Business Books We’ve Read This Year So Far

One of the best things I spend my hard earned money on is my Audible subscription. This year I’ve listened to at least two different books a month. I’m a sucker for a good business book and I live for books that give real, actionable information that helps me take whatever it is I’m working on to the next level.

This year I’ve been focused on a few things - building my skills as a strategic leader and building a business from scratch. It’s an interesting space to be building a business from scratch when Erica and I ran a business for 5 years. But here’s the thing - we just happened to fall into turning The B Hive into a business. It was never our intent, it was merely a way for us to make new friends that blossomed into something way more than we expected. Which was awesome, but not anything we went into actively or armed with any information to help us grow.

So in this new mission to build a business from scratch that is mission driven and primed to succeed (putting it out there in the world ya’ll), has caused me to really start thinking about how to be more strategic as a business owner and how to actually make a business successful at the scale we envision.

So what business books have I listened to and loved this year so far:

Zero to IPO by Frederic Kerrest

I loved this book, it was insightful and straightforward about what it takes to build a start up and to prepare yourself to go public. It’s a different world when you’re public. Kerrest uses real examples from real companies and real stories. It was a book that got me excited to start a new business.

Measure What Matters by John Doerr

I love OKRs. I was using OKRs well before I read the book. But reading the book also gave me new insight on how to structure and build a business using OKRs. If you’re a goal oriented person, reading Measure What Matters is a great place to start to keep focused on what’s really important.

The Power of Broke by Daymond John

I just finished this book and it was actually super inspiring. It gave me some new perspectives on how to approach investing in your own business and how to use your lack of money to motivate you to do more with what you’ve got. Daymond shares stories from well known entrepreneurs who had nothing in the bank and started their successful businesses - including himself with FUBU.

Good to Great by Jim Collins

A classic book on how to bring a business from good to great and what that actually means. Jim Collins spent years on researching the most successful companies and what made them go from Good to Great. It’s a bit dated - many of the companies featured in the book don’t actually exist anymore, but the concepts themselves are great.

Be on the look out for more blog posts about books I’ve read this year that have made an impact on me professionally!