Starting your own business is not easy. You got to be an effective communicator, learn to develop the perfect sales pitch, come up with unique ideas, do excellent time management, and learn to manage things well. 

As a first-time entrepreneur, it’s easy to get flustered. There is so much to do that you got to keep a stable head. Most importantly, you must have the basics of finance and marketing at your fingertips. There are multiple ways of running a business, and you got to figure out what works best for your goals and priorities. 

Do you then go back to college and take a management course? No, not really. You simply got to learn through books. 

Although reading books can be time-consuming. There is so much active work to be done that sitting patiently and reading business books might seem like the last thing on your bucket list! 

The best way forward in such a scenario would be to expand your knowledge base by listening to some great business audiobooks. The storytelling element and the compelling voice modulation in audio format keep us glued to what we are listening to. Plus, we understand things better when someone is telling us all the stuff with the warmth of a friend. 

Here is a list of the 10 best business audiobooks you must listen to. 

1. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries

This audiobook is a must-listen for anyone looking to start a new business. The Lean Startup provides a new, alternative model for starting and running a business.

The conventional linear model of starting a new company doesn’t take into account customer feedback at the outset. This invariably leads to failed products and wastage of resources. The Lean Startup model relies more on validated learning, innovation, and scientific experimentation, as well as many other unconventional strategies and practices that lead to leaner product development cycles. 

The Lean Startup is a hands-on audiobook for entrepreneurs looking to launch innovative businesses cost-effectively. It provides the listeners with a scientific approach to creating and managing a successful business model. As an aspiring entrepreneur, you can discover your unique path. You’ll find the best way to operate within your specific vision and market niche. 

You’ll hear inspiring stories from other entrepreneurs. You can also learn and apply innovative strategies and techniques to your own startup. 

2. Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant by W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne

This is a very useful audiobook for businesses struggling with product differentiation and creating a strong brand value. Blue Ocean Strategy uses the rather innovative metaphors of ‘red oceans’ and blue ocean’ to distinguish between the murky terrains of cut-throat competition and the clear blue waters of uncontested differentiation. 

To put it simply, the message of this audiobook is that instead of getting caught up in the typical circus of cut-throat competition and rivalry, a business ought to create a fresh space for itself through value innovation. This could translate into tapping into a new customer segment, offering something that no one else in your niche does, redefining the market boundaries to escape the competition, etc. The idea is to focus on your strengths and innovation rather than obsessing with rivals and competitors. 

This audiobook is a must-listen for aspiring entrepreneurs. You’ll hear numerous case studies of real-life businesses. The book also offers practical strategies and techniques. These can help you avoid competition and differentiate your products or services. 

Blue Ocean Strategy offers invaluable advice for new entrepreneurs. It provides guidance on product development, marketing, and branding.

3. Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days by Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky, Braden Kowitz

This audiobook provides practical answers and solutions to the typical questions and problems faced by every entrepreneur. 

One of the biggest dilemmas of a startup is how to turn an idea into a viable business. Sprint offers a unique five-day action plan for businesses. It helps them find answers to critical questions quickly. The goal is to deliver effective results in the shortest time possible. 

The innovative Sprint methodology was created by three partners at Google Ventures. It combines elements of design thinking, innovation, business strategy, and behavioral sciences.

Whether you run a small startup or a large business, this audiobook can help. It can streamline the process of idea generation. You can bypass lengthy debates, brainstorming sessions, and endless book discussions. Sprint provides you with a fast-track process that helps you put your core competencies to optimal use. It lets you test the efficacy and viability of an idea by using the knowledge, skills, and tools your team already has. 

4. Fanatical Prospecting by Jeb Blount

Selling is the most important part of running a business. All your innovative models and ideas come to nothing if you are unable to sell your product or service. Fanatical Prospecting audiobook is a must-listen for entrepreneurs and businesses facing trouble getting new clients. 

Prospecting is the foundation of selling. Fanatical Prospecting tells you all about how to perfect the art of prospecting. It gives you valuable techniques and insights for optimizing sales using cold calling, email, phone calls, social media, etc. Listeners gain insights into sales techniques. The podcast emphasizes the role of data in sales success. 

Fanatical Prospecting is an excellent audiobook for new entrepreneurs wanting to learn all about running a successful sales cycle. Discover practical and innovative sales strategies. Build a strong pipeline of high-quality opportunities.

Check out our article on Passive Investing Ideas.

5. Crushing It y Gary Vaynerchuk

 Social media can play a decisive role in promoting and growing a business. Also, creating your personal brand is essential for running a successful business. That’s what the Crushing it audiobook is all about. 

Crushing it tells you all about leveraging the power of social media to build your personal brand and become an entrepreneur. You get some solid practical tips on making the best use of different social media platforms to enhance your brand value, build credibility as a business, and transform your business for good. 

Gary Vaynerchuk’s hands-on audiobook is a must-listen for both who want to become an entrepreneur through the use of social media and who want to use social media to promote their existing business. You get to hear the inspiring stories of dozens of entrepreneurs and influencers who got big through the power of content creation on social media. 

6. The Founder’s Dilemmas by Noam Wasserman

 Many questions pop up in your mind while starting a business. Should you go solo? Or should you rope in a co-founder? Is it wise to do business with family and friends? Or would you rather keep business and personal life separate? 

This authoritative audiobook by Noam Wasserman answers all these questions and many more. Backed by a decade of research, The Founder’s Dilemmas brings you quantitative data on almost 10,000 founders. You also get to hear the real-life stories of iconic entrepreneurs like Tim Westergren of Pandora and Evan Williams of Twitter. 

Early decisions by an entrepreneur are crucial for the success of their business. The Founder’s Dilemma is a hands-on audiobook for first-time entrepreneurs as it provides detailed and fact-supported answers and solutions to every conceivable question or problem a founder might think of. 

7. Zero to One by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters

This audiobook is a must-listen for all entrepreneurs. Zero to One motivates and inspires you. It encourages thinking outside the box. The goal is to create new products and services, not just improve existing ones. 

Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal gives you an inside look into the lessons he learned at PayPal, his Facebook investments, and his subsequent journey towards becoming a billionaire. 

The basic premise of the audiobook is that instead of moving from one to other numbers, you must move from 0 to 1. That is, if you want to create a truly innovative business and leave your mark, you must create something new from a scratch. 

Zero to One provides new and aspiring entrepreneurs valuable insights on building innovative businesses. If you’re launching a startup, this audiobook could be a valuable resource. It can guide you through the startup process and provide insights on building an innovative brand.

With an impressive narration by Blake Masters, Zero to One tells you all about the basics of a startup explained with real-world examples, anecdotes, and case studies. 

Monopolies can be good. It’s better to focus on vertical progress rather than horizontal progress. The founders of a business need a clear vision. This vision should guide the company from its inception to its future success. These are just some of the lessons you get to learn by listening to this audiobook. Zero to One can be a valuable resource for someone wanting to convert their passion into a business but have no idea how to go about it. 

8. The Power of Broke by Daymond John and Daniel Paisner

The Power of Broke is a powerful audiobook from the Shark Tank star and Fubu Founder Daymond John. It draws from Daymond’s own life experiences and his dramatic but arduous journey from a $40 budget to the iconic $ 6 billion dollar global phenomenon Fubu brand. 

The Power of Broke delivers a simple yet powerful message – starting a business on a humble budget can actually become your biggest competitive advantage. When you have a limited budget, you are forced by circumstances to innovate and come up with out-of-the- box ways to promote your products. 

This audiobook presents the listener with the inspiring story of Daymond’s own business journey and the gripping stories of many other iconic entrepreneurs who had humble beginnings. 

Narrated by the MTV News Reporter, DJ, and radio host Sway Calloway, the audiobook keeps you hooked throughout with the effortless style that succinctly captures the storytelling element of The Power of Broke. 

The Power of Broke audiobook is a must-listen for all entrepreneurs, especially those who are struggling with finances. If you think lack of capital is an impediment to creating a successful business, this audiobook will change your perspective. 

Check out our article on Residual Income vs Passive Income.

9. Founders at Work: Stories of Startups’ Early Days by Jessica Livingston

In this audiobook, you hear the riveting stories of founders of some of the world’s most iconic technology companies like Apple, Flickr, Lotus, PayPal, and Hotmail. The unique feature of Founders at Work is that it’s in an interview format. The collection of interviews with founders of these famous tech companies gives you a peep into the inside growth stories of these businesses. 

Now, these companies are global brands to reckon with. But what was it like when their founders were just a random bunch of friends with an idea? What was their journey like? Exactly what discoveries did they make as they learned to build a company? What blunders did they make, and how did they recover? How did they manage to sell their idea to the investors? This audiobook answers all these questions and many more. 

Although the interviews cover founders of technology businesses, the Founders at Work audiobook is a valuable asset for anyone looking to build a startup. Whatever your niche is, these first-hand accounts of the founders of these famous companies will empower you with the relevant information and insights for creating a business from a scratch. 

Listen to the book, and get to hear from the founders the essence of their business and the secrets that make them the insanely productive and successful companies they are today. 

10. The Everything Store by Brad Stone

The Everything Store is a must-listen for every entrepreneur. This audiobook takes you through the inside story of Amazon- telling you all about its business model, the inside work culture, and its iconic growth story. 

What makes The Everything Store even more compelling and authentic is that it is backed by original research. The author Brad Stone had unprecedented access to the family members of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and all the past and present employees of Amazon. This gives the listeners an in-depth account of Amazon’s business strategy and work culture. 

While listening to this book, you get to hear all kinds of stories and anecdotes from Amazon’s past employees to details shared by Bezos’s family members. This audiobook is a must-listen for anybody who wants to start a business and would like to know about the history of an iconic company that introduced innovations at every step of its journey.