5 books that every business owner should read

Here at Tomedes, our translation company is focused on delivering flawless translation services for businesses. As part of the work that we do, we often come across books that promise to do wonders for your company, from achieving meteoric growth to embedding incredible efficiencies. So, while we’re providing professional translation services for your firm, why don’t you relax with one of these excellent business development books?

The Four Hour Work Week, Timothy Ferriss

This is a book that we’ve previously recommended to our 5,000-strong team of professional human translators, but it’s teachings apply just as well to business owners. The Four Hour Work Week looks at a wide range of routine business tasks and shows how simple changes can dramatically reduce the time that needs to be committed to them. From achieving efficiencies to knowing when to outsource tasks, it provides a delightfully fresh approach to time management that every business owner should consider. 

500 Social Media Marketing Tips, Andrew Macarthy 

If you like your business advice in bite-sized chunks and are keen to harness the power of social media, then this is definitely the book for you. It’s packed with helpful tips and insights, covering Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, LinkedIn, YouTube and more. Social media is a huge subject, but 500 Social Media Marketing Tips helpfully breaks it down into manageable tasks that you can try out a few at a time. A great read for those who feel overwhelmed by the subject of social media. 

Business for Punks: Break all the Rules – the BrewDog Way, James Watt

If the thought of reading business development books leaves you cold, then this is the book for you. This utterly irreverent read provides a business bible for entrepreneurs who like to tear up the rules. BrewDog’s rapid rise to fame has been well documented and now co-founder James Watt shares his tips and tactics for growing a business in a fast-changing world. If you hate business plans and tend to ignore advice, this book may well be the one you’ve been waiting for. 

Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman

Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence shot into the New York Times bestseller list when it was released back in the mid 1990s and stayed there for over a year. The ground-breaking book examines the role of emotional intelligence in decision-making, thought processes and success, both within and outside of the workplace. It considers the emotional qualities and abilities of those who excel, along with details of how emotional intelligence can be nurtured and grown. It remains as fascinating and relevant to business owners today as it did when it was first published. 

Mapping Innovation, Greg Satell 

We hear a lot about the need to innovate in order to compete in a crowded marketplace these days. But innovation is a tricky art to master. How do you know how your customers will respond to the changes you plan to make? What type of innovation should you be striving for? What makes one innovative company able to disrupt the market while another quietly plunges into bankruptcy? This book outlines four models of innovation in order to help business owners excel and take their products and services to the next level. Real-life examples of outstanding innovations over the past century help to bring the ideas to life, demonstrating the success that innovation can bring when approached in the right way. 

With our translation service taking care of your linguistic needs and freeing up your time to focus on other areas of the business, we hope that you’ll find these books as useful as we did!