51 Best business books for thriving at freelancing & solopreneurship

It doesn’t matter if you are already a great freelancer that wants to get better or you are looking to build a carefree financial future, you could use some professional help either way. In a world where a lot of people are pursuing freelancing and solopreneurship, you have to constantly learn and upgrade how to organize your finances and how to be better at what you do. If you want to be better, check out the following list of 51 best business books for freelancers and solopreneurs:

51 Best Business Books

1. Stop Thinking Like a Freelancer (Liam Veitch)- tips on how to treat freelancing just like any other business
2. Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (David Allen)- coaching on management
3. The 4-hour Work Week (Tim Ferriss) – shows the benefits of working online pushing an idea of working 4 hours for 5 figure earnings.
4. Think and Grow Rich (Napoleon Hill) – motivational literature
5. The $100 Startup: Fire Your Boss, Do What you Love and Work Better to Live More (Chris Guillebeau)- stories of people who started with 100 dollars.
6. Cannabis Jobs: How to Make a Living and Have a Career in the World of Legalized Marijuana (Andrew Ward)- tips on how to make a career in marijuana detox and usage areas.
7. Rework: Change the Way you Work Forever (David Heinemeier) – helpful book for anyone in the freelance business.
8. What to do When it’s Your Turn (And it’s Always Your Turn) (Seth Godin) – inspirational book with quotes and narrations.
9. The Hard Thing About Hard Things (Ben Horowitz) – tips on how to overcome business challenges.
10. Outliers: The Story of Success (Malcolm Gladwell) – illustrates why certain people succeed and others don’t.
11. The Zen of Social Media Marketing (Chris Brogan) – shows how to take advantage of social media in your business.
12. Non-Obvious: How to Think Different, Curate Ideas & Predict the Future (Rohit Bhargava) – explains how freelancers can market their business over the whole year.
13. The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation (Matthew Dixon & Brent Adamson) – gives information on the sale process and challenges with clients.
14. How to Win Friends and Influence People (Dale Carnegie) – follows the lives of prominent people.
15. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change (Stephen R. Covey) – it digs into how our success depends on our thoughts.
16. Book Yourself Solid (Michael Port) – gives tips on how to create a better market for you in the online business.
17. Creative Inc.: The Ultimate Guide to Running a Very Successful Freelance Business (Meg Mateo Ilasco) – information on how to start and grow your own freelance business.
18. The E-Myth Revisited (Michael Gerber) – digs into myths that people believe in when starting a business.
19. The Freelancer’s Bible: Everything You Need to Know to Have the Career of Your Dreams- On Your Terms (Sara Horowitz) – guide for new freelances on the basics of starting a business.
20. Ego is the Enemy (Ryan Holiday) – interesting stories of business leaders that let their ego wreck their success.
21. Anything You Want: 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur (Derek Sivers) – tells past successful experiences of businessmen
22. The Surrender Experiment (Michael A. Singer) – a guide to some soul searching for those who chose the freelancer lifestyle.
23. My So-Called Freelance Life (Michelle Goodman) – tips for women going into the freelancing world.
24. Side-Hustle: From Idea to Income in 27 Days (Chris Guillebeau) – takes you through the process of coming up with an idea and executing it.
25. Everything I Know (Paul Jarvis) – tips about the industry from a freelancer with 2 decades of experience.
26. The Power of Broke (Daymond John) – examples of how broke entrepreneurs started very successful businesses.
27. The Self-Made Billionaire Effect (John Sviokla & Mitch Cohen) – the authors dive into the mindset of a billionaire.
28. The 7 habits of highly effective people (Stephen R. Covey) – a classic business book for anybody who wants to be effective.
29. My Creative (Side) Business (Monika Kanokova) – a practical guide for the more creative freelancers out there.
30. Rework (Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson) – New York Times bestseller on how to be successful at freelancing.
31. Company of One (Paul Jarvis) – challenges the traditional way of thinking that bigger is better.
32. The Win Without Pitching Manifesto (Blair Enns) – a manifesto for design firms, advertising, and other consulting services.
33. Building a Story Brand (Donald Miller) – a guide for copywriting and writing: how to tell a story
34. Purple Cow (Seth Godin) – encouragement for startups to be noticeable and remarkable.
35. The Productivity Project: Accomplishing More by Managing Your Time, Attention, and Energy (Chris Bailey) – experiments on how to be more productive.
36. Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (David Allen) – dives into the importance of bite-sized tasks.
37. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business (Charles Duhigg) – creating positive habits that will help you in your business and life.
38. Buy-ology (Martin Lindstrom) – explains the decision making process when buying something.
39. The Little Red Book of Selling: 12.5 Principles of Sales Greatness (Jeffrey Gitomer) – teaches you how to be a better salesperson.
40. Tools of Titans (Tim Ferriss) – stories of more than 200 people on how to stay productive.
41. Here Comes Everyone: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations (Clay Shirky) – tackles crowdsourcing as a business game-changer.
42. Remote (Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson) – another great book by these two authors.
43. The Richest Man in Babylon (George S. Clason) – personal finance book.
44. The Untethered Soul (Michael A. Singer) – step by step guide of letting go of your ego.
45. The Content Trap: A Strategist’s Guide to Digital Change (Bharat Anand) – focuses on getting noticed and getting paid.
46. The Freedom Figure (Adam Fletcher) – humorous book on how to be your own boss and take the “leap”.
47. The Long Tail: Why the future of business is selling less of more (Chris Anderson) – gets into web-based buying habits.
48. Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (Charles Mackay) – a classic on group thinking
49. Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World  (Cal Newport) – dives into how social media is overtaking our lives and we should keep it balanced.
50. Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results (James Clear) – a practical book on how to focus on what matters the most.
51. Keep Going (10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad) (Austin Kleon) – practical book sharing ideas on how to have a productive life.

This is the collection of business books that would be beneficial to any freelancer, start-up or solopreneurs. Plenty of great advice, and ideas on how to be a good freelancer, how to be productive, how to have good business habits, knowing how to sell to people, etc. No matter if you need to start from writing the about me page on your site, or you are already successful and need to continue with it, these materials can be the difference between success and failure.

Kathrin Garner is an enthusiastic journalist and writes article on social issues. As an activist, she takes part in FV KASA program, which is a discussion platform on the relevant cannabis topics. So, if you want to know the best how to cleanse your body, feel free to contact her. Also, she is a volunteer at Marijuana Detox.  She searches for current issues, and writes about it to a wide range of readers.