Meilleurs livres pour démarrer une entreprise en ligne recommandés par les meilleurs entrepreneurs et investisseurs
Table des matières
Nowadays, starting an online business has never been easier and, at the same time, harder.
It’s easy because we have access to everything we need: cheap high speed internet connection, tools that are extremely friendly to use, and the opportunity to connect with almost everyone in the world, since more than 50% of our population is using the internet.
Lots of businesses exploded since the traditional retail distribution channels disappeared. Just think about musicians: 15 years ago, they were depending on only four major record labels to “approve” them and distribute their music to stores, radio and TV stations. Today, all you need to make it is access to the internet, you don’t need intermediaries to connect you to your potential audience.
Meanwhile, you also need to be aware of the disadvantages. With 50% of the population online, that also means a stronger competition. Any idea you might have, someone else probably already thought of it, even tried to make it work, and failed. Was it because of bad timing, bad management, insufficient funding, or inexistent market? Or perhaps it didn’t fail, but you just didn’t hear of it yet? That’s for you to figure out.
What you’ll see next is a collection of books that will help you learn more about how to start an online business and successfully guide you through your first steps (getting traction, branding and positioning, marketing, and the likes).
Remember: these are books recommended by those who already launched and ran a successful online business. We’ll continue to add books to the list as more relevant recommendations come in, but, if you want to contribute to it, please leave your feedback in the comments section below.
Zero to One : notes sur les startups ou comment construire l'avenir
Authors: Peter Thiel, Blake Masters
Recommended by: Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and 24 others
Elon Musk: Peter Thiel a construit plusieurs entreprises révolutionnaires, et Zero to One montre comment.
Tout ce que vous voulez : 40 leçons pour un nouveau type d'entrepreneur
Author: Derek Sivers
Recommended by: Tim Ferriss, Ola Olusoga and 4 others
Tim Ferris : A true manifesto, a guidebook with clear signposts, and a fun ride you’ll return to again and again.
La startup Lean
Author: Eric Ries
Recommended by: Bogdan Iordache, Dragos Novac and 38 others
Joël Gascoigne : À bien des égards, Eric Ries et The Lean Startup méritent une grande partie du crédit pour où je suis aujourd'hui et pour Buffer existant. J'ai découvert Eric et ses concepts de Lean Startup via son blog il y a environ 5 ans. Il m'a vraiment aidé à comprendre l'idée de valider une idée avant de déployer beaucoup d'efforts, et la notion de mesurer les progrès en termes d'apprentissage plutôt que de lignes de code.
Le Lean Startup est un manuel incroyable pour tous ceux qui veulent démarrer leur startup du mieux possible. Cela m'a aidé à faire passer Buffer de l'idée aux clients payants en 7 semaines.
La startup $100 : virez votre patron, faites ce que vous aimez et travaillez mieux pour vivre plus
Author: Chris Guillebeau
Recommended by: Tony Hsieh, Dean Roller and 2 autres
Tony Hsieh : Dans ce précieux guide, Chris Guillebeau montre que transformer une idée en une entreprise prospère peut être plus facile que vous ne le pensez… Vous êtes responsable des idées qui méritent votre temps, et ce livre peut vous aider à vous réveiller chaque matin impatient de passer à l'étape suivante. .
La semaine de travail de 4 heures : Échappez-vous du 9 h à 17 h, vivez n'importe où et rejoignez les nouveaux riches
Author: Tim Ferriss
Recommended by: James Altucher, Bryan Callen and 32 others
Gunhee Park: While I don’t necessary agree with the theme of actually working “4 hours per week”, The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss is another book that’s encouraged me to quit my job and pursue something on my own. I like the author’s message of finding ways to take your life back, without putting in 50-60 hour workweeks for your corporate job.
Traction : un guide de démarrage pour attirer des clients
Authors: Gabriel Weinberg, Justin Mares
Recommended by: Gunhee Park, Ola Olusoga and 7 others
Joël Gascoigne : Traction has been a somewhat recent read for me. The key take-away I had from the book was to try to spend as much time on traction as on product development. The other realization the book triggered for me was that in the early days of Buffer, we focused our content marketing efforts around traction, and we found that guest blogging helped us a lot with spreading the word and triggering new signups for Buffer.
We now try to strike this balance a little better. As a team we don’t necessarily believe that all marketing activity should be tied to creating traction, but we do think it is worth exploring new traction channels and measuring our impact on traction from marketing. I can recommend this book to any new startup trying to get traction, or existing startups trying to reach new levels of traction. The book helped to give us a nudge to try some new traction channels again.
Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
Author: Steve Krug
Recommended by: Tracy Osborn, Raluca Radu and 4 others
Tracy Osborn: In terms of web design, Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug — so important for anyone learning how to build websites.
The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More
Author: Chris Anderson
Recommended by: Zhang Ruimin, Bogdana Butnar and 1 autre
Zhang Ruimin: In a 2009 interview with [email protected], he explained how Anderson’s ideas were helping Haier transition from traditional manufacturer to information-based service provider.
La guerre de l'art : briser les blocs et gagner vos batailles créatives intérieures
Author: Steven Pressfield
Recommended by: Seth Godin, Ola Olusoga and 6 autres
Seth Godin: Also hard to find on audio. I find Steve’s voice to be fascinating, and even before I knew him, I was fascinated by listening to him speak his own work. The War of Art is one of those books, at least for me when I finally was exposed to it, I said, ‘Why wasn’t I informed? Why did it take this long for this book to land on my desk?’… You need to be clear with yourself about what you are afraid of, why you are afraid, and whether you care enough to dance with that fear because it will never go away.
Créer ou détester : les personnes qui réussissent font des choses
Author: Dan Norris
Recommended by: Andra Zaharia
Andra Zaharia: While I was thinking of the best books to add to this short list, I realized that not even half of them are directly related to digital marketing. This is because I believe that the best marketers are people who understand human nature deeply and aim to bring out the best in it. Call me naive, but that’s how I see it. If I were to want to pursue a career in marketing, I’d read […] Create or Hate.
Vendeur de vivaces
Author: Ryan Holiday
Recommended by: Shawn Coyne, Jake Udell and 6 autres
Jake Udell: Ideas are a dime a dozen, but those who put them into practice are priceless. [In Perennial Seller], Ryan shows you how to become one of “those” through his simple and cutthroat strategy, for what it takes to be a successful creative in the modern world. This book couldn’t be more timely!
Hooked : Comment créer des produits qui créent une accoutumance
Author: Nir Eyal
Recommended by: Marc Goodman, Raluca Radu and 11 others
Matt Mullenweg: Hooked gives you the blueprint for the next generation of products. Read Hooked or the company that replaces you will.
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