Books That Make Great Gifts for Entrepreneurs

Books That Make Great Gifts for Entrepreneurs

If you’ve got an entrepreneur or aspiring entrepreneur on your holiday shopping list this year, consider giving them books. Many business people like to read (or listen) to books to help them up their game. But there are so many books released every year. How will you choose? The website All Business pulled together a list of books that the business person in your life would love to receive. Read on for the four that we think will be the most meaningful for recipients. (And we’d like to suggest you visit a local bookshop to purchase these titles.)

Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months by Melinda Emerson

Melinda Emerson has revised and expanded her bestselling book, Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months, to reflect today’s pandemic-impacted world. The new material focuses on marketing, social media and content, selling online, building a sales process, and building leadership skills. Emerson says she designed the book to help readers launch a new business, reinvent a business, or help current business owners complete their digital pivot. The book provides a step-by-step, month-to-month plan to take aspiring entrepreneurs from idea to startup.

Lead With We: The Business Revolution That Will Save Our Future by Simon Mainwaring

Author Simon Mainwaring is the founder of a strategic consultancy “that turns companies into movements by empowering their brands to lead with a purpose larger than themselves.” His client list includes legendary businesses like Starbucks and Disney.

In Lead With We, Mainwaring explains how we can make our businesses more environmentally friendly and purpose-driven. He also says we need to:

  • Shift our organizational mindset to one that aligns its profit with its purpose by placing the collective above the individual.
  • Rewrite the story of business to one of shared responsibility.
  • Recruit customers to serve as ambassadors for our businesses.
Disaster Proof: Scenario Planning for a Post-Pandemic Future by Lance Mortlock

At this moment, it’s unclear when we will enter the post-pandemic future. And author Lance Mortlock, an EY senior strategy partner, says, “We have no idea what the post-pandemic future is going to look like.”

Covid-19 not only disrupted businesses, but Mortlock says it also created a “landscape of VUCA—volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity—that will not fade away as quickly we would hope. And, he adds, “If there’s one thing we can all count on, it’s that change is constant.” So, Mortlock asks, “How do we plan for a future we can’t predict?” He recommends using scenario planning, “a powerful tool that has been in use by the world’s leading corporations for decades.” And he provides a six-step plan and actionable guide to deploying this strategy.

Dear Chairwoman: Letters From Today’s Trailblazing Women Board Leaders to the Fearless Directors of Tomorrow by Rika Nakazawa

The numbers are disheartening. As of a year ago, women reportedly held less than a quarter of board seats among the country’s largest publicly traded companies on the Russell 3000 Index. And approximately 7.4% of the 500 largest public U.S. companies (by revenue) have a female chair. These facts led author Rika Nakazawa, whose life work is to help advance women executives, to write Dear Chairwoman, which features the voices and personal stories of women leaders worldwide who have trailblazed their way to the boardroom. The stories are presented as personal letters to the next generation of women and designed to “enlighten, prepare and inspire” them to pursue board-level positions.” The different stories highlight that there is more than one path to success.


As a small business owner, I know how important it is to keep learning and improving in order to meet my business goals. These books should help the business-minded person in your life meet their goals…even if that person is yourself! I built VersaTel Solutions to take pressure off small business owners so they have time to grow their companies. Reach out to us and we’ll see how our team of HR professionals, bookkeepers, and administrative experts can make it easier for you to achieve your goals.

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