It probably comes as no surprise to you that I was not very “sporty” (aka cool) growing up.

Yep, I got the nerd gene young. And before I was spending most of my days with my head buried in a laptop, I was usually to be found hiding behind a life-sized stack of books (these days I alternate).

So it should come as even less of a surprise that I quite often prescribe out various “must reads” to my lovely SBB tribe when they hit certain business snags, and today I wanted to share my absolute favourites.

There’s one for pretty much every “oh shirt-balls!” moment you are likely to have.

Grab a cup of tea and get comfy with my must read books for entrepreneurs + bloggers in 2021!

Must read books for entrepreneurs + bloggers: Profit First

I want to start with one of the newer ones, this is a book called Profit First, by Mike Michalowicz.

This is the book that I recommend to everybody when they’re starting to monetise.

Even if you’re already monetising your blog + biz, go an check this one out!

I love the premise behind this as it fits in nicely with my own personal beliefs; “The things that you focus on, are the things that expand”.

It’s talking about how to set up your business to be profitable from day one.

That doesn’t mean it’s making millions of dollars from day one, but with your very first $10 that you make, your business can be profitable.

What a lot of people do is say, “Oh I’ll worry about profitability later, when I’m at this income level.”

But what tends to happen is as your income from your business grows, so do your expenses.

It’s super common for people that have multi-six-figure businesses to be flat broke.

And this book is just a really simple methodology to help you structure your business to avoid that really common problem.

It provides clear answers and a framework for business owners at every stage so you can know exactly what you can and can’t afford to be doing and spending, how much you should be paying yourself and also, it gets you putting profit aside from day one.

It’s a great habit to get into, and it shows you how to structure the finance side of things in a really simple and easy to understand way.

I’m not an accountant.

I’m not a financial adviser.

Whenever anyone who has their own business asks me for financial advice, I’m like, “Just read this. This will make such a big difference.”

Must read books for entrepreneurs + bloggers: The E Myth

The next one is an oldie but a goodie.

The E Myth (or EMyth Remastered).

This is all about finding work/life balance and about setting up a business that is scalable.

It’s about making sure you set up a business that’s going to succeed and it’s going to succeed in a way that fits around you and your lifestyle.

All the stuff that they talk about in The E Myth works really well, particularly online and anything that you’re doing around courses and scaling.

This is a classic and an absolute must read!

Must read books for entrepreneurs + bloggers: Purple Cow (Seth Godin)

My next choice is really great for people who are just getting started, and you’re like, “How do I stand out? How do I make myself be, what’s my point of difference? How can I be heard and seen, and really stand out in a crowded market?”

This one is a gem: Purple Cow, by Seth Godin.

It’s a short book. It’s only a little one.

You can knock this over in an hour or two and it’s all about being remarkable.

And how to stand out through remarkability, through being amazing and different and something that people will want to talk about, in a good way.

For anyone who is going, “Oh, there’s a thousand other people doing exactly what I do, how can I make mine special and amazing and unique?”

Check this one out.

Must read books for entrepreneurs + bloggers: Lucky Bitch (Denise Duffield-Thomas)

Then, this one is a book by Denise Duffield-Thomas, who’s a lady that I’ve worked with a couple of times in my business.

She is such a lovely Aussie chick.

But if you don’t like swearing, don’t read it. Just kidding (read it anyway).

It’s called ‘Lucky Bitch’ and it’s about money mindset.

That is where this book really comes into its own.

It takes you through some really simple processes that you can use to help you get over your own limiting beliefs

6 books to save you + your biz in any 'holy shirt!' moment #secretbloggersbusinessClick To Tweet

And the things that might be stopping you from charging as much as you’re worth, from actually going out and doing the things that you know you need to do.

You know what it is that you need to go do, right?

But you sabotage yourself or sometimes, you just feel like all you’re doing is working and nothing’s actually working?

There could be some other stuff at play.

Yes, it is a bit woo but it’s not full-on woo, and I think that mastering your mindset and success mindset, that’s actually more science than woo anyway.

If you’re feeling really triggered by other people’s successes, or you find it really hard to price things, or, you have a lot of guilt or resentment around money definitely read this one.

It’s awesome.

She’s an Aussie. She’s rad, definitely check out all of her stuff.

Must read books for entrepreneurs + bloggers: The Big Leap (Gaye Hendricks)

Book #5 falls under a similar vein and that is mindset.

The Big Leap by Gaye Hendricks is another classic must-read for anyone who’s trying to do something bigger and braver in this world, than just, working a nine to five job, getting a paycheck.

There’s nothing wrong with that but when you do step-up and start saying, “Hey, I reckon I can do something pretty cool, I reckon I can really help people, or do something amazing, something beyond the normal,” then you notice, some weird things start to happen.

Again, this is all about self-limiting beliefs, self-sabotage, and this thing which is called an “upper limit problem”.

You know you’re having an upper limit problem when you’ve been really comfortable at one level, but then when you try and get up to that next level, some really weird stuff can happen.

You might crash your car or you might get sick, or you might all of a sudden, feel really anxious, or horrible.

You might start picking fights with your partner.

You know there’s that old saying, and again, this is a limiting belief, just this saying in itself, that as soon as one area of your life starts going well, another area’s going to completely shit itself.

That’s not the word for word saying, but you get the general gist of it.

This book explains it way more eloquently than I ever could but if you are finding you’re struggling to get to that next level, and you keep hitting up against walls and obstacles.

And weird things keep happening, when you do try to level up your business, you will love this.

 

Must read books for entrepreneurs + bloggers: Desire Map

Now, lucky last and this is, again, is a lovely mindset one.

Desire Map, by Danielle LaPorte.

This is another oldie, but a goodie, and I know a lot of people that have this on their bookshelf, and might not have actually gone through the process yet.

This is an absolute must-read, must do, for anyone creating or growing their business because it really will help you to create a business that is actually going to give you the life that you want.

This is something  I did myself, with my very first business.

I got 5/6 years in and on paper it was successful.

But I wasn’t enjoying it at all.

I realised that I’d created a “successful” business and done all the right things to grow it.

 

 

But at the end of the day, the actual job and the work that I was doing, wasn’t fulfilling me.

In fact, I hated it, and I kept asking myself, “How did I get here?”

But the problem was the goals that I was setting, and the path that I’d chosen were really focused on hard money goals, like, “I should get to XYZ”.

It was just, “Oh, we need to get this amount of traffic, and we need to get this amount of money through the door, and I want to have this size team,” and blah, blah, blah.

I didn’t really take the time to go, “Well, actually, forget all of that. What is the life that I want at the end of it and what does my business, therefore, need to do and need to allow me to be able to do, for that to happen, and for me to be happy, and feel fulfilled, and feel successful?”

Because that’s not normally about money in the bank or how many staff you have.

That’s normally about, what kind of stuff do you get to do during the day and who do you get to work with? How creative do you get to be? And when are you working, and where?”

So, The Desire Map really helps you to figure out what it is you want.

This is a big question I know a lot of people don’t actually have an answer to.

And it comes out from a really lovely, unique point of view.

If you have any other books that have been absolute game changers for you, that you recommend to people, again and again, please let me know in the comments below!