I’m an avid reader. I read for entertainment as well as for educational purposes. My personal preference is business books that teach a different perspective than what’s considered societal norms. I love books that challenge the “system”! Books that make you question everything taught to you about business and life. And leave you feeling like you have escaped the matrix. I’ll take the red pill, please.

Here is the list of business books you need to read for 2023. You can check them out at your local library. Search on Google for the book title. There is a section labeled Borrow, which will list the local libraries where you can find the book. Also, you can find them on Amazon, Abe Books, Thrift Books, Book Outlet, and other online bookstores.

*As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Growing a Business by Paul Hawken
Synopsis:
Paul Hawken demonstrates that the answers to small business problems today cannot be solved by college degrees, training or money—but only by you.

Nearly everyone harbors a secret dream of starting or owning a business. In fact, a million businesses start in the United States every year. Many of them fail, but enough succeed so that small businesses are now adding millions of jobs to the economy at the same time that the Fortune 500 companies are actually losing jobs.

Paul Hawken—entrepreneur and bestselling author—wrote Growing a Business for those who set out to make their dream a reality. He knows what he’s talking about; he is his own best example of success. In the early 1970s, while he was still in his twenties, he founded Erewhon, the largest distributor of natural foods. More recently, he founded and still runs Smith & Hawken, the premier mail-order garden tool company. And he wrote a critically acclaimed book called The Next Economy about the future of the economy.

Using examples like Patagonia, Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream, and University National Bank of Palo Alto, California, Hawken shows that the successful business is an expression of an individual person. The most successful business, your idea for a business, will grow from something that is deep within you, something that can’t be stolen by anyone because it is so uniquely yours that anyone else who tried to execute your idea would fail. He dispels the myth of the risk-taking entrepreneur. The purpose of business, he points out, is not to take risks but rather to get something done.


Stop Acting Rich…And Start Living Like a Real Millionaire by Dr. Thomas J. Stanley
Synopsis:
The bestselling author of The Millionaire Next Door reveals easy ways to build real wealth With well over two million of his books sold, and huge praise from many media outlets, Dr. Thomas J. Stanley is a recognized and highly respected authority on how the wealthy act and think. Now, in Stop Acting Rich ? and Start Living Like a Millionaire, he details how the less affluent have fallen into the elite luxury brand trap that keeps them from acquiring wealth and details how to get out of it by emulating the working rich as opposed to the super elite.

  • Puts wealth in perspective and shows you how to live rich without spending more
  • Details why we spend lavishly and how to stop this destructive cycle
  • Discusses how being “rich” means more than just big houses and luxury cars

A defensive strategy for tough times, Stop Acting Rich shows readers how to live a rich, happy life through accumulating more wealth and using it to achieve the type of financial freedom that will create true happiness and fulfillment.



The Million-Dollar, One-Person Business: Make Great Money. Work the Way You Like. Have the Life You Want. by Elaine Pofeldt
Synopsis:

The indispensable guide to earning a six-figure take-home income on your own terms, from Forbes.com contributing writer Elaine Pofeldt. The rise of one-million-dollar, one-person businesses in the past five years is the biggest trend in employment today, offering the widest range of people the most ways to earn a living while having the lifestyles they want. In The Million-Dollar, One-Person Business, Elaine Pofeldt outlines the pathways to joining this entrepreneurial movement, synthesizing advice from hundreds of business owners who’ve done it. She explains how to identify, launch, grow, and reinvent the business, showing how a single individual can generate $1 million in revenue–something only larger small companies have done in the past. Both inspirational and practical, this book will appeal to all who seek a great work-life and a great lifestyle.


Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy by Martin Lindstrom
Synopsis:
How much do we know about why we buy? What truly influences our decisions in today’s message-cluttered world? An eye-grabbing advertisement, a catchy slogan, an infectious jingle? Or do our buying decisions take place below the surface, so deep within our subconscious minds, we’re barely aware of them?

In BUYOLOGY, Lindstrom, who was voted one of Time Magazine’s most influential people of 2009, presents the astonishing findings from his groundbreaking, three-year, seven-million-dollar neuromarketing study, a cutting-edge experiment that peered inside the brains of 2,000 volunteers from all around the world as they encountered various ads, logos, commercials, brands, and products. His startling results shatter much of what we have long believed about what seduces our interest and drives us to buy. Among the questions he explores:

Does sex actually sell? To what extent do people in skimpy clothing and suggestive poses persuade us to buy products?
Despite government bans, does subliminal advertising still surround us – from bars to highway billboards to supermarket shelves?
Can “Cool” brands, like iPods, trigger our mating instincts?
Can other senses – smell, touch, and sound – be so powerful as to physically arouse us when we see a product?
Do companies copy from the world of religion and create rituals – like drinking a Corona with a lime – to capture our hard-earned dollars?


Company of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business
by Paul Jarvis

Synopsis:
What if the real key to a richer and more fulfilling career was not to create and scale a new start-up, but rather, to be able to work for yourself, determine your own hours, and become a (highly profitable) and sustainable company of one? Suppose the better—and smarter—solution is simply to remain small? This book explains how to do just that.

Company of One is a refreshingly new approach centered on staying small and avoiding growth, for any size business. Not as a freelancer who only gets paid on a per piece basis, and not as an entrepreneurial start-up that wants to scale as soon as possible, but as a small business that is deliberately committed to staying that way. By staying small, one can have freedom to pursue more meaningful pleasures in life, and avoid the headaches that result from dealing with employees, long meetings, or worrying about expansion. Company of One introduces this unique business strategy and explains how to make it work for you, including how to generate cash flow on an ongoing basis.

Paul Jarvis left the corporate world when he realized that working in a high-pressure, high profile world was not his idea of success. Instead, he now works for himself out of his home on a small, lush island off of Vancouver, and lives a much more rewarding and productive life. He no longer has to contend with an environment that constantly demands more productivity, more output, and more growth.

In Company of One, Jarvis explains how you can find the right pathway to do the same, including planning how to set up your shop, determining your desired revenues, dealing with unexpected crises, keeping your key clients happy, and of course, doing all of this on your own.


Are you finding the tips helpful? Click the link to support the blog and keep helpful content coming your way.