Small businesses are the lifeblood of an economy. They add passion and enthusiasm to their industries. And owners of small businesses are in the position to shape their minds according to their own business ideals. Which is why, if you’re a business owner, it’s important to read the right books to find a better approach to your business, taking in insightful ideas and perspectives along the way.

Here are the 10 books every business owner should read:

1. The Startup Playbook

Author: David Kidder

By now, in the 21^st century with millennia of trade and industry behind them, business owners can learn from other people’s successes and other people’s mistakes. The Startup Playbook: Secrets Of The Fastest-Growing Startups From Their Founding Entrepreneurs covers everything from leadership lessons to finding your forte, and shares insights from 41 business founders.

2. Thinkertoys

Author: Michael Michalko

This comprehensive handbook specifies clever creative thinking techniques to approach problems in unconventional ways. Michalko shares some of the brilliant tools that’ll help you think like a genius. With fun and thought-provoking exercises, you’ll learn how to create original ideas that will improve your personal life and your business life. You will learn how to look at the same information as everyone else, but see something different.

3. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Author: Stephen R. Covey

Stephen Covey, a globally respected leadership coach, elaborates how true success encompasses a balance of personal and professional effectiveness. This book is an amazing guide for improved performance in both arenas. Confidence-building is packaged into seven easily digestible maxims. There is good advice throughout that could help you in your professional life.

4. Stay Hungry Stay Foolish

Author: Rashmi Bansal

Bansal has compiled inspiring stories of 25 IIM Ahmedabad graduates who, instead of taking up a routine job, chose the rough road of entrepreneurship. Being different in approach and outlook, they have all made a mark in the industries they are in. But the one thing that they all have in common is their belief in the power of their dreams, and their knowledge that there can be more than placements and salaries for fresh graduates in the industry.

5. The High Performance Entrepreneur

Author: Subroto Bagchi

Subroto Bagchi, co-founder and chief operating officer of MindTree Consulting, draws upon his own highly successful experience to offer guidance from the root level – from generating an idea, to being the industry leader. Bagchi guides you from the moment you decide to launch your business, taking you through team selection, policy definitions, values, objectives, to writing the business plan, choosing right investors and building the brand name.

6. Crush It!

Author: Gary Vaynerchuk

Do you have a hobby you wish you could do all day? An obsession that keeps you up at night? Now is the perfect time to take those passions and make a living doing what you love. In CRUSH IT! Why NOW Is The Time To Cash In On Your Passion, Gary Vaynerchuk explains how to use the power of the Internet to turn your real interests into real businesses.

7. Built To Last

Author: Jim Collins and Jerry Porras

After a six-year research project at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business Jerry I. Porras and James C. Collins took 18 brilliant and long-lasting companies and studied each one of them in direct comparison to one of its top competitors. They examined the companies from their beginnings to the present day, right from where they were as start-ups, midsize companies and later large corporations.

The authors answer to what makes these companies different and what were the common practices they followed throughout their history?

8. Steve Jobs

Author: Walter Isaacson

In Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography, Walter Isaacson provides an extraordinary account of Jobs’ personal and professional life. Many instances in the Steve Jobs biography, display his lack of balance in life and his lack of internal peace. He was certainly a genius but had his own frailties. However, the leadership lessons in this book makes it a must-read.

9. Lean In: Women, Work And The Will to Lead

Author: Sheryl Sandberg

In Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg shares her personal stories, uses research to shine a light on gender differences, and offers practical advice to help women achieve their goals. The book challenges us to change the conversation from what women can’t do to what they can do, and serves as a rallying cry to work together to create a more equal world.

10. Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days

Author: Jessica Livingston

The book has interviews with founders of world-famous technology companies about what happened in the initial days. Now celebrities, the book explores the time when they were young with an idea? Steve Wozniak of Apple, Mitch Kapor of Lotus, Caterina Fake of Flickr, Sabeer Bhatia of Hotmail and Max Levchin of PayPal share about their surprising and often very funny discoveries as they were learning how to build a company. Where did they get the ideas? How those ideas made them rich? How did they convince the investors? What went wrong, and how did they handle it? This book is the closest you can come to being a fly on the wall at a successful startup to learn how it’s done.

Is your favourite inspirational book not on this list? Make sure to tell us which book it is, so we can share it with other GlobalLinkers.