The Entrepreneur Cheat Sheet

The best entrepreneurship resources.
All in one place.

1. The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber

The E-Myth by Michael Gerber addresses a huge issue within Entrepreneurship: balancing roles. His book is often summed up with the mantra "Work on your business, not in your business." 

Many business owners feel enslaved to their business. His idea is to identify all the roles of the business. Then, with roles defined, beginning to take oneself out of each role and fill it with someone else.

An instant classic, this revised and updated edition of the phenomenal bestseller dispels the myths about starting your own business. Small business consultant and author Michael E. Gerber, with sharp insight gained from years of experience, points out how common assumptions, expectations, and even technical expertise can get in the way of running a successful business.

Gerber walks you through the steps in the life of a business—from entrepreneurial infancy through adolescent growing pains to the mature entrepreneurial perspective: the guiding light of all businesses that succeed—and shows how to apply the lessons of franchising to any business, whether or not it is a franchise. Most importantly, Gerber draws the vital, often overlooked distinction between working on your business and working in your business.

The E-Myth Revisited will help you grow your business in a productive, assured way

2. THE MILLIONAIRE FASTLANE BY MJ DEMARCO

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. 

Accept the Slowlane as your financial roadmap and your financial future will blow carelessly asunder on a sailboat of HOPE: HOPE you can get a job and keep it, HOPE the stock market doesn't tank, HOPE the economy rebounds, HOPE, HOPE, and HOPE. Do you really want HOPE to be the centerpiece of your family's financial plan? 

Drive the Slowlane road and you will find your life deteriorate into a miserable exhibition about what you cannot do, versus what you can. For those who don't want a lifetime subscription to "settle-for-less", there is an alternative; an expressway to extraordinary wealth capable of burning a trail to financial independence faster than any road out there. And shockingly, this road has nothing to do with jobs, 401(k), mutual funds, or a lifestyle of mediocrity. 

Demand more. Change lanes and find your explosive wealth accelerator. Hit the Fastlane, crack the code to wealth, and find out how to live rich for a lifetime.

3. The Lean Startup By Eric Ries

Most startups fail. But many of those failures are preventable.  The Lean Startup is a new approach being adopted across the globe, changing the way companies are built and new products are launched. 

Eric Ries defines a startup as an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty. This is just as true for one person in a garage or a group of seasoned professionals in a Fortune 500 boardroom. What they have in common is a mission to penetrate that fog of uncertainty to discover a successful path to a sustainable business. 

The Lean Startup approach fosters companies that are both more capital efficient and that leverage human creativity more effectively.  Inspired by lessons from lean manufacturing, it relies on “validated learning,” rapid scientific experimentation, as well as a number of counter-intuitive practices that shorten product development cycles, measure actual progress without resorting to vanity metrics, and learn what customers really want. It enables a company to shift directions with agility, altering plans inch by inch, minute by minute. 

Rather than wasting time creating elaborate business plans, The Lean Startup offers entrepreneurs - in companies of all sizes - a way to test their vision continuously, to adapt and adjust before it’s too late. Ries provides a scientific approach to creating and managing successful startups in a age when companies need to innovate more than ever.

4. How to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie

You can go after the job you want...and get it! You can take the job you have...and improve it! You can take any situation you're in...and make it work for you!

Since its release in 1936, How to Win Friends and Influence People has sold more than 15 million copies. Dale Carnegie’s first book is a timeless bestseller, packed with rock-solid advice that has carried thousands of now famous people up the ladder of success in their business and personal lives.

As relevant as ever before, Dale Carnegie’s principles endure, and will help you achieve your maximum potential in the complex and competitive modern age.

Learn the six ways to make people like you, the twelve ways to win people to your way of thinking, and the nine ways to change people without arousing resentment.

1. Fresh Books

Freshbooks makes billing easy. Really easy. With a single click you can send invoices to your customers. Online payment options means getting paid faster than ever. Over 5 Million business owners are now using quickbooks. Low monthly rates too!

2. 1M/1M 

1M/1M gives you access to extensive startup network of Silicon Valley. It's pretty incredible, right? This is a great place for those beginning their business to get advice on branding, financing, and everything entrepreneurship. 

3. Newswhip

Do you want your brand to be merged with all the social networks in your industry? Don't go searching the hundreds of thousands of Twitter Hashtags; let newswhip do that for you. Newswhip gathers all the topical discussions (and there's a whole lot) and gives you the most popular ones to ensure you can start a conversation with the most appropriate audience. 

4. Cool Text

Graphic designers are easy to come by. Finding the right one for your specific project, however, oftentimes feels like rocket science. Cool Text creates free graphics for web pages and even generates logos. Using it is simple: fill out a form, choose some images you like, and voila!, your very own logo or graphic will be done in a matter of seconds. And you didn't have to interact with a single human. 

5. Bright Journey

Bright Journey provides a collection of startup knowledge from successful entrepreneurs around the world. The intention is that entrepreneurs share their successes and failures. Users post questions but best of all, the most helpful answers are voted to the top. 

6. Marketing Grader by Hubspot

Would you like to know how your website stands in SEO metrics? Use Hubspot's marketing grader to detiermine where your site ranks in terms of effectiveness. It measures your lead gen, social media, mobile friendliness, and much more.

1. Elon Musk

Elon Musk is a South African entrepreneur who became a multimillionaire in his late twenties. Soon thereafter, he started x.com, an online financial services company that was acquired by Paypal. Once Paypal was purchased by Ebay, he went on to create his own commercial space travel company, SpaceX. On top of SpaceX, he's currently running Tesla Motors Inc, a company dedicated to making electric cars the norm.

2. Richard Branson

Richard Branson is not your ordinary entrepreneur. He dropped out of high school at age 16. Now, he's a multi-billionaire. His company, Virgin, which started as a record label back in the 1970's, quickly transformed into one of the world's most recognizable brands. With over 200 companies in its umbrella, Virgin has sectors in travel, telecommunications, banking, and staying true to their roots, music. Unlike anyone in history, Branson has now built 8 billion dollar companies in 8 different sectors. It's no surprise that following him will motivate you to dream big.

3. Warren Buffet

Born in Nebraska in 1930, Buffet was running his first business at age 13 as a paperboy. Best known for running Berkshire Hathaway for almost 2 decades, Buffet amassed billions of dollars investing in undervalued companies. Berkshire Hathaway currently has majority holdings in companies such as GEICO, Fruit of the Loom and Dairy Queen. They also have holdings in American Express, Costco, DirectTV, GE, Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola and many others. Buffet has pledged to give away the majority of his wealth to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 85% of some $70 Billion to be exact.

Twitter Feed

Exclusive Interviews