Books
Rhonda Abrams, Hire Your First Employee (2010).
Abstract (from Amazon Product Description): If you want to grow your business, you need help. This book guides you step-by-step through everything you need to make the decision to hire, find the right people and lead & manage your team.
David L. Birch, JOB CREATION IN AMERICA (1987).
Abstract: Think of American business, and the picture that likely flashes into your mind is a General Motors plant, an Exxon North Sea oil platform or an IBM computer. Such pictures flash in economists' minds as well. As a result, MIT professor David Birch shocked the business establishment a half dozen years ago with one of those landmark findings that's so obvious after the fact: Small businesses are creating the jobs and innovating; the very big firms are shedding jobs and failing to innovate. The Fortune 500, for instance, has cast off 3 million workers since 1981, while the U.S. as a whole is the envy of the world, with over 6 million jobs created since 1981. Moreover, in his new book, Job Creation in America, Birch points out that only 20 percent of us work in firms with more than 5,000 people on the payroll, while 35 percent are in firms with 100 to 5,000 employees and 45 percent work in firms with less than 100.
Suzanne Caplan, Start Your Own Business and Hire Yourself: Insider Tips for Successful Self-Employment in any Economy (2010).
Abstract: Unable to achieve employment, people are increasingly turning to entrepreneurship to create work, according to a recent article in the New York Times. As a result, people's interest in consulting, freelancing, and building self-enterprises is booming. There's no time like the present to start your business. This book includes chapters on: getting into the game; researching your options; developing your business plan; setting your budget and getting funding in tough times; a brief introduction to accounting basics; knowing the market and hiring the best customers; smart marketing; keeping business and personal finances separate; secrets for continuing business success; and planning your business exit strategy.
Henry R. Nothhaft & David Kline, Great Again: Revitalizing America's Entrepreneurial Leadership (2011).
Abstract (adapted from publisher): In "Great Again", serial entrepreneur Hank Nothhaft takes the reader inside the heart of the communities most responsible for innovation and shows how a few practical reforms can get America's economy moving again. This book is an call to action for: (1) Removing regulatory shackles from start-ups, (2) Fixing the patent office to incentivize innovation, (3) Creating smarter government support of basic science and research, (4) Offering meaningful incentives to rebuild our manufacturing sector, and (5) Easing immigration rules to turn America's brain drain into a brain gain. Filled with evocative stories and examples, "Great Again" presents an action plan for entrepreneurs and policymakers.