Great Business Books
This is a collection of great books on business that have inspired many. We have distilled a lot of wisdom from these but, when you want to read further, it is best to hear it direct from the source of that wisdom.
These days, you can download electronic versions of most of these books from e.g. Amazon instantly and be reading them in minutes on any desktop or mobile device. Many eBooks will let you highlight sections that take your fancy so you can quickly revisit them in future to refresh your memory.
Covey, Steven. R. (1989). The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. NY: Simon and Schuster.
Gerber, Michael E. (2004). The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to do About it. The E-Myth revisited embraces the fundamental premise that a small business only succeeds to the degree that its owner goes to work ON the business rather than just IN it. Gerber walks you through the steps in the life of a business. Available as hardcover, audio CDS and kindle.
Hill, Napoleon (1937). Think and Grow Rich. Money making secrets from the distilled wisdom of distinguished men of great wealth and achievement. Andrew Carnegie's magic formula for success was the direct inspiration for this book. Updated in 1960 and copyright renewed in 1988.
Kiyosaki, Richard. T. (1997). Rich Dad, Poor Dad. TechPress inc, Arizona. The first of a number of books on the them and a strong argument for why starting a running a business is the best way yo make serious income.
Koch, Richard. (1998). The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More with Less, Crown Business.
Koch, Richard. (2005) The 80/20 Individual: How to Build on the 20% of What You Do Best, Random House USA Inc.
Koch, Richard. (2010). The Star Principle. Richard Koch has made over £100 million from spotting 'Star' businesses. In this book, he shares the secrets of his success - and shows how you too can identify and enrich yourself from 'Stars'.
Lavinsky, David (2012) Start at the End: How companies can grow bigger and faster by reversing their Business Plan Wiley This book pushes many buttons for us. Works for small business, starts with the destination goal in mind and is attuned to the 80/20 Rule. Good Chapters on e.g. Goal Setting and Metrics make it useful for that alone.
Marshall, Perry. (2013) 80/20 Sales and Marketing: The Definitive Guide to Working Less and Making More, Entrepreneur Press.
Mohammed, Rafi (2010) 1% Windfall: How Successful Companies Use Price to Profit and Grow. Rafi Mohammed shows businesses how to reap financial windfalls and sustain growth using the under exploited and often overlooked strategy of setting prices. See our Pricing article for more information.
Peters, L. J., & Hull, R. (1969). The Peter Principle: why things always go wrong. NY: William Morrow and Company. Great insight but not necessary to purchase any well covered on the Web.
Ries, Eric (2011). The Lean Start Up.
Ries, Al & Trout (1994). The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing.
Robbins, Tony
Stack, Jack and Burlingham Bo (2013) The Great Game of Business: the only sensible way to run a business London: Profile Updated in 2013 is devoted to an 'open book' approach to management whereby all company financial and production data is shared with everyone. If you had invested $1,000 in his open book business SRC in 1983, it would be worth $3.4 million today (2013). By way of comparison, the same amount invested in Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway would be worth $113,000. Stack clearly has some serious street creds!
Wattles, W. D. (1910). The Science of Getting Rich. (various) One of the early modern writers on this subject and the basis of more recent writers like Napoleon Hill and Tony Robbins.