7 Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read

woman reading book
These 7 books will change the way you work – have fun…

Are you a budding entrepreneur?

If so then it’s worth looking through this book list to up your game.

I wish I had read them when I was starting out, but I am also glad I have read them now.

If you are starting out then you will need information on the topic and a quick overview.

Nowadays most of us do this via the internet – go to Google and type in your query.

Look at the titles of the results and if one at the top catches your eye – click and off you go.

Once you have gone beyond the concept and need more in depth help then yes the internet is there …but who grades the content – where are the star recommendations for each article.

Can you trust it.

Well i hope you will trust this article to help you find some books that will advance your knowledge to helping your niche.

I have 7 titles for you :

  • Two on copywriting
  • Two on funnels
  • Three on improvement

So shall we start with the two on copywriting

They are both by the same author – John Caples.

A very good (some would say lucky) copywriter around in the 20’s. His rise to being one of America’s most famous copywriters was sealed with his headline ‘ They laughed when i sat down at the piano. But when i started to play !-‘

The first book is his

Tested Advertising Methods – John Caples


Within this book John sets out his methods of direct mail .

Now some of you will be thinking – what has that got to do with nowadays.

Well.…human nature has not changed and John and the direct mail copywriters of that era did a lot of testing.

So different headlines, sub heads images were all tested to see which one gave the best return.

So within your online content you can learn how to appeal to your audience – or even how to use what they did and setup your own tests for content.

Following his methods you can see how they progressed to getting copy which returned results for years.

Would i recommend this 270 page book – definitely

The second book by John Caples is

Making Ads Pay – John Caples

This book starts out charting johns career with Ed Grady as a cub copywriter – showing that very little has changed – except the pace.

There are cracking one liners in there which are still true today

Keith Gimball vp of BBDO ‘A good advertisement is a believable promise to the right audience’ and this is on page 2.

Going through the book you pick up a lot of practical tips that you can think about and implement in your next piece of content or advert.

Learning everything and implementing it from these two books you will have most of what you need to create very successful ads – or if they are not then you know how to test them against others that will either beat them or return less than them.

So you can go onto create very successful campaigns.

And it is true now as it was then – these campaigns take time to run their course.

Albeit the timescale now is a lot quicker that back in the 20’s.

Is it a book i would recommend – definitely.

The two books on funnels are by a recent rising star – Russell Brunson.

Some will be groaning, others thinking this is an advert for clickfunnels.

I do like the concept of clickfunnels, but wouldn’t at the moment think of joining.

So you are safe from an affiliate link to clickfunnels, although.…just kidding.

The first of Russell’s offerings is

Dotcom secrets – Russell Brunson

russells rapid rise to fame with the clickfunnel product appears like a dream most of us want to replicate.

But it wasn’t an easy ride from his early days of selling potato guns plans.

Russell takes you through what most ‘guru’s ‘ hide behind.

And even though he sets out what he does and how he does it, people still buy his high dollar product.

I reckon the reason for the sales is that he has made it so easy for people to implement.

But back to the book…

Reading through the book you start to recognise what style the market is using right now.

Which means you can replicate it.

You are shown the complete funnel and the links between.

It is not for complete newbies, you need to understand how to construct a landing page and create a freebie.

But even newbies will have their eyes opened to the online world of marketing.

I bought this book a couple of years ago and still go back to it, to see the simplistic diagrams of what the funnel consists of.

His training works.

So whether you are interested in how different the offline marketing is to the new online marketing.

Or how to construct a perfect webinar.

Or an invisible sales funnel

Then this is the book for you.

Well worth a read to see what you are going to be subjected to if you are in the ‘shiny object syndrome’ of hopping between products.

Well worth a read if you are interested in online marketing.

Read it a few times – with time between, so you take away more every time.

Russell’s second offering

Expert Secrets – Russell Brunson


Russell followed his first book with this one and the information follows from the first.

Instead of just general funnels – this time he is writing about building a brand to make a lot of noise in the online world.

He takes you through the whole process of sharing youe expertise with the world.

As he states in the book – if you are skilled ten you probably will get to a point where you cannot grow any more without helping other learn your skills.

But your message may change someone’s life – the impact of the right message at the right time is immeasurable.

This boo will help you fid your voice and confidence to become a leader.

Through to helping you build a mass movement of people who are willing to pay for your instruction.

The whole process is broken down into bitesize chunks with the familiar line drawings – easy to remember and draw yourself to remind you.

So if you have a big idea – or want to know how the leaders have made it then it is worth checking out the is book to see where they are going next and maybe you will become or spot the next leader of the pack.

Would i recommend it – definitely.

It will give you masses of insight into what you need to do to really brand yourself.

Moving away from what you can do for others and onto what you can do for yourself we come to the next three books

If you are just getting into the world of blogging you maybe looking at some of the long content on page one and thinking ‘ no way – i could never write that much’

Well this next book may help you there.

How To be A writer – Barbara Baig


Writing can be fun.

It can be a way of you expressing what is inside you or teaching someone else what you know.

But if you approach it in the wrong way it can be a right pain.

It can be a major challenge.

But with the exercises set out by Barbara, which she uses in her classes on writing, you will become familiar with yourself and how you write.

You will find your inner voice and be able to ‘talk through the keyboard’ to your audience.

Even if it is an article you really don’t want to do, you are taken through a process to make it as painless as possible.

So from writing an article about making your favorite jam through to a massive text for a freebie this book will set you up for the task.

Writing will become a pleasure – something you look forward to – even addicted to, all the better for your audience.

Would i recommend this book – definitely .

If you want to improve your efficiency at writing, or find your voice, or become more comfortable with writing then this is the book to put in your basket.

Continuing the theme of writing this next book is a way of standing out in the crowd.

Pop! – Sam Horn


To be noticed nowadays there is no point just shouting with your writing – it needs to POP, be Purposeful, Original and Pithy.

With the help of Sam’s book you can learn the process of focusing on your goals with the W9 form.

Learn how to name your business so that it is remembered.

Create your elevator speech to add to your site, letting people read quickly what your goals are.

With easy to learn and understand techniques, this book will help you to lift your business above the noise ad reach your audience.

It will help you to paint word pictures , ensuring that your audience will remember you and your message.

Why examples and stories make people have those ‘ aha’ moments.

Learning the practical techniques in this book will help elevate your business above the rest.

Would i recommend it – definitely, especially if you really want to POP !

And the last one is a bit of a funny one, i suppose it’s category is self improvement but with a bit of psychology as well.

It may help you to understand what you need to do not only online but in life as well.

How to talk to people.

But enough hints.

The magic Power of Emotional Appeal – Roy Garn

Bit of a corny title and i did think twice about reading it, but i did and what a little golden nugget it turned out to be.

It is a book from the 1960’s, so can it teach us anything?

Let’s find out…

The system, developed over seventeen years of helping people, the author came to the realization that there were four main emotional appeals.

Over 26,000 people were taught this one technique to deal with situations and get people to listen to them.

The preface says that it can :

  • Make others want to listen
  • Help you understand you
  • Achieve recognition
  • Get a better job
  • add emotional appeal to your voice
  • Win arguments and disputes

And more….

Did it live up to it’s promise?

It does go through all of those areas and the technique can be used in all of those situations so yes…

The main premise of the book is one which is still taught by some today…

People are preoccupied…

Just before you started reading this article you were thinking about something else.

You then started reading the article, and if you have got this far thank you, but it broke the preoccupation you were in for you to read it.

As others talk to you then they need to break into what you were thinknig about.

And it is the same with advertisers – no matter what they have to break your preoccupation for you to see their advert.

How do you do this…

Well read the book and find out.

I found it fascinating, the different situations you could turn it to.

And will be integrating it into my life to see how much it will improve it.

You have to learn to listen…

And most of us don’t do this.

Online you can use the technique to appeal to different market, once you know this technique you can master how to break through to your audience.

I still need to go back and reread some of it, but from a first read and observing and now listening to people you hear the clues as to how to talk to them to get them to listen.

So human nature has not changed that much in the last 50 years.

Would i recommend this book – definitely

Especially if you want to know how to talk to people and get them to really listen and remember you.

Final words

So out of these seven books which would be my favorite?

That is a difficult one – they are all practical.

You can learn and implement the ideas rather than learn concepts.

As most are in different areas i don’t think i could select one as a favorite.

I know that appears as a cop out but it’s true.

I seriously would recommend reading all seven of these, and implementing the knowledge you gain from them.

Remember that the ‘use of knowledge is power’ rather than the normal misquote ‘ knowledge is power’ – it must be used to have power over others, so use it wisely.

Leaving you with that quote – Which ones have you read and do you have a favorite? leave a comment below and if you have any recommendations, i am sure i will get time to read them.

But make sure they are techniques that can be put into practice rather than concepts.

Many thanks for reading and take care.

Phil