5 must read books when starting your design business

Looking to start your own design business, don’t know where to or how to start? These five books will give you a crash course in everything (well almost everything) you need to know to get your business started.

Motivation & General Advice - It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be, Paul Arden

Marketed as the world’s best selling book this inspirational and informational gem will give you ideas and a whole lot of inspiration to get you going in your business. Read the Design Droplets review of It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be.

Getting Organised – Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality, Scott Belsky

Designers are notorious for not being organised. Scott Belsky spent 5 + years researching and writing on how the most productive and successful creatives do it so all you need to do is read about it. Read the Design Droplets Review of Making Ideas Happen.

General Business, Starting a Business – Rework, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

Business Plans, Raising Capital, ROI…confused? Don’t be, business language can be confusing so grab this great, straight forward guide to starting, building and growing a business without all the jargon. Read the Design Droplets Review of Rework.

Marketing – Baked In, Alex Bogusky and John Windsor

Marketing is a huge field, but if you are a designer creating products then you want to be able to create products that do the marketing for you. This little book provides 28 rules to guide you on marketing. Read the Design Droplets Review of Baked In.

Design and Business – Designers are Wankers, Lee McCormack

Basically this book provides you with the experiences and leanings of someone who has done it before, made mistakes and eventually got it worked out. Read it and learn from it. Read the Design Droplets review of Designers are Wankers.