Essential Reads For Business Owners: Deep Insights From Industry Experts

The reading habit is one of the most important habits a business owner can cultivate. Reading exposes us to a new world of information that we probably would not be able to harness had we not read. It is so important to remain updated as a business owner so as to master the art of business and understand the science behind it too. Here we have compiled 14 books we think every business owner should read with their author stories. 

1. The 5 Second Rule by Mel Robbins

In The 5 Second Rule, Mel Robbins introduces a simple yet effective technique for overcoming hesitation and self-doubt. The rule states that individuals have just five seconds to act on an impulse before their minds create excuses. By counting down from five to one and then moving, readers can disrupt negative thought patterns and take action. Developed during a difficult period in her life, Robbins emphasizes the importance of this five-second window for seizing opportunities. Through relatable examples, she illustrates how consistently applying the rule can build confidence and empower individuals to take control of their lives and achieve their goals.

2. Selling The Invisible by Harry Beckwith

Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith is a pivotal marketing guide that addresses the unique challenges of selling intangible services. Beckwith emphasizes that effective marketing hinges on understanding customer perceptions and emotions, as services cannot be physically experienced before purchase. The book offers over 100 practical insights, focusing on the importance of service quality, customer feedback, and storytelling in branding. Through engaging anecdotes and straightforward advice, Beckwith encourages businesses to redefine their marketing strategies to highlight the value of their services, ultimately aiming to create a strong emotional connection with clients in an increasingly service-oriented economy.

3. The Way of The Wolf by Jordan Betfort 

Jordan Belfort’s The Way of the Wolf introduces his “Straight Line Selling” method, a structured approach to sales that emphasizes persuasion and influence. The book outlines key principles such as the importance of establishing trust with clients and understanding their emotional and logical needs, referred to as “The Three Tens.” Belfort argues that every sale follows a predictable path, where salespeople must maintain control of the conversation and guide prospects from uncertainty to confidence.

Jordan Belfort reveals the step-by-step sales and persuasion system proven to turn anyone into a sales-closing, money-earning rock star.

The Way of the Wolf cracks the code on how to persuade anyone to do anything, and coaches readers, regardless of age, education, or skill level, to be a master salesperson, negotiator, closer, entrepreneur, or speaker.

4. Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger

Jonah Berger’s Contagious: Why Things Catch On explores the mechanisms behind why certain ideas, products, and behaviors become viral. Berger identifies six key principles, encapsulated in the acronym STEPPS: Social Currency, Triggers, Emotion, Public, Practical Value, and Stories. These factors explain how word-of-mouth influences consumer behavior and decision-making, often more effectively than traditional advertising. The book emphasizes that people share information not just for its content but also for how it reflects on them socially, making storytelling a crucial element in crafting shareable messages. Overall, Contagious serves as a guide for marketers and communicators aiming to enhance their impact through social influence.

5. Guillebeau

Chris Guillebeau’s The $100 Startup serves as an inspiring guide for aspiring entrepreneurs, illustrating how to launch a successful micro-business with minimal investment, often just $100. Drawing from the experiences of over 1,500 individuals who transformed small investments into thriving ventures, Guillebeau emphasizes the importance of passion and practicality in entrepreneurship. The book outlines essential steps for starting a business, including identifying market needs, creating compelling offers, and leveraging personal skills. Ultimately, it advocates for a lifestyle where work aligns with personal values, enabling individuals to achieve both financial independence and fulfillment in their lives.

 In this book,Chris identified 1,500 individuals who have built businesses earning $50,000 or more from a modest investment (in many cases, $100 or less), and focused on the 50 most intriguing case studies. In nearly all cases, people with no special skills discovered aspects of their personal passions that could be monetized, and were able to restructure their lives in ways that gave them greater freedom and fulfillment.

6. Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

 Rich Dad Poor Dad tells the story of a boy with two fathers, one rich, one poor, to help you develop the mindset and financial knowledge you need to build a life of wealth and freedom. It evangelizes the importance of financial literacy, financial independence and building wealth through investing in assets.

7. The Power of Self Confidence by Brian Tracy 

The Power of Self-Confidence explains how to increase your “mental fitness” by thinking like top performers in every field. Little by little, you build up and maintain ever-higher levels of self-confidence in everything you do. Self-confidence allows you to move out of your comfort zone and take risks without any guarantees. With step-by-step guidance, author Brian Tracy will help you build the foundations of lifelong self-confidence. You discover how to determine what you really want, and unleash your personal powers to accomplish it.

8. Secrets Of Closing The Sale by Zig Ziglar

Zig Ziglar lets you in on the secrets of his own sure-fire, tested methods with Over 100 successful closings for every kind of persuasion,Over 700 questions that will open your eyes to new possibilities you may have overlooked, How to paint word pictures and use your imagination to get results and his Professional tips from America’s 100 most successful salespeople.

9.Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy

Eat That Frog! shows you how to organize each day so you can zero in on these critical tasks and accomplish them efficiently and effectively. The core of what is vital to effective time management is: decision, discipline, and determination. And in this fully revised and updated edition, Tracy adds two new chapters. The first explains how you can use technology to remind yourself of what is most important and protect yourself from what is least important. The second offers advice for maintaining focus in our era of constant distractions, electronic and otherwise

10. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

Think and Grow Rich has been called the “Grand daddy of All Motivational Literature.” It was the first book to boldly ask, “What makes a winner?” The man who asked and listened for the answer, Napoleon Hill, is now counted in the top ranks of the world’s winners himself.

The most famous of all teachers of success spent “a fortune and the better part of a lifetime of effort” to produce the “Law of Success” philosophy that forms the basis of his books and that is so powerfully summarized in this one.

11. Crushing It by Gary Vaynerchuk 

In this lively, practical, and inspiring book, Gary dissects every current major social media platform so that anyone, from a plumber to a professional ice skater, will know exactly how to amplify his or her personal brand on each. He offers both theoretical and tactical advice on how to become the biggest thing on old standbys like Twitter, Facebook and so on.

12. Purple Cow by Seth Godin

In Purple Cow, first published in 2003 and revised and expanded in 2009, Godin launched a movement to make truly remarkable products that are worth marketing in the first place. Through stories about companies like Starbucks, JetBlue, Krispy Kreme, and Apple, coupled with his signature provocative style, he inspires readers to rethink what their marketing is really saying about their product. In a world that grows noisier by the day, Godin’s challenge has never been more relevant to writers, marketers, advertisers, entrepreneurs, makers, product managers, and anyone else who has something to share with the world.

13.The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Classon

This book is hailed as the greatest of all inspirational works on the subject of thrift, financial planning, and personal wealth. In language as simple as that found in the Bible, these fascinating and informative stories set you on a sure path to prosperity and its accompanying joys. Acclaimed as a modern-day classic, this celebrated bestseller offers an understanding of financial success and  solutions to your personal financial problems that will guide you through a lifetime. 

14.Think Big, Act Bigger by Jeffrey W. Hayzlett

Jeffrey W. Hayzlett empowers business leaders to tie their visions to actions, advancing themselves past competitors and closer to their business dream. Hayzlett imparts ten core lessons that dare readers to own who they are as a leader and/or company, define where they want to go, and fearlessly do what it takes to get there,caring less about conventional wisdom, re-framing limitations, and steamrolling obstacles as they go.

15. Scientific Advertising by Claude C. Hopkins

In this book, Hopkins outlines an advertising approach based on testing and measuring. In this way losses from unsuccessful ads are kept to a safe level while gains from profitable ads are multiplied. As Hopkins wrote, the advertiser is “playing on the safe side of a hundred to one shot”.

The book is widely considered the foundation of direct marketing.

Readers are leaders!

Have you ever read any of these books? 

Which one of them would you be reading next?

Tell us, we are so eager to hear from you.

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