Great Books for Entrepreneurs

We’ve selected some of our favourite books for entrepreneurs which really inspire and also inform.   Why not add these to your reading list and enjoy?

Jackie Fast, the super inspirational and award-winning entrepreneur turned author who took part in The Apprentice 2017, has written this fantastic guide to rousing your inner rebel and embracing disruption in order to make a positive difference to the world.   

Rule Breaker reveals how to stay on top when the world around us is changing and explains why we must throw away the rule book and encourage rebelliousness.

Claude Littner, Entrepreneur and advisor to Lord Sugar, The Apprentice UK says, “Well researched and enjoyable, this is a playbook for how to achieve success in the new era by inspiring the inner rebel in you to go their own way.  A must read for anyone looking to do things differently!”    

Only just launched but this book has received incredible reviews from many world leaders in entrepreneurship already.  We love the BS-free, no holes bared refreshing honesty and straightforward approach, super useful and adoptable insights and how Jackie goes above and beyond to encourage entrepreneurs at all stages of their journey to step out of their comfort zones, be brave, go out there and make serious business magic.  Highly recommended.  

Buy from Amazon and all leading outlets.

Business is Personal by Penny Power OBE is a truly uplifting and inspirational book for all female entrepreneurs.  Being the leader of your own life is the greatest lesson in business. Your business is personal as it is yours. We live in a fast paced, over-connected world. Relying on your own instincts and knowing the dreams you hold for your version of success, ambition and happiness will ensure you have the life you want and not the life you compare yourself with. Business is Personal shares the areas of business that are rarely discussed, but have been learned the hard way by Penny and others. The emotions we need to understand, the mind we can be in control of, and tools Penny learned, following years of hard work and many challenging moments. Penny has poured her heart into this book and it is incredibly revealing.  Buy from Amazon 

For a new generation of fiercely independent and ambitious career women, going at it alone and even thinking you could launch your own successful business remains a pipe dream. The business world, and the start-up scene in particular, remain ruthless, unwelcoming and scary. She Made It is the secret weapon you need. With honesty, practicality and a helping of epic and successful women in business, this book offers you a voice of reason and encouragement that will allow you to square up to the big players in Silicon Valley or any of the tech entrepreneur scenes of the world.   This book is your go-to guide to launching your own business, as well as to finding your feet and voice as a woman in business. It details the practicalities of being an entrepreneur and your own boss, guiding you through the day to day running of a start-up with lessons in hiring a team, raising investment and backing yourself and your ideas. It also addresses the challenges of being a female founder and businesswoman, with sections on stress management, finding your voice and style and building a personal brand. Buy from Amazon

Using her own story alongside the most popular questions that Scarlett is asked at the many events she runs in schools and colleges, The Smart Girl’s Handbook will show you how to:

• Discover your talent and find your passion.
• Learn how to deal with fear of failure.
• Cope with anxiety and start speaking your truth.
• Build a strong group of true friends and slay the naysayers.
• Be confident and love yourself.

Each chapter follows the themes above and uses examples from Scarlett’s own life to explore the central idea. Included are tools, tips and exercises to work through, as well as interviews with other ‘Smart Girls’.

This is a handbook for any girl who wants to push boundaries and go for what they want.

Available from Amazon

How to Have a Happy Hustle shares the secrets of innovation experts and startup founders to help you make your ideas happen. 

If you’re looking for fulfilment outside the day job, have an idea but don’t know where to start, or are held back by a lack of confidence, experience, time or money, Bec Evans will help you get off the starting blocks with this complete guide to making your ideas happen. 

There’s no getting away from it – hustling is hard work – but with practical tools, inspiring stories, science-backed research and guidance every.   Buy from Amazon

In this book, Shann Nix Jones shares the innovative methods that helped her turn her passion into a sustainable business. Following these steps, you’ll learn how to:

· develop an idea into a viable business that supports any lifestyle
· operate with meaningful values and stand out from the competition
· convert every obstacle into a launch pad
· balance work and family – and even weave both together to enhance your family life

Shann believes that anyone can start a business following her 13 steps, and that doing so can bring you closer to creating a life in which you are the CEO of your business and your destiny.  Buy from Amazon 

Ego manifests in many forms and can compromise our ability to fully engage with others. In order to build trusting relationships, today’s leaders need to understand how to manage their own egos, as well as others’. Equipped with these skills, leaders can encourage people to feel engaged and empowered while unlocking innovation and creating positive working environments. This book is packed with insightful leadership stories, useful psychological models and reflective activities and exercises to enable leaders to better understand themselves and the different dynamics at play in their relationships, allowing them to effectively manage the many challenges faced in today’s workplace. 

This book will help you: Understand your ego and how it does and doesn’t serve you Navigate tricky relationship dynamics and create greater levels of engagement Develop strategies for transcending unhelpful ego reactions and behaviour Enable greater levels of psychological safety in your workplace Be a leader who creates a culture that empowers others to perform at their best.  Buy from Amazon

In this book Sheryl Miller shares strategies and practical advice that has worked for her and many others, including how to handle office politics, securing promotions and pay rises and finding the work you were born to do. Inside this book you will find the tools, encouragement and support to be the best version of you and Smash It!

This book is perfect for fans of personal development books and those looking for techniques to advance in the corporate and business world. Covering not only professional achievement, it also takes a holistic approach to personal fulfilment and the importance of finding meaning in our work. It would be a perfect addition to any office library and make a perfect gift for managers and leaders aspiring to advance to that next level.  Buy from Amazon

Embodied Business is for empath entrepreneurs, to support them with grounding and aligning their businesses with the seven main chakras in the body, with the earth star and soul star as anchor points. It looks at some of the principles, blocks and issues that can come up on the entrepreneurial journey, as each can correspond to a different chakra. 

When these areas are addressed and brought to light, the whole entrepreneurial journey flows much more smoothly. You become a vibrational match for ideal clients. You feel safe to show up and share in your authentic power, and you own your worth as the shining light that you are. 

There are stories and examples shared throughout the book from Tara Jackson’s own experience as well as her clients; holistic wellness; inspirational guidance; plus many practical tools and prompts for each chakra to support and inspire you with your business as an empathpreneur.  Buy from Amazon

In Unbound Writing, Nicola Humber shares years of experience as she unlocks why so many women aren’t writing as their truest selves. 

This book will take you through each layer of writing in a way that both frees you to express your unique magic and creates a rich connection with each of your potential readers. 

Learn how to realise your own process, and to trust yourself and your instincts as an author (because that is what you are!). But more importantly learn how are you going to allow yourself to become unbound?   Buy from Amazon

Free ideas – Smart thinking – Real case studies – Simple advice – Quick tips micro & small companies, self-employed & freelance, everyone with a side hustle – this book is for you! If you run one of the UK’s 5m micro small companies, you will know just how hard it is to grow your business. Drawing on experience from working with hundreds of founders just like you, creative head and financial director Erica Wolfe-Murray offers you a rich array of ideas, tips and contemporary case studies to kick-start growth, build commercial resilience, outsmart your competitors and fall back in love with what you do.   Buy from Amazon

In this fascinating examination of our widespread obsession with winning, Cath Bishop draws on her personal experience of high-performance environments to trace the idea of winning through history, language and thought to explore how it has come to be a defining concept in fields from sport to business, from politics to education. Faced with the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century, Cath offers a new, broader approach – The Long Win.  

Cath competed as a rower at three Olympic Games, becoming the first British woman to win the World Championships and an Olympic medal in the coxless pairs event. As a senior diplomat, Cath worked on policy and negotiations, specializing in stabilization policy for conflict-affected parts of the world. In business, Cath has acted as a coach and consultant, advising on team and leadership development and organizational culture, and teaches on the Executive Education Faculty at the Judge Business School, Cambridge University.

In this book she brings that extraordinary mix of experience to examine what winning has come to mean to society and to us as individuals and offers a fresh perspective on how we might redefine success – personal and professional – for the longer-term.  Buy from Amazon

This is the remarkable, at times funny, story of a young entrepreneur who, aged 18 and with $4,000 and no other funding, started up invisibobble the revolutionary hair ties that have taken the haircare industry by storm. Today, Sophie Trelles-Tvede s company has sold over 100 million hair ties around the world and turns over $15 million.

As a first-year university student, getting ready for a party, Sophie spotted an old telephone cord and decided to use it to tie her hair with. The next morning, she noticed something different with her hair: she did not have a headache after untying the cord and there was not much of a mark (or kink) in her hair. The genius idea of invisibobble was born right there! This is the story of the idea and thereafter the ups and downs, funny and serious moments, of an entrepreneur s journey that will inspire others and reveal what it takes to succeed.  Buy from Amazon

Start-Ups, Pivots and Pop-Ups is a must read for anyone with a business idea and the desire to be successful. It gives the reader the skills and knowledge to survive in today’s innovation and entrepreneurial-focused world. This book is about starting a business. It’s about putting your toe in the entrepreneurial water – perhaps through doing a short term business gig or a pop-up business – and then seeing what happens. It shows you how to listen to the customer and work out why failures may happen, and when they do, you’ll learn how to deal with them and create a new business that is robust and ready to grow.

This super useful shows you the best ways of starting, testing and growing a business. It shares the stories, experience and insights of those who’ve done it, and explains how to innovate, trial, refine and succeed. Even if your business idea struggles, you’ll find out how to learn so much that you’ll pivot your business, try again and then win big time.  Buy from Amazon

And here’s a selection of other great titles to seek out: