I'm a brand strategy expert who reads 50 to 70 books every year. These are the 7 most essential books to read this year to grow your business.

• Shanna Goodman has worked with hundreds of small businesses over the last 15 years.
• She is an avid reader and says it helps her better advise clients.
• Read the books in the order they're listed, and use them as a framework to determine why and how to grow your business.
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As a small business owner, I constantly seek out resources to grow my own business and to also help other small businesses succeed. I'm an avid reader and have read 50 to 70 books every year for the last 10 years. I often choose books that will help me learn how to run my business better, to live more happily, or a combination of those things.

Last year, my marketing strategy agency surveyed our clients about the biggest challenges they face. Nearly all said they wanted to grow their businesses. This seems like a goal every business owner should have, but if you don't find the right environment to grow in, there's potential for that growth to be really painful.

Consider these questions: In what way should you grow? Is it to earn more money? Will having a larger team give you higher prestige in your market? As you're growing, should you stop doing technical work or admin work to focus more on the big picture? Figure it out before you sink a bunch of money into expanding your team.

If you're unsure where to start, I highly recommend you check these books out. Read them in order, because the later books build on the foundations of the early books. All seven of them are on my own bookshelf, referenced regularly, and full of sticky notes with underlines and notes in the margins. If I'm stuck on a strategy question or implementation problem for a client, I'll pick up a book and thumb through to brainstorm solutions. Here are the exact books that helped me figure out the hard questions for my business.