Entrepreneurship Small Business

Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo have pioneered the use of randomized control trials in development economics. Work based on these principles, supervised by the Poverty Action Lab, is being carried out in dozens of countries. Drawing on this and their 15 years of research from Chile to India, Kenya to Indonesia, they have identified wholly new aspects of the behavior of poor people, their needs, and the way that aid or financial investment can affect their lives. Their work defies certain presumptions: that microfinance is a cure-all, that schooling equals learning....

Why do so many business owners dread looking at the numbers? Financial statements, ledgers, profit and loss reports--many avoid these and treat them like junk mail and phone solicitors. Nevertheless, it’s true--you’re not a numbers person. How can you learn to make sense out of all this Greek? This easy-to-follow guide demystifies your company's financial dashboard: the Net Income Statement, Cash Flow Statement, and Balance Sheet.

Since you were old enough to hold a job, you've been hoodwinked to believe that wealth can be created by blindly trusting in the uncontrollable and unpredictable markets: the housing market, the stock market, and the job market. I call this soul-sucking, dream-stealing dogma "The Slowlane" - an impotent financial gamble that dubiously promises wealth in a wheelchair. For those who don't want a lifetime subscription to "settle-for-less", there is an alternative.

There are thousands of books on millionaire thinking. The knowledge they offer isn't enough to get you to the highest ranks of wealth. The richest people of our times are billionaires. Only one in five million world citizens belongs to this group. Billionaires are extremely rare, and their mindset differs hugely from that of ordinary millionaires.

As statistics tell us that most of the "ventureholics" who go out on their own to start a business will ultimately fail; and, as readers will learn, the main reason for this is because most businesses are not started the right way. Based on decades of experience working with small business owners, Michael Gerber will teach budding entrepreneurs his one-of-a-kind seven-step method - which is meant to be conceptualized long before the doors are ever opened.

Are you a self-employed service provider looking to build a bulletproof business? Struggling to develop a strong, consistent client base? Do you want to take your independent career to the next level but don't know how? Writer, coach, and public speaker Laura Briggs has helped thousands of enthusiastic entrepreneurs find the liberating freedom and flexibility of the contractor model. And now she's here to share her battle-tested guide from working with companies like Microsoft and Business Insider to help you scale your enterprise and soar to new financial heights.

How well does your organization respond to changing market conditions, customer needs, and emerging technologies when building software-based products? This practical guide presents Lean and Agile principles and patterns to help you move fast at scale - and demonstrates why and how to apply these methodologies throughout your organization. Through case studies, you'll learn how successful enterprises have rethought everything from governance and financial management to systems architecture and organizational culture in the pursuit of radically improved performance.

In this compelling biography, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael D'Antonio gives us the real-life rags-to-riches story of Milton S. Hershey, a largely uneducated businessman whose idealistic sense of purpose created an immense financial empire, a town, and a legacy that lasts to this day.

Confessions of a Real Estate Entrepreneur is for the individual who is ready to get serious about investing. Not a rah-rah or get-rich-quick book, this book is for someone who is prepared to think about what he or she wants to accomplish. James Randel provides the how and why.

You live in your dream house, but there's no mortgage. No alarm clock, no boss, no bills. No claims on the day's time other than what you choose. It is making more money before breakfast than you made for an entire week at your last job. It is a crazy expensive car parked in your garage, a victorious symbol that your dreams no longer sleep in fantasies, but are awake with reality.

Great ideas often come from a simple spark: A soccer player on the New Zealand national team notices all the unused wool his country produces and figures out a way to turn them into shoes (Allbirds). A former Buddhist monk decides the very best way to spread his mindfulness teachings is by launching an app (Headspace). A sandwich cart vendor finds a way to reuse leftover pita bread and turns it into a multimillion-dollar business (Stacy’s Pita Chips).

How Clients Buy is the much-needed guide to selling your services. If you're one of the millions of people whose skills are the "product," you know that you cannot be successful unless you bring in clients. The problem is, you're trained to do your job-not sell it. No matter how great you may be at your actual role, you likely feel a bit lost, hesitant, or "behind" when it comes to courting clients, an unfamiliar territory where you're never quite sure of the line between under- and over-selling. This book comes to the rescue with real, practical advice for selling what you do.

Whether you're launching your business for the first time or looking to transform your existing business, Stu McLaren, founder of Searchie and the Marketing Your Business podcast is here to help you launch a membership site. What's magical about a membership site is it not only creates predictable recurring revenue every month, but the more you put into it, the bigger potential it has to grow each month. With memberships, you never start from zero. You start every month with the momentum that you gained the previous months.

Taking a leap and making the choice to start a business can be hard, but all that comes after - the planning, loans, marketing - can be even harder. Every new business owner needs an easy, clear, and useful guide to follow when embarking on this venture, and Minding My Business will make the process as simple as possible.

More than two generations ago, the venture capital community convinced the entrepreneurial world that writing business plans and raising venture capital constituted the twin centerpieces of entrepreneurial endeavor. They did so for good reasons: the sometimes astonishing returns they've delivered to their investors and the astonishingly large companies that their ecosystem has created. But the vast majority of fast-growing companies never take any venture capital. So where does the money come from to start and grow their companies?

With roughly 95,000 blogs launched worldwide every 24 hours, making a fledgling site stand out isn't easy. This authoritative audiobook gives creative hopefuls a leg up. Joy Cho, of the award-winning Oh Joy!, offers expert advice on starting and growing a blog, from design and finance to overcoming blogger's block, attracting readers, and more. With a foreword from Grace Bonney of Design*Sponge plus expert interviews, this book will fine-tune what the next generation of bloggers shares with the world.

Amplifying Indigenous Voices in Business is for organizations and allies who would like to make a positive difference by learning how to amplify Indigenous voices, Indigenize businesses, and support Indigenous entrepreneurship, all in the bigger spirit of reconciliation.

The founder and CEO of AppSumo.com, Noah Kagan, knows how to launch a seven-figure business in a single weekend—and he’s done it seven times. Million Dollar Weekend will show you how. By Monday, you’ll have a market-tested, scalable business idea and you’ll be a entrepreneur on the path to seven figures. Million Dollar Weekend is the path to creating your dream life and attaining financial freedom.

The recent pandemic has decimated many small retail businesses, especially in the clothing sector. While big box stores pivoted to online sales, local "mom and pop" shops were left without a roadmap, and many closed their doors permanently. One store in Pikesville, Maryland managed to survive and thrive by using an unorthodox approach: the Poshmark reseller app, and a guy who knows nothing about clothes (hint: the author of this book). Outlandish but true.

Clayton M. Christensen is a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School. Michael E. Raynor is a director at Deloitte Research. Together, they outline an innovative plan that urges businesses to create disruption rather than fleeing from it. Named one of 2003's Best Business Books by Business Week, this book is a Wall Street Journal and New York Times best seller.