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A Strong Foundation: 5 Books to Read Before Starting Your Business

business.com editorial staff
business.com editorial staff
business.com Member
Updated Apr 07, 2020

An easier way of starting a business is to gather more knowledge and motivation. Here are five masterpieces that will help you.

  • Building a new business takes time and research to set a company up for success.
  • Business strategy books for startups guide you on the do's and don'ts of a successful enterprise.
  • All strategies in the books can be customized with your company mission and goals in mind.

Are you planning on starting a business any time soon?

Do you have the best ideas but you can't find a way to settle on a fruitful strategy?

Turning a concept into a multimillion-dollar enterprise may seem like an impossible goal; yet, many people don't have any hesitations.

They end up making colossal mistakes. Before doing anything you must have a plan, both in mind and written on a piece of paper.

Assess risk, hire the best people, and decide on a budget. An easier way of starting a business is to gather more knowledge and motivation.

Reading business and self-help books can help too. Here are three masterpieces that will help you transform your ideas into a productive business mantra.  

1. The Lean Startup by Eric Reis

Many of today's business ideas are not good enough to compete with existing enterprises. People take foolish risks, they don't think of the consequences, and they eventually end up losing money they don't have.

The Lean Startup is a self-help book for entrepreneurs committed to making a dream, an idea, or a mere concept, become a successful business.

The author describes a startup as an organization or entity devoted to crafting something uncertain. Every new business should have a goal, and that goal should be to stand out and grab people's undivided attention.

The Lean Startup is the kind of book that fosters a pretty interesting approach. It is aimed at companies that leverage human ingenuity but it also focuses on capital efficient startups.

The book was inspired by manufacturing lessons that rely on fast scientific experimentation, validated learning and counterintuitive practices meant to measure progress and shorten product development without becoming too selfish.

The book encourages startups to change directions, modify their general structure step by step and take risks.

2. The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong by Laurence J. Peter & Raymond Hull

The Peter Principle is a remarkable book that helps entrepreneurs and business leaders understand that no business model is perfectly safe and prone to succeed.

Failure can happen when you least expect it to happen, and entrepreneurs should be well aware of this fact. Support and trustworthy collaborators are fundamental for attaining success.

Employees matter the most – they're the glue that holds your company together, so if you want to set yourself apart from the competition and a shot at a multimillion profit, you might want to pay them more attention.

In 1969, when the book was first released, Lawrence J. Peter had a significant cultural impact on its readers, thanks to its remarkable, brilliant and hilarious writing style about business life.

The Peter Principle answers the everlasting question, "Why can't my business rise up to the expectations of the people?" The author explores other businesses' incompetence levels, and it is aimed at opening your eyes.

Before starting a business, stop for a second and think about what you're about to do. If you believe you can do it and you have no doubts that you'll fail, then it's worth taking the risk.

3. Good Luck by Alex Rovira

Good Luck is a witty fable that explains that luck is not accidental. We make our own luck. Together with marketing consultant Fernando Trias de Bes, Alex Rovira reveals the story of two people who meet "accidentally" in Central Park.

Fifty years later, they meet again only to discover that only one of them made it in life. Good Luck is more like a story within another story.

It resembles Coelho's The Alchemist because it emphasizes taking a leap of faith and seizing smart opportunities. 

It is inspiring to read because it offers inspiration and motivation to try harder and believe in your business ideas with all your heart. If you can dream it, you can do it.

Starting a business is hard work. It takes a lot of time, money and effort to build a successful enterprise. To succeed, you must be willing to fail and try again.

Learn from every mistake, and you'll eventually build an empire.

4. What It Takes: How I Built a $100 Million Business Against the Odds by Raegan Moya-Jones

In her book What It Takes, Moya-Jones highlights the raw grit used to build her $100 million aden + anais business from the ground up. Her lifestyle brand for women and children with thousands of store locations around the globe. Her company offers better swaddle blanket options for mothers to use with their newborn babies.

Moya-Jones highlights nonconformist strategies self-starters can use to launch a new brand. Her business model was innovative enough to make the company a subject of a Harvard Business School case study.

5. Choose by Ryan Levesque

Choose by Ryan Levesque looks to simplify the way new entrepreneurs launch their businesses. The Fortune 500 CEO provides an exacting framework on how to start and build a brand. His methodology is simple to follow, and Levesque uses case studies to reduce the margin of error for new startups.

Levesque spends a lot of time on the importance of concentrating on who you serve instead of on product and service development efforts.

Image Credit: BongkarnThanyakij / Getty Images
business.com editorial staff
business.com editorial staff
business.com Member
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