Book Recommendations

The Untapped FR Bookshelf showcases books relating to entrepreneurship written by some of the female entrepreneurs across the UK to inspire others as well as help others start, manage and grow their businesses. See below or check out a wide range of female entrepreneurs books for inspiration.

Strong Woman: The Truth About Getting To The Top. By Karren Brady.

Karren Brady is an inspiration to women everywhere, and her incredible success is borne of her passion, impressive business instinct, ambition, and her very genuine, honest, down-to-earth outlook. This is Karren’s story. . .before being Alan Sugar’s aide on The Apprentice and Vc of West Ham United, how she started out as a sparky 18 year old at Saatchi & Saatchi and at 23, went on to persuade David Sullivan to buy Birmingham City football club – turning that business round to sell it for an incredible Gbp82 million 12 years later. Strong Woman tells how she balances her personal life with her professional, her priorities, her life as mother of two and wife. Karren reveals how she coped when doctors told her after a routine scan that she had a brain aneurysm, that she must have a complicated operation immediately and had a 30% chance of not surviving, and how it has since influenced her outlook and priorities.

An overwhelmingly inspiring and real look at work and life, Karren Brady defies convention as a directional business woman in a male industry. This is the truth about how she does it, and through her experience, her drive and her skills – it offers brilliant advice on how you can do it too.

Get a copy on Amazon in female entrepreneurs books.


My Story. By Jo Malone

Jo Malone is the inspirational British businesswoman responsible for creating her globally renowned beauty business and, more recently, her new brand ‘Jo Loves’. This, her first autobiography, tells in full her incredible journey from modest beginnings as a teenager, struggling with dyslexia and leaving school with no qualifications, to becoming an international brand name and one of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs.

Jo’s lively story explores how her fascination with smell teamed with her natural ability to create world-famous blends such as ‘Lime, Basil & Mandarin’, revolutionised the way we think about fragrance.

Her unique talent for pioneering innovation and originality within her field is unrivalled. Yet, despite her success, she has faced huge challenges with courage and determination, including being diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 37 and told she only had nine months to live, and her decision to go it alone after selling the original Jo Malone brand to the Estee Lauder Corporation and walking away in 2006.

Jo’s commitment and down-to-earth approach to life, work and family makes her one of the most likeable and well respected personalities in British retail and her honesty, hard work and entrepreneurial grit are an inspiration to all.

Click here for details or to get your copy.


Dear Female Founder: 66 Letters of Advice from Women Entrepreneurs Who Have Made $1 Billion in Revenue. By Lu Li

I love every story in this book and can’t wait to share it with my own daughter. – Sherry Coutu CBEDear Female Founder is a personal, inspirational and at times a deeply moving read. I wish it had existed when I started my own entrepreneurial journey – it would have saved me a lot of time and heartache! – Sarah Wood OBE

I wish I had access to a resource like that when I set up my first business 15 years ago. Everyone should read it regardless of gender. – Wendy Tan White MBE

Dear Female Founder lets you learn from the experience, emotional ups and downs and the wisdom gained by those who have done it before you. The stories make it real in a way no other book has. – Gil Penchina

Dear Female Founder is as inspiring as it is honest. A must read if you are thinking about taking the journey into the world of startup or want to inspire the next generation of female founders that they can do it too. – Kathryn Parsons

A unique blend of encouragement, wisdom and practical insights, shared by remarkable female entrepreneurs. Whether you’re a budding female entrepreneur or an intrapreneur within a bigger company, the rich advice will stand you in good stead and undoubtedly inspire you. – Paul Frampton

www.bloomingfounders.com

Click here for details or to get a copy


The Speaks: The Power of Women’s Voices. ByYvette Cooper

In this timely and personal anthology, Yvette Cooper MP tells the story of 30 inspirational speeches given by women. From Boudica to Margaret Thatcher and from Malala to gun-control activist Emma Gonzalez, each speech will be reproduced in full and introduced by Yvette. This is not only a much-needed celebration of women’s speeches throughout history, but also proof that powerful and persuasive oratory can be decidedly female.

Click here for details or to get a copy.


The Female Lead: Women Who Shape Our World. By Edwina Dunn.

Sixty inspirational women, from many walks of life. All have changed the world in a variety of fields. Among them are politicians and artists, journalists and teachers, engineers and campaigners, fire fighters and film stars. Together they form an arresting gallery of portraits, each one illustrated with original photography by Brigitte Lacombe.
Some have led their professions; some have broken new ground for women; some have inspired changes through relentless endeavour. All were chosen for their ambitions and achievements and all tell their stories in their own words.
For girls, it can be hard to identify role models in our society. This book will help and inspire women everywhere to realize their hopes and ambitions.

Click here for details or to get a copy.


The Multi-Hyphen Method: Work Less, Create More and Design a Career That Works for You. By Emma Gannon.

“The Multi-Hyphen Method is an essential new business book for the digital age. The internet and our phones mean we can work wherever, whenever and allow us to design our own working lives.

In The Multi-Hyphen Method Emma Gannon teaches that it doesn’t matter if you’re a part-time PA with a blog, or a physio who runs an online jewellery store in the evenings – whatever your ratio, whatever your mixture, we can all channel the entrepreneurial spirit.

Today, the stigma of being a jack of all trades is being dispelled and having more strings to your bow is essential to getting ahead in the modern working world and Emma Gannon’s book is the ultimate guide in helping us navigate our way towards success.”

Click here for details or to get a copy.


200 Women: Who Will Change The Way You See The World. By Ruth Hobday.

In this ambitious global project, two hundred women share inspiring stories of success and courage, love and pain, redemption, and generosity.
This updated, abridged edition includes powerful new interviews and stirring quotes alongside selections from the original book, all answering the same five questions.

Presented in an accessible, chunky paperback brimming with stunning photographs and empowering stories, this new edition is an illuminating read for the modern woman and a lovely gift for mothers, sisters, daughters, and friends.
• Equality is explored through diverse interviews with women from around the world
• Brave insightful interviews with women — famous as well as unknown, rich and poor, black and white, leaders, victims, survivors and heroes
• Women featured include Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Angela Davis, Alice Waters, Amber Heard, and Isabel Allende
Fans of In the Company of Women, The Atlas of Beauty, and Bad Girls Throughout History will love this book.

Click here for details or get a copy.


Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead. By Sheryl Sandberg.

Sheryl Sandberg’s provocative, inspiring book about women and power – grew out of an electrifying TED talk Sandberg gave in 2010, in which she expressed her concern that progress for women in achieving major leadership positions had stalled. The talk became a phenomenon and has since been viewed nearly 2,000,000 times.

In Lean In, she fuses humorous personal anecdotes, singular lessons on confidence and leadership, and practical advice for women based on research, data, her own experiences, and the experiences of other women of all ages.

Sandberg has an uncanny gift for cutting through layers of ambiguity that surround working women, and in Lean In she grapples, piercingly, with the great questions of modern life. Her message to women is overwhelmingly positive.

She is a trailblazing model for the ideas she so passionately espouses, and she’s on the pulse of a topic that has never been more relevant.

Click here for details or to get a copy.


Beyond The Boys’ Club: Achieving Career Success as a Woman Working in a Male Dominated Field. By Suzanne Doyle-Morris.

Beyond the Boys’ Club: Achieving Career Success as a Woman Working in a Male Dominated Field will show you how to develop your career strategy, break though the glass ceiling and completely raise your game. Packed with vital insights and inspirational ideas from senior women in organisations ranging from the University of Cambridge, Microsoft and Barclays among others, the book is written specifically for professional women to enable strategic advancement …where ever they are in their career.

Click here for details or to get a copy


Do It Like A Woman. By Caroline Criado-Perez.

Every day women are reinventing what it means to be female in cultures where power, privilege or basic freedoms are all too often equated with being male. One of the most tenacious campaigners of her generation, Caroline Criado-Perez introduces us to these pioneering women. We meet the first woman to cross the Antarctic alone; a female fighter pilot in Afghanistan; a Chilean revolutionary turned politician; and the Iranian journalist who dared to uncover her hair.

Click here for details or to get a copy.


5 W’s of Developing a Positive Mindset for Business Growth. By Mary A Fashanu.

Starting a business can be quite easy however, starting a business on the right foundation and ability to sustain it is where the REAL work is. I have been through it on my entrepreneurial journey and I have realised there are certain factors that you have to take into consideration and implement to actually get your business off the ground and actually propel yourself for Growth! This is why I wrote this book. My Coaching Business will be turning 1 on the 18th of November 2020 and I want to share with you the factors that have helped me grow this business to the level that I am right now.

Click here for details or where to get a copy.


IDEA2LAUNCH: A step-by-step guide to exploring your business idea and turning it into a viable venture. By Rita Peacock.

This IDEA2LAUNCH Guidebook will take you through the process of starting your own business. What makes this Guidebook different from other startup guides or books is that it is an action-based and hands-on Guidebook based on the author’s own approach and experiences.

Throughout this Guidebook, you will actively play a role of an entrepreneur going through the process of starting your own business. You will also be carrying out various tasks and activities based on your own business idea, product or service.

The Guidebook is split into nine sections that walk you through a step-by-step process of exploring and determining whether your business idea can be turned into a viable business.

Some of the topics that are covered in this Guidebook include:

  • Assessing your entrepreneurial potential including carrying out your entrepreneurial self-assessment and identifying your strengths and weaknesses.
  • Exploring your business idea i.e. narrowing it down and knowing what to focus on including idea generation and the use of the problem and solution approach.
  • Exploring the feasibility of your business idea to determine whether it is worth pursuing further or turning into a viable business.
  • Validating your idea and concept i.e. testing your idea, product or services in the real world.
  • Developing your business idea further and exploring various types of business models.
  • Naming and branding your new business and how that makes you stand out from your competitors.
  • Choosing the legal structure of your business, opening a business bank account, bookkeeping and accounting.
  • Financing your business and exploring various funding options for your new business.
  • Preparing your business presentation deck or a one-page business plan.

The responses that you provide as part of your tasks, activities as well as any information that you provide using this Guidebook will form the basis for your ‘Presentation Deck’ that will help you to plan, implement and move your idea to the next stage of your business.

The Guidebook also includes relevant supplementary information which contain two checklist forms: Action Plan Checklist and Progress Checklist for you to use as you walk through these step-by-step processes.

The purchase of this Guidebook includes access to a dedicated online resource portal for further support and information.

Click here for details or to get a copy.