategies of successful businesses and innovative ideas and explains them. One of his best inspirational ideas for business startups is asking the question, “WHY?” Why would people buy your product? What do you want to sell your product? Why do you want to start up a business?
4. Escape from Cubicle Nation by Pamela Slim
That feeling of anger and defiance just to escape the 8 to 5 cycle burns in all of us corporate underdogs. If you seek the inspiration to leave your corporate kennel for good to be a solopreneur, Escape from Cubicle Nation has what you need.
5. The Power of Broke by Daymond John
The founder of Fubu Clothing explains how being broke and the hunger for success can become your greatest competitive advantage. How, you ask? Starting a business from zero makes you think more creatively. It forces you to use your resources more efficiently. In his book, Daymond tells us all his inspirational stories from clothes-sewing in the streets of New York and shares what it took to make a $40 dollar budget into a $6 billion dollar global brand.
6. The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau
The book is about finding the intersection between your interests, talents, and passions and how much people will actually pay it for. You don’t need a degree, certification, a business plan, or even employees. All you need is a product or service that springs from your passion, a market of people willing to pay, and a strategy to get paid.
7. Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston
Founders at Work is an entrepreneurial book about how tech giant's executives get their ideas for innovation and creating their products. Included are some of the interviews with successful entrepreneurs on how they started, how they overcame hardships, marketing styles, and lessons they learned on the journey to success. If you dig inspiration for your tech startup, Founders at Work should be on top of your list.
8. Will It Fly? by Pat Flynn
Pat Flynn wrote this book as an in-depth and practical explanation of a feasibility study. It's meant to help solopreneurs like you make solid decisions about whether to go with your plan or to trash it before you blindly invest your time and waste money on your business idea.
There are more other books to read out there but these 8 are some of the best. I love how they explain how you can become successful at growing a business regardless of your situation!