10 Best Business Books for Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners

What do successful entrepreneurs like Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg have in common? Aside from being billionaires, of course, they are all avid readers, and some of them even attribute their success to reading.

If you’ve stumbled upon this article, then that means you’re probably seeking recommendations on the best books you should read to be a better entrepreneur.

You’ve come to the right place.

Here are 10 of the best business books all entrepreneurs and small business owners should have on their bookshelf.

1. Mindset by Carol S. Dweck

In Mindset, Stanford University psychologist Carol S. Dweck describes two mindsets that dominate our lives — fixed mindset and growth mindset.

In the fixed mindset, a person tends to avoid challenges and sees effort as a waste of time. This mindset leads to inferior learning strategies. On the other hand, in the growth mindset, a person embraces challenges and sees effort as the path to mastery. Growth mindset leads to superior learning strategies.

Dweck claims that we are all a mixture of fixed and growth mindset. But it’s only when we truly embrace our growth mindset that we are empowered to take up new challenges, learn new things, and confront obstacles.

In order to succeed, entrepreneurs need to adopt a growth mindset to tackle setbacks and obstacles, and learn from them. As a result, Mindset should be required reading for anyone who’s planning to start their own business.

2. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries

The Lean Startup is a business book by Eric Ries that applies the concepts of lean manufacturing and agile development to the startup process. He also explores the reasons why most startups fail and provides an approach that startups can follow to overcome obstacles and achieve success.

The book consists of several concepts that startups can use to measure the efficacy of their offering, including building an MVP (minimum viable product), the build-measure-learn feedback loop, pivot, and the 5 Whys technique.

3. Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

Rework is one of my favorite business books of all time. Written by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, founders of Basecamp (formerly 37signals), Rework is a quick read with bite-sized chapters that contain lots of unconventional tips and wisdom to succeed in business.

If you’re seeking a fresh perspective on how to start and run a business, then Rework is the perfect startup playbook for you.

4. Originals by Adam Grant

Adam Grant is a New York Times bestselling author and one of the highest-rated professors at Wharton.

In his book Originals, Grant deals with the concept of originality and debunks the notion that leaders are born, not made. The book explores the origins of good ideas and how anyone can recognize a good idea.

Packed with interesting insights, findings, and examples, Originals is a book that aims to entertain and educate at the same time.

5. #AskGaryVee by Gary Vaynerchuk

Gary Vaynerchuk is a serial entrepreneur and one of the leading marketing influencers in the world. He’s known for churning out top-notch marketing content on a regular basis which has helped him generate a cult-like following on Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram. He also runs the hugely successful business podcast, The GaryVee Audio Experience.

#AskGaryVee encapsulates all the essential elements of Vaynerchuk’s business philosophy. Drawing heavily from Vaynerchuk’s popular #AskGaryVee show, the book showcases some of the most thought-provoking questions Gary has addressed on his show.

The book provides Vaynerchuk’s unique perspective on different business topics, ranging from startups to social media platforms to influencer marketing.

6. Zero to One by Peter Thiel

Peter Thiel is a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur and venture capitalist who co-founded PayPal and was Facebook’s first outside investor.

In his book Zero to One, Thiel reveals how to build companies that create new things, drawing on everything he’s learned directly as a co-founder of PayPal and Palantir and then as an investor in hundreds of startups, including Facebook and Space X.

7. Lost and Founder by Rand Fishkin

In Lost and Founder, Rand Fishkin (founder of Moz) provides a compelling and transparent account of his experience of starting and running a successful SaaS company.

Fishkin is brutally honest about the startup ecosystem and business culture. Each chapter is a startup myth buster, wherein Fishkin dismantles the commonly held beliefs in the technology world, first with his own stories, and later through data, research, and analysis.

8. Grit by Angela Duckworth

In this New York Times bestselling book, Angela Duckworth combines decades of psychological research and inspiring success stories from business and sports to demonstrate the power of grit to help you reach your potential.

Duckworth explains the importance of passion and perseverance in achieving our long terms goals and reveals techniques we can use to grow our grit to succeed in life.

9. Traction by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares

Traction is a business book by Gabriel Weinberg (founder of the privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo) and Justin Mares (serial entrepreneur). In the book, traction refers to growth and the pursuit of traction is what defines a startup.

The book reveals nineteen different traction channels — from SEO to email marketing to community building — and presents the a three-step framework (called the Bullseye framework) to help determine the best traction channel for your business.

10. Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

Made to Stick is a must-read business book for entrepreneurs and marketers who’d like to master the art of storytelling and create compelling marketing content for their products or services.

The goal of this book is simple: to help you make your ideas stick. How do you make your ideas stick? By defeating the arch nemesis of sticky messages — the Curse of Knowledge, which says that once you know something, it’s hard to imagine not knowing it. And that makes it hard for us to communicate our ideas clearly to our audience.

In the book, Chip and Dan Heath explain how the Curse of Knowledge can be overcome by following the six principles of stickiness — Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, and Stories. Each of these principles are explained in detail in separate chapters with elaborate examples and illustrations (called ‘Idea Clinics’) to really drive home the message.

Summary

So these are the 10 best business books I’d recommend to all those entrepreneurs and small business owners who are in need of guidance and inspiration.

If you’re still seeking more business books to add to your list, I’d urge you to check out my list of 79 best books for entrepreneurs. And if you have any recommendations on must-read books for entrepreneurs, please share your thoughts in the comments section below.