Top 5 Best Business Books For Entrepreneurs.

Wed, 29 Jul 2020 by Liz Rosling

Summary

• • Here at SME Loans, we have handpicked a small collection of absorbing and inspirational books that we thought would be incredibly useful for entrepreneurs.
  • The books that we selected are written by industry-leading experts who have invaluable experience and success working for some of the most recognisable companies in the world.
  • Broad topics include building a business, changing the status quo, marketing tactics just to name a few.

With so many books about business, leadership and entrepreneurial success being published year upon year, it’s hard to figure out which reads share the most useful and relevant content. Finding the best business books to read is vital to business education and long-term success. Most highly successful entrepreneurs are readers and credit part of their success to the books they’ve read.

For example, former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates reads a new book each week, and Mark Zuckerburg (CEO of Facebook) reads one new book every other week. Similarly, Elon Musk, the cofounder of PayPal & CEO of Tesla, used to read science-fiction novels for up to 10 hours every day, and still believes reading is important for learning and growth.

Business owners live busy lives, and whilst you may not think you have the time or luxury to sit down and read a book, you do. Whether this be on the train or tube, whilst waiting for a meeting, or before you fall asleep, the benefits of reading and exercising the muscle we know as the brain arent to be underestimated.

To narrow things down for you, we’ve rounded up five of the best business books for entrepreneurs:

2. Measure What Matters: OKRs: The Simple Idea that Drives 10x Growth

Author: John Doerr | Goodreads rating: 4.05 | Price: £11.55 (paperback) | Buy Now

If you want to understand what has made Silicon Valley, take a read of Measure What Matters. It talks about the growth of the revolutionary approach to setting goals: Objective and Key Results (OKRs).

American investor and venture capitalist with a net worth of $7.5 billion dollars, John Doerr was the first to recognise the power of OKRs. He was responsible for bringing them to the founders of a startup that grew to be the globally recognised, hundreds of billion dollar company Google.

Since then, Doerr has introduced OKRs to over fifty other companies and in Measure What Matters, with extracts from Bill Gates and Bono, he teaches us (among many other things) the importance of collecting and collating relevant data to track business progress.

“Leaders must get across the why as well as the what. Their people need more than milestones for motivation. They are thirsting for meaning, to understand how their goals relate to the mission.”

4. Imagine It Forward: Courage, Creativity and the Power of Change

Author: Beth Comstock | Goodreads Rating: 4.17 | Price: £14.99 (paperback) | Buy Now

Imagine It Forward shares a personal narrative, in which American business executive Beth Comstock writes about lessons she’s learnt over her successful thirty-year career at General Electric. From Chief Marketer to Vice Chair, she was considered right hand to CEO Jeffrey Immelt and led efforts to accelerate the company’s growth.

Trustee of The National Geographic Society and a director at Nike, Beth holds an impressive CV. In Imagine It Forward, she helps us understand how to navigate change, spot trends and take calculated risks.

With contributions from Tahl Raz, the book reminds us to challenge traditional schools of thought. It teaches us that in order to be an effective changemaker, we need to give ourselves authorisation to push outside expectations and boundaries.

“People who effect radical change have to exhibit an uncompromising faith in experimentation, a bias for novelty and action, and a sense that disruption is something you cause, not observe.”

“Who are you waiting for to tell you it’s okay? Your boss? Your mother? Yoda? Grab your own permission. No one is going to give it to you.”

5. This Is Marketing: You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn To See

Author: Seth Godwin | Goodreads Rating: 4.05 | Price: £10.78 (paperback) | Buy Now

Seth Godwin, an American author and dot com business executive, founded Yoyodyne in 1995. Coining the concept ‘permission marketing’, Seth promoted permission marketing and used online games to market companies to participating users.

In 1998, he sold Yoyodyne to Yahoo! for $30 million, and became their vice president of direct marketing. For the past fifteen years, Seth has been inspiring entrepreneurs and marketers with his blog, online courses and lectures. Seth’s book This Is Marketing has lived up to expectation and continued to inspire.

Whether you’re a startup founder, a small business owner or an executive at a larger company, Seth teaches you how to position yourself within your target market, using tactics like empathy and connection instead of spammy ads and email funnels.

“That’s what most people seem to care about. How big a brand, how much market share, how many online followers. Too many marketers spend most of their time running a hype show, trying to get just a little bigger. The thing is, tall sunflowers have deep and complex root systems. Without them, they’d never get very high.

This is a book about roots. About anchoring your work deeply in the dreams, desires, and communities of those you seek to serve. It’s about changing people for the better, creating work you can be proud of. And it’s about being a driver of the market, not simply being market-driven.”

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