The Best Books About Finance for Your Small Business

Given no restraints, I would read. All. The. Time. Just read. I love books, I love learning. But with only so many hours in the day, if I am reading for business, I need to focus that time. Each quarter, as part of my personal #learningproject, I choose a subject to centre my reading around. This quarter I chose "business finances". These are the best five books I (re) read and why you might want to read them too.

Profit First

by Mike Michalowicz

Hands down, this is the book that changed my business finances and took me from fearful to in control. It's the first book I recommend to clients who are also struggling to get a grip on their accounting and the one that has made the most profound shifts for me, and for them. I use the Profit First system every month to control my current and future spending. It has allowed me to pay myself a salary since the first month I started using it and make confident decisions about what my business can afford to spend. 

Worth Every Penny

by Sarah Petty

This was the first book I read which started to shift how I viewed pricing in my business. It's not strictly a book about finances, it is more focused on marketing but its sections on money were the beginning of a mindset shift about how to charge what my skills are worth to others. 

Money - A Love Story

by Kate Northrup

My clients know, I am not very "woo woo". I am more about the practical advice and action taking than waiting for the universe to provide for me. This book has moments where it veers slightly further into manifesting money than I usually would. That doesn't mean that it isn't worth reading. It absolutely is. The advice is solid, practical and actionable and if you are just at the beginning of getting your finances under control, this may be the gentle entry that you need. 

PACE - A Small Business Owner’s Guide to Cashflow Clarity

by Jesse Mecham

I'm a big fan of the You Need a Budget system so it wasn't a surprise that I enjoyed the book by its owner which is specifically focused on Small Business owners. In my opinion, this is the book you should read and implement after Profit First. Use the Profit First system to get things under control and then use PACE to level up and keep yourself ahead of the profitability curve in your business. 

Worth It!

by Amanda Steinberg

The newest book on my list and one I am still digesting the lessons from. There is a US focus to it, as the author runs Daily Worth, one of the largest finance websites for women in America. When I started reading this book and absorbing the research on how and why women struggle with financial planning I honestly wanted to chuck my kindle at the wall in frustration. Ladies, we have to get better at the money stuff. And if you are one of the lucky few for whom finances are easy-breezy, please, reach a hand back and help out those of us who struggle. This is going to be a team effort.

BONUS: The Ultimate Guide to Personal Finance

by Ramit Sethi

Not a book, a website (and, if you want to give them your email address, a pdf download) but it's free and the content is excellent. Some parts are only relevant to a US based audience - everyone outside the US can skip past those bits. This ultimate guide from the creator of the I Will Teach You to be Rich website is definitely worth skimming through when you have half an hour to spare. If you are right at the beginning of getting your personal and business finances under control, this is a good place to start.

Now, it's over to you. What are the best books about finance that you have read for your small business? Are there any others that I should have on my to-read list? If there are, let's talk.

What I'm Listening To // Volume 1

Before we launched the Amsterdam Mamas podcast, I had no idea really what a podcast was.

“So, people talk into a microphone about stuff and then people listen to it when they want? Why? How?”

Ha! I was so green. Once Donna, our Amsterdam Mamas Podcast showrunner fully explained it to me I was in. Sign me up! Give me all the podcasts.

The Amsterdam Mamas podcast is now entering its third season with no end in sight. In fact, this season we are bringing on a birth podcast all about birth in the city and moving our popular Behind the Business series to a podcast of its own, hosted by yours truly.

From the moment I listened to my very first business focussed podcast I was hooked, so much information, and all still available to me even if I didn’t have time to sit at the computer and look for it. I could just plug it straight into my brain via the magic of my iPhone.

Over time, I’ve refined my “must-listen” list. There are very few that I will listen to on the day they are released, which of course is the beautiy of podcasts - they're always there. I have a long unplayed queue. But there are a number of podcasts that are consistently interesting enough to me that I will make the time to listen to them within a day or so of them being uploaded and these are the ones I have selected for you in the order they appear in my iTunes.

The Smart Passive Income Podcast

Host: Pat Flynn

One of the first I listened to when I was still of the “pod-what?” mindset. Pat Flynn is a mover and a shaker of the podcast world with multiple insanely successful podcasts. My personal preference is the original SPIP for it’s in-depth interviews and actionable advice.

Start with:

SPI 205: How Simple Green Smoothies Used “Challenges” to Grow from 0 to 200k Subscribers in a Year

SPI 153: Systematizing—Pat and Mindy Talk AskPat and Our Productive Workflow

SPI 227: 15 Entrepreneurs Answer: “What I Wish I’d Known Before Starting My Own Business”

If you like this you might like: Amy Porterfield and the Ask Pat series

Being Boss

Hosts: Kathleen Shannon and Emily Thompson

I have a lot of love for the Being Boss crew. I stumbled across them when I was researching parenting podcasts. My entry episode was Episode 8 - Being Boss and Being Mom. Within minutes I was hooked. It’s like listening in on the best business girls night out with your besties. They are smart, funny, irreverent and absolutely know their stuff. I also love that they have an inclusive approach to working with everyone, although their listener demographic is skewed to female their approach is gender neutral. It can get a little “woo-woo” on occasions, but it’s worth it.

Start with:

Playing Big with Tara Mohr

I Will Teach You To Be Rich with Ramit Sethi

For Creatives Who Hate Selling with Jason Zook

If you like this you may also like: Beautiful Writers Podcast

The Get Paid Podcast

Host: Claire Pelletreau

This is the podcast I listen to the day it comes out, no matter what. Claire asks the questions of her guests that we all want to know. How do you get paid, what do you get paid and how does the behind the scenes of your business work. Real numbers, real experiences, it’s gold.

Start with:

Mark Butler: The CFO You Can Never Fire.

Shannon Simmons: The Challenge of Scaling a Service Based Business

Tanya Geisler: Your Starring Role and In-Person Coaching

If you like this you may also like: The Fizzle Show

Profit.Power.Pursuit

Host: Tara Gentile

Seriously smart stuff going on in this podcast. It’s like sitting in on a fast paced lecture. You’ll want to have a pen handy to take notes. One of my favourites but also one of the only podcasts I listen to where I have to sit down and really listen, rather than have it on while I’m cooking dinner etc.

Start with:

Pivoting Your Creative Business with Jasmine Star

Start Something New and Making Hard Decisions with Nathan Barry

Tara Gentile on the Power of Self Publishing

If you like this you might also like: The Good Life Project

Raise Your Hand Say Yes

Host: Tiffany Han

Easy listening for when you just want a gentle nudge along in your entrepreneurial escapades.

Elise Blaha Cripe on Setting and Reaching Goals

Paul Jarvis on Perfection

The Myth of Time Management

If you like this you might also like: Elise Gets Crafty

Any others?

Why yes! New podcasts are always being recommended to me and I’ll add them to my playlist for a few episodes to audition them for my weekly playlist. At the moment, new to my list of business podcasts are:

The Inside Scoop

Reach - The ConvertKit Podcast

I’d love to hear your recommendations. What are you listening to? Let me know by sending me a message in the form below.

9 Lessons from Delivering Happiness

I was fully prepared not to like this book. In fact, I only read it because there was a copy lying around. I really couldn't see what the CEO of a mult-million dollar internet retail corporation would have to say that would be relevant to me. 

Which is why you should, literally, never judge a book by it's cover.

There were far too many "aha" moments and lessons to include them all. These are 9 of my favourites. 

Funny that. So many people are in pursuit of money, when really it is only ever a means to getting us to our goal. What if we chased our goals instead of the tools to get to them? 

#TribeBuilders! 

See my sentiments above on money. It shouldn't be a goal, it should be one of the tools to achieving the goal. Which means it is important, and necessary, but it is not the ultimate destination.

People don't believe this. But I have seen it happen over and over again, things which "on paper" or "in theory" shouldn't work, shouldn't succeed but they do because they keep the focus on their people.

This is one of the best pieces of advice you can give to an business owner who has got stuck and can't move forward. Stop trying to make the big leaps and start focussing on taking the small steps. When you look back, you will be amazed at how far you have come. 

There are so many industries in which this is applicable. If you are building a business in your own vision, then you are walking the unexplored path. You may not feel like the expert, and that's ok. Because you are becoming the expert. You are the trailblazer. 

Which is why Simon Sinek told us to Start With Why. At the core of everything, we want to be happy and everything that we do is about achieving that. Ask yourself, why do you what you do? For the money, for the prestige, for your clients? All of that is rooted in bringing you happiness. 

Which is an interesting perspective to reflect on your client needs from. If they have everything that they need in order to survive, what is next on their list and how can you be part of providing that? 

YES! Yes it would. Imagine, if every business put happiness at its centre, not just providing client happiness, but employee happiness, community happiness, personal happiness. Where would that take us? How would your business change if the impact you were aiming for was happiness? 

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Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh is available from your preferred bookseller.

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