Tom Peters - I recommend just about anything written by Tom Peters: from his pioneering work In Search of Excellence, to The Pursuit of Wow, The Circle of Innovation, Thriving on Chaos, and up to his most recent work Re-imagine. Peters is one of the most influential management thinkers of our time. Small business owners will come away from his books with new ideas and new approaches.

Michael Gerber, The E-myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About it. In this book Gerber takes the reader through the many steps of business, applies the lessons of franchising, and helps the small business owner grow his/her own business.

Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton, Discover your Strengths. This book presents a new way to improve a business; it asks the reader to focus on improving strengths rather than trying to fix weaknesses. The online exam and the basic concept make this book worth a read.