With countless business books available online and in brick and mortar stores, it can be difficult to find the most truly useful resources. We reached out to female founders and entrepreneurs for their top business book recommendations. While there isn’t just one “best business book” we have divided our list into three basic categories: motivation, financial and product launch, and communication and productivity. Our team of recommenders also tell you why they found their recommendation helpful.
Motivation
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She Means Business: Turn Your Ideas into Reality and Become a Wildly Successful Entrepreneur by Carrie Green
Christina Orso, Owner, Christina Orso LLC: “The book helped me embrace the process of entrepreneurship while staying focused on my goals. I like to refer back to the book when I’m feeling doubts about the process or want a reminder to learn from my mistakes, celebrate the wins, and take care of myself along the way.”
The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level by Gay Hendricks
Rebecca Reynolds Moore, Founder & CEO, InANutshell Consulting: “This book was a game-changer for me in helping me help my clients to identify their brilliance and harness it to make smarter business decisions and overcome obstacles that are holding them back from success. I use parts of the book for my framework in working with female founders to go from ‘mess to message’ and grow their business with more ease and joy.”
Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office: Unconscious Mistakes Women Make That Sabotage Their Careers (A NICE GIRLS Book) by Lois P. Frankel, PhD
Barbara Maheshwari, Founder and CEO, Remote Bob: “The book talks about how strong and resilient a woman needs to be in order to achieve her full potential. It made me realize how sometimes women unintentionally undermine themselves in order to not provoke anyone. By doing that we automatically set the tone for our future encounters with co-workers or business partners.”
Financial and Product Launch
The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries
Cheryl McColgan, Founder, Heal Nourish Grow LLC: “I loved this book because it presents the idea that you don’t have to bring the perfect product to market. Trying to get a product or service perfect BEFORE launch is something that holds many businesses and entrepreneurs back. Instead, this book focuses on bringing a needed and functional product to market upon which you can then get feedback from real customers and continue to make improvements.”
Hacking Growth by Sean Ellis and Morgan Brown
Irina Georgieva, Co-Founder, Enterprise League: “The book clearly focuses on data-driven growth for companies and advises to apply the build, measure, learn cycle to always base your decisions on data. This book will give you a lot of practical examples and actionable steps to take. The ideas are particularly useful for online companies, as well as any company that wants to achieve growth and have successful digital marketing strategies.”
The Power of Product Platforms by Marc H. Meyer and Alvin P. Lehnerd
Lynn Birch, Co-Founder and Vice President, Product Engineering, Skreens: “The Power of Platforms outlines an excellent strategy and methodology for developing products as platforms, not just point products. It really helps you to develop a company and product line that sets up your company for innovation and organic growth.”
Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss
Madeline Schwarz, Communication and Career Coach, Madeline Schwarz Coaching: “What I love about this book is that it reads like a suspense novel but it’s filled with practical skills to improve your negotiating power. I constantly refer back to these strategies and recommend this book for anyone who’s managing clients, managing teams, or communicating with other humans.”
Communication and Productivity
Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less by Sam Carpenter
Mollie Newton, Editor & Founder, PetMeTwice: “As a business owner in a somewhat creative industry (blogging), I have found it difficult to structure the workflow process of my business. Work the System vividly outlines how best to streamline workflow processes and systematize your business so that you spend less time managing processes and putting out fires and spend more time doing work that actually results in income.”
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
Golda Manuel, Founder and CEO, Leksi.co: “A necessary skill for any entrepreneur is impeccable communication, and this book explores and provides steps on how to write engaging copy. Besides writing better stories and headlines for Leksi, it has also changed the way I communicate with potential business partners.”
The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Gerber
Andrea Travillian, Small Business Coach, Aspirify: “I read it about 15 years ago and still think about its principles on a regular basis! It helps you look at your business as more than just a job. It helps you understand the need for formalized processes in your business and stops you from working too many hours because you can’t outsource.”
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