11 Best Books for Female Entrepreneurs You Need to Read Today

As busy female business owners, we must make the most of our limited time.

I’m constantly looking for ways to enhance my career (both as a lawyer and this online business) and increase my personal and professional growth!

One of the easiest ways to do is that is by reading inspiring books for female entrepreneurs.

I love books for female entrepreneurs because reading is one of the easiest ways to learn when you busy working on your business dreams and goals.

Self-made millionaires have many powerful habits, and managing time effectively is one of them.

I learned the importance of managing my time wisely when I started my blog in just seven days while working my full-time job.

Reading is one of the quickest ways to learn new skills, and if you’re strapped for time, you can listen to a great audiobook. Audiobooks make it easy to consume your favorite books while you workout, fold your laundry, wait at appointments, or on your commute to work.

That’s why I created this list of books for female entrepreneurs, so you can sneak in some learning time and take your business to the next level.

These aren’t just the best books for female CEOs; they’re the business books every ambitious woman should read.

No matter what stage in your business you are, these books can help you break bad habits, learn the right way to run your business, and inspire you to be the ultimate girl boss.

It’s never too late to learn how you can be the best you, especially as a female entrepreneur.

1.      Shark Tales: How I Turned $1,000 Into a Billion Dollar Business by Barbara Corcoran

Barbara Corcoran is best known as the legendary Shark Tank star. Her business journey is quite inspiring. And like many prominent entrepreneurs, her journey began with failure.

Barbara started her small business after quitting her job as a waitress to start a small real estate company in New York with a $1,000 loan from her boyfriend at the time. She made her way through 20 different jobs before starting her real estate business.

In Shark Tales, Barbara talks about the unconventional ways she approaches business and how like Thomas Edison, she learned something from every single failure to grow her real estate office into a multi-billion-dollar company.

Corcoran will inspire you to make your own business a mini-empire. That’s why I added it to this list of the best books for female entrepreneurs.

Check it out here.

2.      Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder by Arianna Huffington

This book is another one I’ve seen recommended everywhere, which is why it makes my list of the best books for female entrepreneurs.

Arianna Huffington is one of the most influential women globally, so it’s no wonder this book is popular.

She is the CEO and founder of Thrive Global, a notable behavior change technology company, and the Huffington Post. Huffington has written 15 books, and Time Magazine even listed her as one of the world’s most influential women. She even landed on the Forbes Most Powerful Women list.

In Thrive, Arianna talks about her wake-up call for redefining success, a gash over her eye, and a broken cheekbone. She went through an MRI, CT scan, and echocardiogram to find the medical problem that had to be behind her fatigue. And she found herself wondering, “Is this what success feels like?”

As business owners, the picture of success that we all relate to is the woman who can do it all; juggle a family, kids, business, and more. Our unrelenting drive for success has led to burnout and illnesses caused by stress.

Improving our mental and physical health is critical, especially for people juggling multiple jobs and responsibilities.

Since our current view of success is slowly killing us, Arianna writes about redefining success, including inner wisdom, intuition, and well-being. She’ll make you look at success differently and help you strive for a better version.

Check it out here.

3.      Girl on Fire by Cara Leyba

Girl on Fire is a brilliant book for female entrepreneurs because it talks about women helping each other succeed. In a world where people backstab others to climb their way to the top, this is a refreshing way to view success.

Think of this book as a road map for any woman who wants to succeed by sharing what they’ve learned to improve every woman and truly become successful.

Unfortunately, I’ve seen too many successful people in the position to help new entrepreneurs, yet they are stingy with their advice. They hold it like a secret when it really doesn’t need to be that way.

This book is enlightening, motivating and will help you build self-confidence and banish jealousy so that you can discover the real power of genuine connections. If everyone thought this way, the world would be a much better place.

Cara is also the author of the popular Girl Code: Unlocking the Secrets to Success, Sanity, and Happiness for the Female Entrepreneur.

Check it out here.

4.      #Girlboss by Sophia Amoruso-Rachel

Sophia Amoruso-Rachel did not have the best beginning in the world. She went from a teenage hitchhiking dumpster diver who was flat broke to a successful business owner and CEO of Girl Boss and Nasty Gal.

She’s anything but the typical businesswoman and proves that outsiders like her can chart a unique path to great success, even if you drop out of school.

The path may not be straight and be lined with plenty of naysayers, but women that feel like they’re an outsider can be a great success without being popular or going to college. I love that she describes the key to success as listening to your gut and following your instincts, which all women need to do.

One of our best tools is our intuition and gut instinct. This book is filled with humor as Sophia talks about the ups and downs and her humble early years as well as her rise from selling vintage clothing on eBay to a stand out in online retail.

So, it seems it’s okay to break the rules sometimes, and that’s why it’s one of my favorite books for female entrepreneurs.

Check it out here.

5.      You Are a Badass, and You Are a Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero

If you want a funny book for women entrepreneurs about changing your money mindset, these two books are for you. Sincero talks about being a starving writer with such humor; she’ll have you laughing out loud.

Jen talks to you like a best friend giving you down to earth wisdom that anyone can follow. If you’re struggling to make more money in your business, then this book is a must for you. And before you think these books are just like any old book on the law of attraction, they are not!

She gives you practical advice to identify the self-limiting behaviors and beliefs that prevent you from getting what you want in life. You Are a Badass is more about getting rid of self-doubt in general. You’re Are a Badass at Making Money focuses on those self-sabotaging thoughts and behaviors preventing you from making the money you deserve.

Check out both books here.

6.      Beyond the Boys’ Club: Achieving Career Success as a Woman Working In a Male-Dominated Field by Suzanne Doyle-Morris

Any woman who has struggled to rise to success in a male-dominated field will definitely appreciate this book.

I know just what that feels like as lawyers have traditionally always been men. It isn’t easy to always have to prove that you’re good enough to succeed in your field.

This is a fantastic book for female business owners and entrepreneurs because you’ll learn how to create a career strategy that helps you break past the barriers to success so you can up your career to the next level.

Doyle-Morris collected inspirational ideas and critical insight for senior women in companies and organizations such as Barclays and the University of Cambridge to help you develop a strategy for success in your career.

It’s for women at any career level who want to advance in their careers. So, add this to your must-read books for female entrepreneurs.

Check it out here.

7.      Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Officer: Unconscious Mistakes Women Make That Sabotage Their Careers by Lois P. Frankel PhD

This newly revised edition of Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office was written by executive coach Lois P. Frankel reveals the sets of behaviors that women learn early on that sabotage their success as adults.

There are more than 130 sets of behaviors that Frankel talks about to enlighten us all on these unconscious mistakes so you can eliminate those that are holding you back.

Frankel also provides incredible coaching tips that you can easily incorporate into your business and social skills. You must stop making these “nice girl” mistakes like:

• Multi-tasking – Just because you can do something well doesn’t necessarily mean you should (now that’s eye-opening).
• Avoiding office politics – Because if you don’t play the game, you certainly can’t win.
• Asking permission – Adults don’t ask for approval; children do. You must be confident and direct.

Once you see some of these mistakes in writing, you’ll have ah-ha moments about how they may be sabotaging your career. If you want to be a successful woman entrepreneur, this book is a must-read.

Check it out here.

8.      The Multi-Hyphen Life by Emma Gannon

This book is for the goal-driven woman entrepreneur who wants to convert and launch her side hustle into a successful startup, hobby into a career, or just wants a better work-life balance.

Whether your business is full-time or part-time, every woman can channel their inner entrepreneurial spirit to live their best life.

Thanks to technology, we can work anywhere and design a work schedule that fits our lives. You don’t have to sacrifice money to do it.

Gannon is showing working women how they can diversify to get ahead in the modern world. We can all create more for ourselves. How inspirational, right? You can even work full-time while being self-employed if you love your career and your side hustle.

Check it out here.

9.      The Glitter Plan: How We Started Juicy Couture for $200 and Turned It Into a Global Brand by Pamela Skaist-Levy and Gela Nash-Taylor

The title says it all, considering starting a small business with $200 and growing it into a global success is amazing.

While the two women worked at an LA boutique, they bonded over their desire to find the perfect T-shirt. So, they set up a shop in Gela’s small, one-bedroom apartment and grew Juicy Couture into the brand we know today. Eventually, they sold their business to Liz Claiborne for $50 million.

In this book, they reveal the secrets to their success and how they learned to trust their instincts and run a grow a multimillion-dollar company with no business degree. They also share the funny missteps and lessons they learned along the way.

Harpers Bazaar interviewed the two women and asked them the most important thing they learned while building their brand. They gave this advice, “Trust your gut, drink the Kool-Aid, product is King, or shall we say, Queen, never take no for an answer, keep it fun.”

Check it out here.

10. Knowing Your Value: Women, Money, and Getting What You’re Worth by Mika Brzezinski

Knowing Your Value is the perfect book for female entrepreneurs because Brzezinski discusses why women are often overlooked and underpaid. This book was prompted by Mika’s experience co-hosting the MSNBC Morning Joe show.

Mika interviewed prominent women all over America from many industries on their experience rising to the top in their fields. Some of the success stories she shares are Joy Behar, Sheryl Sandberg, Susie Essman, and Valerie Jarrett.

She also gets the answers to why women are paid less and the problems they may face in business from people like Jack Welch, Donald Trump, and Donny Deutsch. This book is brutally honest and funny, and it provides solutions to what women can do to bridge the gender wage gap and negotiate the pay they deserve.

Check it out here.

11. Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow by Elizabeth Lesser

Elizabeth Less founded the Omega Institute, a wellness and spirituality retreat center. But even Forbes’s Liz Elting explains that it not just for New Agers.

The things she learned were life-changing for her and many other women. It talks about turning hurt and failure into a positive catalyst to change and grow.

Lesser talks about using flexibility and openness to turn failures into transformations that make us better people. In this book, she shares tales of everyday people who suffered loss and risen to find their passion and purpose again.

These losses included divorce, the death of a loved one, loss of a job, and more. Elizabeth talks about using some of our greatest psychological and spiritual traditions to break open and become who we are supposed to be.

We’ve all experienced some loss or defeat. This book shows you that you’re not alone and that you can take any difficulties in your life and use them to bloom and grow.

Final Thoughts – Books for Female Entrepreneurs

Add some of these awesome books to your reading list and take the knowledge and tips they share to heart.

They will help you grow personally and become a strong female entrepreneur – these have helped me build a multiple six-figure business of my dreams, and hope they inspire you too!

Whether you’ve had a business fail or you’re simply having problems marketing and getting traffic to your blog, just know that you’ve got this. Women entrepreneurs can do anything they set their minds to. 

Do you want one on one help with your business?

I offer business coaching calls to help you with any legal and business questions you have. I can even perform a legal audit of your website and business to ensure that you protect your business from lawsuits and other scary legal problems.

Check out this video of several out of over 10,000 entrepreneurs I’ve helped with my templates and business coaching.

Are you running your online business and blogging legally? Check out my legal templates here to protect your online business.

LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS BELOW WHICH ONE OF THESE BOOKS for Female Entrepreneurs YOU’RE GOING TO READ FIRST.

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