"Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young." - Henry Ford
When you live in the business world, continuing to seek knowledge and staying up to-date with the latest industry trends is vital. If not, you risk falling behind your competitors. And, what better place to keep expanding your knowledge than through eBooks?
While books are the best source material for continuing your business education, you may be on a tight budget if you're an entrepreneur or potential small business owner. Thankfully, there are numerous online locations where you can read a great business book. And, here's nine of them.
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This site claims to be "the world's largest free ebooks directory". And, there actually is a little truth to that statement. They offer over 500 free eBooks you can download in PDF that discuss categories ranging from entrepreneurship, online businesses, investing, the economy, sales, and finance.
Launched in 2008,
E-Books Directory
is resource that provides links to free downloadable eBooks. If you're concerned about being sent to a questionable site, have no fear. The website makes sure that links are legit. In the business section of the directory you download books like
,
, and the classic
by Napoleon Hill.
The origins of Barnes & Noble go back to 1886, but since 2009 the largest retail bookseller in the U.S. has become a popular destination for eBook readers. And, believe it not, Barnes & Noble is also a great place to find some free eBooks. In fact, there over 2,100 free eBooks that focus on business, economics, and marketing on their site.
Founded in 1971 to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks," Project Gutenberg is the oldest digital library. In fact, Project Gutenberg offers more than 49,000 free eBooks that you can download or just read online, such as
and
.
5. Bookboon
Established in Denmark in 1988, Bookboon was designed specifically for students and business professionals. There are currently around 100 free eBooks that have been written by business professionals exclusively for Bookboon covering accounting, human resource management, and self-motivation.
6. Google Books
Google launched this service back in 2004 that scans books and magazines and stores the text in its database. While there are hundreds of publications for business leaders to digest through Google, most of the books and magazines are designed to be used as references, such as
.
7. Open Library
Launched in 2006, the Open Library is intended to be "one web page for every book ever published." The open project currently has over 20 million records collected from the Library of Congress, Amazon.com, as well as from contributions by users through a Wiki-like interface. As for business related books, there are more than 223,000 publications that cover business basics, management, customer service, and economics.
8. Foboko
Founded in 2012, Foboko is a unique selection on this list. Unlike most locations that provide access to free eBooks, Foboko is a community for writers to work on and publish their books. That doesn't mean the free business books found on the site second tier. There are fourteen pages of valuable eBooks where you can find everything from starting a business, business ethics in specific parts of the world, management advice, and guides for entrepreneurs.
9. Amazon
We're all familiar with Amazon, which was founded back in 1994. Like many other eCommerce sites, Amazon has been selling digital goods as well. If you have a Kindle, you can use Amazon to pretty much purchase any book you can think. However, Amazon offers over 1,000 free business and money related books (not all of them are strictly business related so you do have to look through the list) that discuss how you can make money in real estate, from home, or writing. There are also eBooks that cover trading, investments, and advice on starting a small business. You do need an Amazon account to access these books.
With so many free resources out there, you have no excuse to not keep learning! Do you have other resources you rely on? Feel free to share them in the comments section.