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
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.