It’s the beginning of June, and I find that summer is a great time to read books that I’ve been meaning to read, but just haven’t gotten around to. You know, books like Story Brand by Donald Miller that everyone keeps talking about. There are some brilliant books that have been released in the last year or so in entrepreneurship, marketing, and leadership that I really like. Many of these picks are already making me itch to hit the beach and curl up with a good read, a cold drink and my largest sun hat. Check out my summer small business reading list for 2019 below.
Small Business Reading List: 10 Books to Read This Summer
1. Buy Then Build: How Acquisition Entrepreneurs Outsmart the Startup Game, by Walker Deibel
In Buy Then Build, acquisition entrepreneur Walker Deibel shows you how to begin with a sustainable, profitable company and grow from there. It is your guide to outsmart the startup game, live the entrepreneurial lifestyle, and reap the financial rewards of ownership now.
2. SideHustle Millionaire: How to Build a Side Business that Creates Financial Freedom, by Tony Whatley
Starting a business may seem an overwhelming task for a busy professional, but it doesn’t have to be. With proper guidance and execution, your side business income may exceed your career salary. The best part is that in today’s digital society, you won’t even have to quit your job to start something that can have a high-earning potential. You can retain that safety net of a career, for as long as you wish. Entrepreneur Tony Whatley shares the mindset, strategies and steps that helped him create a side hustle business, which earned millions.
3. Women with Money: The Judgment-Free Guide to Creating the Joyful, Less Stressed, Purposeful (and, Yes, Rich) Life You Deserve, by Jean Chatzky
In Women With Money, Jean Chatzky shows readers how to wrap their hands around tactical solutions to get paid what they deserve, become inspired to start businesses, invest for tomorrow, make their money last, and then use that money to foster secure relationships, raise independent and confident children, send those kids to college, care for their aging parents, leave a legacy, and–best of all–bring them joy!
4. Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen, by Donald Miller
New York Times best-selling author Donald Miller uses the seven universal elements of powerful stories to teach listeners how to dramatically improve how they connect with customers and grow their businesses.
5. Profit First: Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine, by Mike Michalowicz
In Profit First, Mike Michalowicz shows that by taking profit first and apportioning only what remains for expenses, entrepreneurs will transform their businesses from cash-eating monsters to profitable cash cows. It’s a game-changing roadmap for any entrepreneur to make money they always dreamed of.
6. Principles to Fortune: Crafting a Culture to Massively Grow a Business, by Scott J Bintz
Principles To Fortune teaches readers how to massively grow their organization by getting principles and core values ingrained into their work culture, which is the fuel for amazing success & rewards. It covers creating culture, e-commerce concepts, killing status quo, marketing in the digital world, and finding a strategic way of life.
7. The 1-Page Marketing Plan: Get New Customers, Make More Money, and Stand Out from the Crowd, by Allan Dib
In The 1-Page Marketing Plan, serial entrepreneur and rebellious marketer Allan Dib reveals a marketing implementation breakthrough that makes creating a marketing plan simple and fast. It’s literally a single page, divided up into nine squares. With it, you’ll be able to map out your own sophisticated marketing plan and go from zero to marketing hero.
8. Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t, by Simon Sinek
Too many workplaces are driven by cynicism, paranoia, and self-interest. But the best ones foster trust and cooperation because their leaders build what Simon Sinek calls a “Circle of Safety” that separates the security inside the team from the challenges outside. Sinek illustrates his ideas with fascinating true stories that range from the military to big business, from government to investment banking.
9. Learn or Die: Using Science to Build a Leading-Edge Learning Organization, by Edward Hess
To compete with today’s increasing globalization and rapidly evolving technologies, individuals and organizations must take their ability to learn―the foundation for continuous improvement, operational excellence, and innovation―to a much higher level. In Learn or Die, Edward D. Hess combines recent advances in neuroscience, psychology, behavioral economics, and education with key research on high-performance businesses to create an actionable blueprint for becoming a leading-edge learning organization.
10. Black Fortunes: The Story of the First Six African Americans Who Escaped Slavery and Became Millionaires, by Shomari Wills
“By telling the little-known stories of six pioneering African American entrepreneurs, Black Fortunes by Shomari Willis makes a worthy contribution to black history, to business history, and to American history.”—Margot Lee Shetterly, New York Times bestselling author of Hidden Figures
Do you have a book suggestion for the small business reading list? I would love to learn what you are reading. Leaders are readers.
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