If you only read 10 Books for Small Business Success - It’s these 10

The books for this list were chose on the following basis: 1. Must be Well Written and Engaging - lets face it, if they’re not engaging there is no point, you’re not going to read or listen to them

2. Evidence Based - There are millions of self help, business how to books, but so many of them are based on anecdotal experiences - what works for Elon Musk may not work for you - or even for him at some point 😀

3. Cover a critical Element of running and succeeding in Business and can be adapted to small Construction and Trade Businesses

Here they are:

1. Building a StoryBrand 2.0 by Donald Miller (2023)

This book is about clarity—specifically, how businesses explain what they do and why it matters. For a construction or trade business, where reputation, trust, and word-of-mouth do much of the heavy lifting, the ideas naturally translate to how services are described, how websites read, and how early conversations with clients unfold.

2. Influence by Robert Cialdini (Revised & Expanded, 2021)

Influence is a research-backed exploration of how people make decisions. Rather than being a sales manual, it explains the behavioural patterns that sit behind trust, commitment, and credibility—things that quietly shape how clients choose builders, assess risk, and decide who feels “safe” to work with.

3. Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss (2016)

Framed around negotiation, this book is really about communication under pressure. The ideas resonate strongly in environments where expectations, constraints, and emotions collide—something most small construction business owners will recognise from client meetings, scope discussions, and difficult conversations.

4. Make Time by Jake Knapp & John Zeratsky (2018)

Make Time looks at how people work in busy, interruption-heavy environments. Its relevance emerges naturally for owners balancing site decisions, staff questions, admin, and family life, offering a way of thinking about attention and energy rather than rigid productivity systems.

5. Work Rules! by Laszlo Bock (2015)

Written from the perspective of large organisations, this book is grounded in evidence about people, performance, and decision-making. Many of its ideas become most interesting when a small business begins to grow and informal, founder-led systems start to show their limits.

6. The 6 Types of Working Genius by Patrick Lencioni (2022)

This is a simple framework for understanding how people contribute to work. In small teams—where roles blur and everyone is stretched—the language it provides can be useful for making sense of energy, frustration, and why capable people sometimes struggle in the wrong parts of the job.

7. The 4 Disciplines of Execution by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey & Jim Huling (2016)

At its core, this book explores why strategy often fades under day-to-day pressure. The concepts resonate with businesses where good intentions are repeatedly overtaken by urgent site issues, deadlines, and client demands.

8. How Big Things Get Done by Bent Flyvbjerg & Dan Gardner (2023)

Grounded in decades of project data, this book examines why large projects fail and what consistently leads to better outcomes. Its insights feel particularly familiar in construction, where optimism, complexity, and risk quietly shape budgets, programs, and expectations.

9. Good to Great by Jim Collins (2001)

This is a long-view study of companies that achieved sustained excellence. While not written for small businesses specifically, its observations around discipline, leadership, and culture often resonate when owners begin thinking beyond survival and towards longevity.

10. Ideaflow by Jeremy Utley & Perry Klebahn (2024)

Ideaflow explores how better ideas emerge from systems rather than individuals. For construction and trade businesses, its relevance shows up in continuous improvement—small changes to process, design thinking, or delivery that compound over time.