We only place books on this page we have read and highly recommend. They are grouped by functional area of a business, and ordered by our suggested priority of reading.
STOP PRESS: Before you read any other book be sure to read The E-myth, which covers strategy, management and operations of a business. It is the first book any small business owner should read.
The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It – Michael E. Gerber
Strategy books for small business
Books for owners, Directors and founders of a small business. Helps you think about what your business does, for whom, where and how (at a high-level).
Planning
- Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies – Jim Collins
- Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t – Jim Collins
- Purple Cow, New Edition: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable–Includes new bonus chapter – Seth Godin
- Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance – Michael E. Porter
- Focus: The Future of Your Company Depends on It – Al Ries
- The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)
- Seth Godin
Entrepreneur Development
- Think and Grow Rich – Napoleon Hill
Management books for small business
Books for managers of a small business. Helps you manage the business and people better day-to-day.
Profitability
- Mastering the Rockefeller Habits: What You Must Do to Increase the Value of Your Growing Firm – Verne Harnish
- Managing The Professional Service Firm – David H. Maister
- Management Powertools – Harry Onsman
Recruitment
- First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently – Marcus Buckingham, Curt Coffman
- The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilised Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t – Robert Sutton
Organisational Training
Managing people
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen R. Covey
- The One Minute Manager -
Kenneth H. Blanchard, Spencer Johnson
- businessThink: Rules for Getting It Right–Now, and No Matter What! – Dave Marcum, Steve Smith, Mahan Khalsa
Productivity
- Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
- David Allen
- The 4 hour Work Week – Timothy Ferriss
- The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done – Peter F. Drucker
Communicating
- The Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing & Thinking
- Barbara Minto
Culture & communication
- Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World’s Most Unusual Workplace – Ricardo Semlar

Business Development books for small business
Books for the business development team in a business (sales, marketing and customer service/relations people).
Marketing
- Guerrilla Marketing, 4th edition: Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for Making Big Profits from Your Small Business – Jay Conrad Levinson
- Marketer’s Toolkit: The 10 Strategies You Need To Succeed (Harvard Business Essentials) – Harvard Business School Press
- Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind: How to Be Seen and Heard in the Overcrowded Marketplace – Al Ries, Jack Trout
- The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk! – Al Ries, Jack Trout
- The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
- Malcolm Gladwell
- Marketing Warfare: 20th Anniversary Edition: Authors’ Annotated Edition – Al Ries, Jack Trout
Sales
- Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion – Robert B. Cialdini
Customer relations
- Customers for Life: How to Turn That One-Time Buyer Into a Lifetime Customer – Carl Sewell
- How to Measure Customer Satisfaction
- Nigel Hill, John Brierley, Rob MacDougall
Operations books for small business
Books to help Operations or General Managers “operate” or run the business day-to-day. Covers business activities of finance, administration, legal & compliance and systems.
- TBC
Motivational and historical business books
These books are interesting and often inspiring but not generally packed with actionable advice.
- Losing My Virginity – Richard Branson
- Direct from Dell: Strategies that Revolutionized an Industry
- Michael Dell
- Confessions of an Advertising Man – David Ogilvy