Our Optimal StartUp Daily show has advice on topics like entrepreneurship and small business to help you make wise and practical choices. This post shares with you a list of free business eBooks.
We’ve also put together a list of free personal development, personal finance, parenting, and health eBooks.
Some of the eBooks on this list require you to sign up for a newsletter, which you can unsubscribe from if you don’t find the content valuable or useful. Some of the PDFs are guides on the shorter side in terms of word count, but still worth a read in terms of quality over quantity.
The short summary provides a bit more info on the eBooks’ contents.
Browse to see which small business topics appeal to you the most!
12 Free Business eBooks
1. “Ultimate Guide to Starting an Online Business” by GrowthLab
Link: Website | Download PDF (read chapters online or sign up for PDF)
GrowthLab was created by personal finance expert Ramit Sethi.
This thorough guide shows you how to build an online business to create the life you wish to live, with tips on strategies to focus on so that you avoid spinning your wheels and being trapped in marketing tactical hell.
2. “The Ultimate Guide to Digital Marketing” by Digital Marketer
Link: Website | Download PDF (read chapters online or sign up for PDF)
This guide is full of insights for digital marketing professionals and business owners. You'll learn about customer value journeys, website analytics, and how to leverage conversion rate.
3. “Transform Your Habits” by James Clear
Link: Website | Download PDF
This fantastic free guide helps you progress in health, business, and life. James shares ways to create new habits, ways to break bad habits, and shares articles he's written on how to make habits stick.
4. “StartUp Business Plan Template” by HubSpot
Link: Website | Download PDF (sign up required)
HubSpot is a leading developer of software products for inbound marketing, sales, and customer service. Having a clear business plan is important to a company's success. It can also be a way to formalize your plans. This template will help you sort out your plans on that front.
Be sure to check out the other eBooks offered by HubSpot!
5. “Breaking the Time Barrier” by FreshBooks
Link: Website | Download PDF (sign up required)
Freshbooks is a leading provider of cloud based small business accounting software. This 70-page guide to value-based pricing will help you know how to position and price your services. It also gives you insights on when to move on from low-paying clients so that you can progress towards a higher-paying clientele.
6. “Building A Startup That Matters” by The Happy Startup School
Link: Website | Download PDF (sign up required)
How do you go about creating a meaningful company? Laurence McCahill and Carlos Saba, the founders of The Happy Startup School, believe that business can be a force for good.
This book has eight chapters and shows you how to align your values as you build a purposeful company and team from the ground up.
7. “Time Management for the Entrepreneur” via Trans4Mind
Link: Website | Download PDF
This is a 40-page eBook across five chapters written by Richard Lopez. You'll learn how to tackle distractions and chronic multitasking to be more in control of your time and resources.
Trans4Mind was created by Peter Shepherd back in the late 90s. The website continually offers tons of personal development free resources to help you on your path to living a more fulfilling life.
8. “15 Marketing Tips to Win The Right Clients” by The Report
Link: Website | Download PDF
This 2-page handout will help you stand out from competitors and get yourself known in the marketplace.
9. “Startup Guide” by Harvard Office of Technology Development (OTD)
Link: Website | Download PDF
This beautifully formatted handbook was created as a high-level overview to some of the key questions and problems faced by an aspiring entrepreneur. While the OTD works with Harvard faculty, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows, you'll still be able to find helpful tips from this guide.
Harvard's Office of Technology Development (OTD) promotes the public good by advancing science and fostering innovation through inventions that are available and beneficial to society.
10. “The New Rules of Viral Marketing” by David Meerman Scott
Link: Website | Download PDF
David Meerman Scott is a marketing strategist, entrepreneur, investor and advisor to emerging companies, and a bestselling author of 12 books. While nothing is guaranteed to go viral, David shares strategies to help your idea take off on the web.
11. “Marketing Apple” by Steven Chazin
Link: Website | Download PDF
This eBook was mentioned by David Meerman Scott in his viral marketing eBook. It's a short document that reveals the five secrets of Apple's marketing clout. Steve Chazin was a former marketing executive at Apple, and the publication of this free eBook helped create viral marketing for his own consultancy services online.
12. “Resources for Entrepreneurs” by Grasshopper
Link: Website | Download PDF (read chapters online or sign up for PDF)
Grasshopper helps you focus on your business by keeping personal and business calls separate. Their resources page includes eBooks they've put together to help you with your small business goals.
Bonus #1: Excel Templates for Small Business Budget Management
Link: Website | Download Excel Sheets
Excel spreadsheets help you tremendously when it comes to storing and analyzing data.
The great team at PDF Converter put together this list of Excel sheets you can download to stay organized with your budget through cash flow, marketing, and other expenses. Templates to the rescue!
Bonus #2: Optimal StartUp Daily (Podcast)
Listen: Optimal StartUp Daily
If you're new to Optimal StartUp Daily, that's where we narrate some of the web's best startup and small business content. It's free, you can listen at a time that's most convenient for you, and you can improve your business knowledge in as little as ten minutes per day.
Let us know if you come across any other free eBooks that you'd like to share, or if there are any other business bloggers that we should look into.
