The Personal MBA Recommended Reading List

Category: Entrepreneurship

2007 Edition: Revised and Updated

by Josh Kaufman

Business schools don’t have a monopoly on worldly wisdom. If you're serious about learning advanced business principles, the Personal MBA can help. The Personal MBA recommended reading list is the tangible result of hundreds of hours of reading and research, and features only the very best books the business press has to offer. So skip the fancy diploma and $150,000 loan - you can get a world-class business education simply by reading these books.

To learn more about the Personal MBA, read the manifesto.

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Bankable Business Plans by Edward Rogoff

When I launched the Personal MBA in 2005, I expected to be asked a great deal of questions. I did not expect so many people to ask the same question: "Can you recommend a good book about creating a business plan?" Absolutely!

Business plans serve two main purposes: (1) clarifying your value proposition and revenue model; (2) convincing others that your business is sound enough to justify an investment or a loan. Bankable Business Plans is a step-by-step guide to creating a comprehensive business plan with a rare bonus: it teaches you how to use data from the Risk Management Association (RMA) to increase the accuracy of their financial projections, increasing the likelihood of obtaining funding for your entrepreneurial venture.

Each chapter will guide you through a section of the business plan: (1) value definition, (2) needs assessment, (3) differentiation and competitive assessment, (4) market analysis, (5) marketing planning, (6) sales and promotion strategy, (7) organization design, (8) financing needs, (9) financial projections, and (10) RMA data comparison. Using Rogoff's approach, you'll be able to think through every aspect of your business and use RMA data to ensure your assumptions are accurate.

In addition to constructing your plan, you'll learn how to present your business plan to investors and loan officers that can help provide start-up capital for your venture. Several complete business plans are included as examples to help you get started.

If you're planning to start a business, this is one book you can't afford not to read.

(Special thanks to Dr. Rogoff, who came across the PMBA through a colleague and generously sent me a copy of this book. It's a hidden gem I wouldn't have otherwise found among the thousands of sub-par business planning books currently in the market.)

(Discuss this book in the PMBA Member Forums)

The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss

I honestly wasn’t sure where to put this book: in Entrepreneurship or Personal Effectiveness. It’s a bit of both. Regardless of where you categorize it, this book is a must-read for all entrepreneurs.

The 4-Hour Workweek is a practical guide to creating a business that supports the life you want instead of adapting your life to your job.

Three years ago, Tim Ferriss was going crazy. His business was profitable, but he was working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week under an insane amount of pressure, compulsively checking his e-mail and dealing with horrible customers. Instead of running his business, his business was running him, and he decided that he'd had enough.

Tim is a master of doing things differently. By ruthlessly applying both the Pareto Principle ("20% of efforts produce 80% of results") and Parkinson’s Law ("work expands to fill the time allotted") to his business, he was able to systematize and outsource his work to the point that operating his business requires no more than 2-4 hours each week. After systematizing his businesses and hiring other trustworthy people to complete routine non-value-added tasks, Tim discovered that he was better off financially as well as extraordinarily wealthy in time and energy, allowing him the freedom to pursue his non-work interests and travel around the world.

If you're looking for a book that contains equal measures of hard-won wisdom, new ideas, and inspirational stories, you'll really get a lot out of The 4-Hour Workweek.

(Tip: check out Tim's blog for additional information and resources.)

(Discuss this book in the PMBA Member Forums)

The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki

Every day, entrepreneurs are pitching VCs for funding in the hopes of building the next Facebook or Google. If you have an idea for a venture, this book can help you craft your pitch.

Focusing primarily on the venture capital approach to entrepreneurship, The Art of the Start is full of sound advice and useful tips for everyone considering starting a start-up.

Guy Kawasaki’s “time-tested, battle-hardened guide for anyone starting anything” covers topics like positioning your new company in the market, pitching to potential investors, creating a no-BS business plan and presentation, bootstrapping, recruiting employees, raising capital, partnering with other firms, branding, and selling your concept to the VS market.

Kawasaki is a strong advocate of the straightforward approach to creating and running a business: keep things simple, honest, and short. This streamlined approach will help you save valuable time and energy for things that will actually move you towards your entrepreneurial goals.

(Tip: Guy's blog is worth a read.)

(Discuss this book in the PMBA Member Forums)

The Bootstrapper’s Bible by Seth Godin

The old adage "you have to spend money to make money" isn't exactly true. The Bootstrapper's Bible, one of Seth Godin’s shortest books, shows you how to successfully start a business with little or no money.

There are advantages to staying small and spending less: your business is more flexible. You're free to take risks, change things up, and try something new to be distinctive. You're not beholden to investors or a board of directors. You can change and experiment quickly without 18 layers of organizational bureaucracy. The key is to choose a profitable business model, watch your cash like a hawk, keep your overhead low, and avoid acting like a big company.

Covering everything from business models to simple planning and bookkeeping, Godin does a masterful job of explaining how entrepreneurs and freelancers can take advantage of their small size to accomplish big things.

(Tip: check out Seth's blog - it's one of the best blogs out there.)

(Discuss this book in the PMBA Member Forums)

How to Make Millions with Your Ideas by Dan Kennedy

If you haven't noticed already, I'm a huge fan of mental models. This book is packed to the brim with them. How to Make Millions with Your Ideas is the best book I've found to help you create a new business or improve the profitability of your current firm.

Here are a few of the many mental models presented in this book: premium pricing, exclusivity, niche marketing, up-selling, cross-selling, duplication, multiplication, systemization, franchising, and inversion.

You'll also learn how to become a recognized expert in your field, market products directly to the public, profit from selling information, and build salable assets.

If you read this book and don't come away with at least 10 promising ideas to improve your business or create a new one, there's something wrong with you.

(Discuss this book in the PMBA Member Forums)

Getting Started in Consulting by Alan Weiss

Entrepreneurship isn't just about creating physical products: it's about helping and serving other people as well. Chances are good that you're probably in the top 25% of people in some particular area, and this book can help you turn that knowledge and experience into money.

Getting Started in Consulting will teach you how to start a consulting business with low overhead and high revenue potential.

In this book, you'll learn how to finance your start-up and operational costs, market your services to corporate clients, write proposals that close the sale, set your fees, keep accurate records, and structure your business for maximum flexibility.

I've found this book very helpful in thinking through many aspects of Personal MBA Coaching, and I'm convinced that this book is the single best resource on starting a consulting practice currently available.

(Discuss this book in the PMBA Member Forums)

Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Peter F. Drucker

"Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two - and only two - basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs."

Drucker's Innovation and Entrepreneurship was the first book to discussion business innovation and entrepreneurship in a systematic way. By examining where innovation and entrepreneurial activity happens, you'll be able to create and manage a successful entrepreneurial business without undue risk.

Drucker discusses seven clear signs that indicate opportunity for business innovation: (1) unexpected success, (2) incongruity between reality and ideal, (3) identification of an unmet need, (4) changes in industry or market structure, (5) demographic shifts, (6) changes in public perception, and (7) discovery of new knowledge. By watching for these signs to identify an opportunity, then creating and acting on a systematic plan to deliver a valuable product, businesses can create new value.

Innovation and entrepreneurship don't just happen in start-ups: existing businesses and public-service institutions can also learn a great deal from this book.

(Discuss this book in the PMBA Member Forums)

Purchase All Seven Books

You can purchase all seven of these books from Amazon.com by clicking the box below:

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