Here is a list of resources or books that may be useful to you if you’re starting or running a business and have a website. I read books in any of the languages that I speak well (Catalan, Spanish and English). I included English versions wherever possible, but in some cases, the books have only been published in Spanish.
You can find books in the following categories:
Business Basics
Be a Free Range Human, by Marianne Cantwell
The book that started it all for me. This is a great book if you’re thinking about starting your own business, are lost and don’t know how to start. The book does not focus on the legal aspects of creating a business, but rather on generating business ideas and testing them without investing heaps of money. It’s a book full of common sense.
The Naming Book, by Brad Flowers
This is an excellent book to brainstorm names for your business. If you can come up with names on your own, do, but if you need help, this may be what you’re looking for. I wrote a thorough review of the book and talked about my experience in more detail.
Creativo Freelance, by Laura López
This book has a similar vibe to Marianne Cantwell’s. Not only does it guide you towards the process of creating your business, but it also deals with the fears and the issues that usually come with running a digital, creative business (some examples: graphic designer, photographer, website creator, etc.). Unfortunately, it’s only in Spanish.
The 1-Page Marketing Plan, by Allan Dib
This is a book that is very cheap (around 1-2 € on Amazon for the Kindle version) and worth its price. It covers the whole process, from selecting your target market to delivering the service and growing the business due to referrals. Doing the exercises in the book results in a marketing plan in one page, hence the name. Some of its contents overlap with the ones in Business Model Generation.
Business Model Generation, by Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur
This is a book that is recommended by many entrepreneurial courses to define your customers, identify their pains and create services that solve their issues. It’s not the typical business book, in the sense that it’s very visual, full of graphics and illustrations. It may be helpful if you need to come up with your customer segments, their pain points and your value proposal.
Mental Health
That is another hot topic for entrepreneurs and self-employed people. Running a business on your own can take its toll on your mental health, your mood and your state of mind. Over the years, I’ve read several books and used different tools. Here are my favourites.
The 6-Minute Diary, by Dominik Spenst
I LOVE this. I found it by chance at the end of 2019 and decided to give it a go. At that point in time I was suffering from burnout at my job and was very unhappy. This book helped me feel better, by writing daily about what I felt grateful for and focusing on things that I could do to improve my day. It’s an amazing tool (at least, for me it was), but it’s not a one-day solution, it’s something you need to write daily for a while in order for it to work.
The 6-Minute Diary also comes with some introductory pages explaining how the process works (it’s based on scientific evidence) and the kind of things you’re expected to write about. The only downside is that if you keep writing it for a very long time, it may start to feel samey. That was the case for me after 3,5 years of almost daily writing. Having said that, I returned to it less than a year after I stopped, so I couldn’t keep too long without it.
Also of note: there is the 6-Minute Diary, and the 6-Minute Diary PURE. You should only buy the PURE version if you already have the “standard” version, as the PURE one doesn’t come with the introductory explanation.
Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World, by Mark Williams and Danny Penman
I got this book at around the same time as the 6-Minute Diary. In this case, I wanted to get into meditation without having to think about how or what exercises to do. This was great, as this book is structured into 8 weeks, and provides exercises and guided meditation for each. Moreover, the meditations are available online once you get the book, so that there is no need to read them, you can just press play and listen to them.
In summary: this is great if you want to start meditation and are looking for a structured programme you can do from home.
Buddhify
The only exception in the list. This is not a book, but an app, available for both iOS and Android phones. After listening many times to the guided meditations in the Mindfulness book, I needed some variety. This is how I found Buddhify. It’s not free, but unlike most mediation apps, it’s not based on a subscription model. You pay once, and get all the meditations available. There is a subscription, but only for more “advanced” content.
The meditations are classified into categories which mostly have to do with your location. I’ve used them to start the day, when doing household chores, while traveling from one place to another, or when I couldn’t sleep. My least favourite part is that the meditation names don’t mean much to me most of the time, and I can’t remember what they are. But this is a very minor detail, if you’re looking for guided meditations, do consider getting this app!
WordPress
There are several books about WordPress. I’ve only read the one below.
WordPress All-in-One For Dummies, by Lisa Sabin-Wilson
This is a good book if you’re interested in learning about WordPress, even if you’re completely clueless on where to start. It covers very basic topics and slowly moves on towards more technical ones. However, one of its best qualities is also one of its main drawbacks: since it covers many topics, the book can feel shallow at times if you want to delve into more detail. I’ve got the 4th edition, but its recently been updated to the 5th.
SEO
Although SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is actually a marketing strategy, I believe it has enough importance to deserve its own section. The only books I’ve read so far on the topic are in Spanish.
SEO para dummies, by Sergio Silverio Redondo
This is a good introduction to SEO. It begins by talking about the basic concepts and then moves on to more advanced topics. However, carrying out a good SEO strategy requires investing in tools, which can be quite expensive.
SEO Avanzado. Casi todo lo que sé sobre posicionamiento web, by Fernando Maciá
This is also a good book about SEO. It covers more advanced topics than the other book, but again, in order to improve your SEO you need to invest time, effort and money in the right tools. So, in the end, just reading it won’t be enough.