🦈 Resources for Entrepreneurs: The Secret Weapons

Here are some resources (free tutorials, paid tools, books, freemium courses, etc) that will take you step by step from newbie to pro. We tried listing only the best content and tools out there.

Also, if you know of any other useful link or resource, tweet us at @futuresharks.

Note: This page is a work-in-progress, more content to be added. Also, we earn a commision if you sign up for any of the products listed here. This is our way to keep the site going. 

Setting up your site

1. Buy a domain using Namecheap, Godaddy.
2. Host it with Bluehost (recommended), HostGator, Godaddy or Amazon AWS (harder)
3. Use WordPress, Joomla or Shopify to set up your site. (Shopify is highly recommended for ecommerce stores)
   • Buy a beautiful theme for your site with ThemeForest or Elegant Themes.
4. Install
   1. Google Analytics
   2. Search Engine Console
   3. Facebook Pixel
      • You can also install the FB pixel helper chrome extension to check that you setup your pixel correctly

Favorite and Essential WordPress Plugins

1. Yoast SEO
2. Monster Insights for Google Analytics
3. W3 Total Cache

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

1. Info
   • What is SEO? (beginner) or a shorter version of the basics of SEO
   • How to write the perfect SEO blog post
   • $$$ SEO tips (advanced)
2. Tools
   • Ahrefs or SEMRush
   • Yoast SEO

Email Marketing

1. Techniques
   • A/B testing
2. Tools
   • Mailchimp
   • Braze

Press Marketing

1. Info
   • How to get featured on Forbes, Mashable and The Huffington Post
   • Hacks to get free PR
2. Services
   • Get press using HARO
   • Contact Flux.LA to outsource your press needs (syndication to ABC, Fox, NBC, Huffington Post, Thrive Global, Inc, etc)

Social Media

1. Learn
   • Social Media Academy by Buffer (collection of really good articles)
   • Connect with social media influencers on this Facebook group.
2. Best Tools
   • A round-up of the tools that pro social media marketers recommend

Business

1. Personal MBA

Productivity

1. How to be more productive by Alejandro Rioja
2. Learn the 80/20 rule and Pareto Principle.

Get a free consultation with our founder, Alejandro

Books that will teach you entrepreneurship

In every Future Sharks interview, we ask the participants to list their favorite books. Here’s a list of the most common ones, we hope you find them valuable. Let us know which ones are your favorites!

We listed the books in terms of usefulness (in our humble opinion) so read the top book in each category and work your way down.

Also, if you have a book suggestion tweet us at @futuresharks.

🧠 Mindset (think abundance, attract abundance)

1. Think And Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
2. 4 Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris
3. Read about conciousness

🤩 Inspirational (if they did, so can you)

1. Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight

✍ Startup Mechanics (what to do, what not to do)

1. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
2. The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael Gerber
3. Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel (from Paypal)
4. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t by Jim Collins

📈 Personal Growth (there are always areas of improvement)

1. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie (a classic)
2. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Steven Covey
3. Outliers: A story of success by Malcolm Gladwell
4. Awaken the Giant Within : How to Take Immediate Control of Your Mental, Emotional, Physical and Financial Destiny! by Tony Robbins

💰 Sales (an entrepreneur is a salesman by default)

• The Greatest Salesman in the World by OG Mandino
• The Richest Man in Babylon by Napoleon Hill
• The Psychology of Selling: Increase Your Sales Faster and Easier Than You Ever Thought Possible by Brian Tracy

😎 Marketing (build it and they’ll come, market it and they’ll buy)

• The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk! by Al Ries and Jack Trout
• Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant by Chan Kim

💸 Investing/Finances (make your money work for you)

• The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham
• Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales from the World of Wall Street by John Brooks (recommended by Bill Gates)
• Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits by Philip Fisher
• The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America’s Wealthy by Thomas Stanley
• The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John Bogle
• The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor by David Landes

 By Billionaires (learn from the best in their fields)

1. The Virgin Way: If It’s Not Fun, It’s Not Worth Doing by Richard Branson
2. Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight (listed twice because it’s so good)
3. Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul by Howard Schultz
4. The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America by Warren Buffett
5. Bloomberg by Bloomberg by Michael Bloomberg
6. The First Billion Is the Hardest: Reflections on a Life of Comebacks and America’s Energy Future by T. Boone Pickens
7. Soros on Soros: Staying Ahead of the Curve by George Soros

Hope you liked these books, let us know via Twitter @futuresharks what your pick for the month is!