Best Small Business Books

If you're looking for small business books, have a look at these retailers who always have an excellent selection:

Amazon Books UK

All of the books mentioned on this page, can be purchased at Amazon for much lower prices than you will find on the High-Street.

For the very best prices on virutally every in-print book you can imagine, Amazon Books UK is the place to start your search.

Tesco Books

Books at Tesco - Free delivery on orders over £20

To buy the UK's most popular books at low prices, visit the Tesco Books UK website and take advantage of the special Club Card deals and free delivery.

Although this list has been compiled into categories that are appropriate to specific job types, what stood about these particular small business books was their ability to be of use and interest to people within any kind of small business environment.

For the Marketer…
Whilst compiling this list, the one book that received praise from absolutely everybody we spoke to was Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing - a book that took the business world by storm on its release in 1997.

This small business book provides readers with a profound understanding of how the market for services works - and how your customers may react to your marketing efforts. Not only is this book a remarkably entertaining read, but also an absolute treasury of bite-sized strategies and real life examples that are relevant to anyone within any industry sector.

For the Entrepreneur…
By combining common sense, sound business advice and vision, The Entrepreneur's Book of Checklists: 1000 Tips to Help You Start and Grow Your Business is the ultimate guidebook for business success. Packed with real life experiences, this small business book is a must read for prospective and recently launched small businesses.

For the Small Business Start-up…
Currently in its 15th edition, the Lloyds TSB Small Business Guide is a great introduction to the world of the small business. This book provides a concise and objective introduction to all aspects of starting and running a small enterprise. The step-by-step advice ranges from the practicalities of filing Articles of Association with Companies House – through bookkeeping and VAT returns – and onto more complex development and funding issues.

For the Company Secretary…
A company secretary is obliged to maintain good records of company meetings and resolutions. This is not only sensible business practise but also a legal requirement. Ready Made Company Minutes and Resolutions is the perfect tool to help company secretaries of small businesses to fulfil their role effectively.

For the Sales Person…
From the team behind The Boardroom Entrepreneur, Sales on A Beermat is aimed at anyone who knows they have to sell, but is afraid of the process. It is also aimed at anyone who does sell – but who is determined to make an increase in sales a key part of their business strategy.

For the Website Administrator…
With most small businesses now realising the importance of a well designed website, they need to be equally as clued up about how to attract high numbers of visitors to their site. Search Engine Optimization for Dummies is a book that provides a no nonsense and jargon-free introduction to the often confusing world of search engine optimisation.

For the Retailer...
Even if your business is not concerned with retail - or even with being the cheapest within your industry, Bare Essentials: The ALDI Way to Retail Success is a book that provides a remarkable insight into some of the philosophies underpinning this supermarket success story.

As well as focusing on the company’s history, this book also highlights some of the incredible cost-saving techniques that this company has employed. It is practically guaranteed to make the small business owner think of a million and one ways that they could be saving money on a daily basis.

Editors Note: For a remarkable insight into the world of retail, also check out: Smart Retail: How to Turn Your Store into a Sales Phenomenon.

For Absolutely Everyone…
Written by Dale Carnegie in 1936, How to Win Friends and Influence People is a timeless classic that is most often read in a business context - but that can also be read in the wider context of general life. Regarded by many as the grandfather of ‘self help’ books – it has never gone out of date due to Dale Carnagie’s understanding of human nature. Having now sold over 16 million copies worldwide, the book provides practical advice on how to make friends quickly and easily, win people over to your way of thinking, become a better speaker and arouse enthusiasm among your associates. This is the perfect book to compliment the bookshelf of every small business owner.

Affluenza by Oliver James, which was released in 2007, discusses contemporary western living - and our infinite, unsatisfactory quest to 'keep up with the Joneses'.