What do you do when you don’t have a degree in business, but you feel the prompting from the Holy Spirit to start one?
You read business books.
Because going to school and getting another degree is too much time and too much money. 🤷🏽♀️
Even though the culture, rules, and platforms are constantly changing, these books have been incredibly helpful and timeless. I can promise you that you’re going to underline or highlight several paragraphs from each one and then pass it along to a friend when they ask for book recommendations to start a business.
These books are listed in no particular order.
Building a Story Brand by Donald Miller
Building a Story Brand is vital to every small business. The premise is simple: confusion doesn’t make 💰💰💰, and your business has to make money to survive. This has been an excellent resource for marketing, website design, social media, in-person events—any and every platform where we’re trying to make money. Miller helps you understand what your message is and how to communicate it effectively, so you turn strangers into clients.
Write your business messaging with the Story Brand framework >>
Fear Is Not the Boss of You: How to Get Out of Your Head and Live the Life You Were Made For by Jennifer Allwood
Allwood is a certified business coach, and she packs a healthy dose of encouragement, Jesus, and truth in every chapter. This isn’t the normal entrepreneur how-to book, but you do learn more about how your thoughts and emotions can hold you back from moving forward and stepping into what God has called you to do. Think of this book as your very cheap counseling session to get you going with your business idea.
Work on your mindset and get unstuck >>
Business Boutique: A Woman’s Guide for Making Money Doing What She Loves by Christy Wright
Start your business with a solid foundation. This book helped me formulate why, how, where, when, and what I was doing while we were testing Mercy Creates as a business idea. With family ties to cake baking a decorating, Wright inspires you to think of your business as a cake: there are certain tiers that need to be solidified first before it all comes together to create something that serves others. Each chapter has prompts, nuggets of wisdom, and action steps, so you can keep the book as a resource guide for years to come.
Write your business plan with the Business Boutique >>
Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy Seals Lead and Win by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
Need a good kick in the pants to keep you motivated? Leave it to a U.S. Navy Seal to do it for you! Willink and Babin draw from personal experience of their time serving and protecting to get you fired up, take control, and take responsibility of your life and business.
Learn operational and organizational principles from the US Navy Seals >>
Permission to Screw Up: How I Learned to Lead by Doing (Almost) Everything Wrong by Kristen Hadeed
Maybe you don’t struggle with perfectionism… or having to be “always successful” in order to be perceived as someone worthy to follow… I’m sure it’s just me. 😉 Truthfully, I thought everything was cool, and my humility was on the up-and-up when it came to the business. But Hadeed breaks down the idea of admitting when you messed up even further for business owners.
Commiserate and learn from one of the fastest-growing companies >>
Go-Givers Sell More by Bob Burg and John David Mann
10+ years ago, I graduated college… but not without reading this book in a personal finance class. Why? Because the principle of generosity is timeless. Generous people are happier people. Generous people are more successful people. Generous people are wealthier people. It’s “backward” and archaic to live by this concept, but if you want to sell, you need to give—and give generously.
Evalute your budget and stand out from the crowd with your finances >>
Entreleadership by Dave Ramsey
I love talking about money, debt, and freedom, and Dave Ramsey does, too—we completely cleaned up our financial debt in 2017, and since then, we’ve been living (and giving) with more joy. So when it was time to buckle down and get serious about Mercy Creates, I read Entreleadership and realized that there’s more to a business than publishing a website and creating a content calendar. Ramsey stresses the importance of goals, company culture, core values, team building, and financial intelligence—literally everything your customer doesn’t see but affects their initial impression of you and the business. Entreleadership is a must no matter what stage of business you’re in.
Learn how to conduct your business with confidence and integrity >>
Money, Greed, and God: The Christian Case for Free Enterprise by Jay W. Richards
If you’ve ever felt bad about charging for your services or thought “Money is the root of all evil,” then this is your book. Like I’ve mentioned before… a business needs to make that 💰💰💰 in order to survive (and thrive). Money, Greed, and God tackles the big elephant in the room of capitalism and why money is needed for a business, why wealth is a good thing, and how we can still charge for our services and products without that slime-y “car salesman” approach.
Get rid of that icky feeling and feel confident about money >>
There is still so much to learn and read about when it comes to business and its relationship to your faith, and I’m sure that I’ll update this list again soon! If you have a favorite business book, drop your recommendations in the comment section because I’m constantly adding them to my list.
