Shopping for the holidays can seem a bit daunting at first. Especially if you're buying for a busy entrepreneur or business person. You may not know how to begin and have probably found yourself scrolling through countless websites trying to find that one, perfect gift. So let me help; here are 17 of the Best Business Books to give as gifts this holiday season.

1. High Performance Habits - Brendon Burchard

World-renowned high-performance coach Brendon Burchard is the hottest topic in self-led progress and success in today's business world. This ___ time New York Times Bestselling Author published his most recent book, High Performance Habits: How Extraordinary People Become That Way after conducting the most comprehensive study of high performers - people who have long-lasting and meaningful success in every aspect of their lives - in the world. In this book, he presents his findings in a scientific, yet anecdotal narrative about the struggles, successes, and habits that created the highest performing people across the globe.

This book would make a great gift for anyone, but it's especially helpful for those who have expressed feelings of boredom or disdain towards their career. The best part about Brendon's books? You can get almost all of them for just the price of shipping on his website! Simply plug in your email address and access his three most popular books - High Performance Habits, The Motivation Manifesto, and The Millionaire Messenger - and only pay for shipping! These books are valued at $20 each, and you'd be getting each of them for only $7!

2. Top of Mind: Use Content to Unleash Your Influence and Engage Those Who Matter To You Hardcover - John Hall

A game-changing framework for staying top of mind with your audience―from the No. 1 company dominating content marketing. What do many successful businesses and leaders have in common? They're the first names that come to mind when people think about their particular industries. How do you achieve this level of trust that influences p

eople to think of you in the right way at the right time? By developing habits and strategies that focus on engaging your audience, creating meaningful relationships, and delivering value consistently, day in and day out.

I know John and his team and they truly figured out how to build influence and top of mind awareness. This is a must-read for any business person who wants to build a personal brand. 

3. Leaders Eat Last - Simon Sinek

In true Simon Sinek fashion, this book has a perfect mix of humor, antics, and real-life strategies based on timeless theories and academic studies that explain why certain businesses thrive so much easier than others. This book is based on a conversation that Sinek had with a Marine officer during his time spent traveling the world, helping teams become better at teamwork and communication. "Officers eat last", the Marine said - unknowingly summing up the perfect explanation of success from the platform of leadership that Sinek had ever heard: "Great leaders sacrifice their own comfort--even their own survival--for the good of those in their care."

This is a great option for a gift to anyone who is new or struggling with a leadership position in their career!

4. Self-Employed: 50 Signs That You Might Be An Entrepreneur - Joel Comm, John Rampton 

In Self Employed, Joel Comm & John Rampton detail 50 different qualities that personify those who could do well as entrepreneurs. These 50 qualities provide a framework for those already working or about to enter their careers so they can decide if they might make it in business on their own. Not sure if the entrepreneurial lifestyle is for you? Or do you want to double-check on yourself to see if the business you have already started is congruent with who you are? 

I just read this after meeting John at a conference where we both were speaking. I have started sharing this with all of my coaching clients who are starting a new business or have been in business a short time. 

5. Blue Ocean Strategy - W. Chan Kim

While not the most fun read in the world, Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make The Competition Irrelevant is a must-read for any aspiring entrepreneur or business marketer. Covering the simple, yet deep theory surrounding what Kim calls the "Blue Ocean Strategy", this book speaks in depth about the key factors that create a successful profitable business from the view of average clicks per day, average purchases per month, and average annual salary. Kim's book discusses the complicated world of finding a niche "sweet-spot" specific enough to make money, but not so specific that an entrepreneur limits their target market to the same 20 people.

If you know someone who is trying to start their own business and is still trying to figure out where to start, this book has the potential to be an absolutely transformational gift for them!

6. The Unlimited Mind - Zoe McKey

The author of titles such as The Minimalist Budget and Rewire Your Habits; Zoe McKey's newest book, The Unlimited Mind is a fantastic narrative on the importance of a disciplined mind. It teaches you key tricks that are used by some of the most successful people in the world in order to help you develop your mindset and conquer your intelligence. 

Whether you're buying for a small business owner, a student, or anything in between, this book has something in it that applies to them!

7. Never Split The Difference - Chris Voss

In this book, author Chris Voss delves deep inside of his experiences as the FBI's lead kidnapping negotiator to help you on your way to developing fantastic negotiation and persuasion skills. Never Split The Difference isn't just about maneuvering negotiation tactics, or ways to overcome your adversary in a battle of wits. Whether you are negotiating the safe return of a child, or just negotiating a raise - the principles are the same. In this book, Voss takes some of the key principles of negotiation that he's learned over the years and applies them to real-world, mundane situations that are integral to the success of any professional trying to make their mark on the world.

This would be a great gift for young adults who are just starting out in the professional world, but includes amazing tricks that are applicable to anyone in the workforce!

8. Start With Why and Find Your Why - Simon Sinek

These two books are under the same recommendation because, while they can be read as stand-alone books, the information covered is so integral that they may as well be a two-part series. In Start With Why, Sinek dives head first into the ever-curious world of business strategy and why some people and organizations are more innovative, influential, and profitable than others. By starting a business strategy or innovation with "Why?" instead of "Who?" or "What?", the world becomes your oyster. In this book, Sinek takes the core values of some of the most influential leaders in history - people like the Wright Brothers, Steve Jobs, and Martin Luther King Jr. - and explains that, while these men had little to nothing in common, they all started their movements by asking themselves one question: "Why does the world need this to happen?"

In Find Your Why, Sinek goes even further down the rabbit hole with the idea he began in his first book. The second part of this series speaks about the methods, tasks, and ideas that help someone who has begun to ask themselves the questions that are presented in Start With Why. It takes all of the information covered in the first section and applies it to real-world examples so that you can find even more inspiration in your work and in your life - and, in turn, inspire those around you to do the same.

This set of books is a great option for anyone who is interested in becoming more intentional with their time. It can be particularly beneficial for startup business owners, entrepreneurs, people who are in leadership positions within their career, or anyone who is struggling to find their path in the business world!

9. The 5 Second Rule - Mel Robbins

Mel Robbins explains the power of "push moments" in her book, The 5 Second Rule: Transform your Life, Work, and Confidence with Everyday Courage. She believes that by knowing exactly how to push yourself in a way that won't burn you out is key to successfully breaking through procrastination and self-doubt. In this book, she explores the use of one simple tool that takes five seconds to transform the attitude you bring to any situation. According to Robbins, it takes just five seconds to transform the way you think about confidence, uncertainty, happiness, courage, and self-doubt so that you can start truly living your life the way you were meant to live it - full of happiness and stress-free fun.

The 5 Second Rule would be a great addition to the library of anyone who talks about feeling like they've been "stuck in a rut" recently or someone who may not be the most confident in their ability to be successful in their endeavors.

10. How To Talk To Anyone - Leil Lowndess

In this short, no-nonsense book about social interaction, you will get some great reminders of things that we all learned back in elementary school but somehow seemed to forget. While you may remember learning some of the tips found in this book, there are so many tips listed that everyone could learn something powerful from this book! Tips range from how to answer questions with information that leads to a dead end without shutting down the conversation, how to prepare yourself to meet a new person, and good tricks for adjusting your body language to fit the conversation you're having.

If you have a loved one who works in a position that communicates with others frequently, this is a great gift option for them!

11. Presence - Amy Cuddy

Amy Cuddy has inspired over ten million viewers around the world with her TED talk about "power poses." In her newest book, Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to your Biggest Challenges, she presents the intriguing research behind power poses and several more fascinating body-mind effects. Then, she goes on to teach you about how to use some simple techniques to free ourselves from the fear and anxiety felt in high-pressure moments, perform at our best no matter what the situation is, and connect with others in an empowering and inspirational way. From her excerpt: "Brilliantly researched, impassioned, and accessible, Presence is filled with stories of individuals who learned how to flourish during the stressful moments that once terrified them. Every reader will learn how to approach their biggest challenges with confidence instead of dread, and to leave them with satisfaction instead of regret."

This is a great tool to have in the arsenal of anyone who has a career that involves putting yourself out on a limb for others! Marketers, business owners, or anyone that has that big pitch coming up that could make or break their career would definitely benefit from having read this book!

12. The Conversion Code - Chris Smith

On the more technical side of things, The Conversion Code is all about refining one's ability to capture and close more internet leads than you could imagine. The greatest part of this book isn't the humor or the relatable narrative, but the extremely useful tools that Smith provides you with throughout the book. While the book itself is fairly small, it includes a state-of-the-art, extensively tested and refined sales script that successfully persuades new leads to turn into clients or customers; hard-earned tips and techniques that built the fortunes of A-list business owners and leaders; unbiased, honest advice on software, platforms, and design strategies from Smith's personal revenue-generating toolkit; and a complete list of the analytics and metrics that you should be focused on for your website, landing pages, email marketing, social media, and sales - along with the steps to take once you have those numbers!

This book's effect on a business far exceeds it's purchase price and would be an extremely valuable and meaningful gift for anyone who is starting a business or expressed anxiety towards expanding their business into the online market.

13. The One-Page Marketing Plan - Allan Dib

Another book that leans more on the technical side, The One-Page Marketing Plan is chock full of tools and tips that will help any business owner revitalize or create their marketing strategy. In this book, you will get help with topics ranging from how to get new customers all the way to the reason that "big business" style marketing could kill your business and strategies that work much better for small and medium-sized businesses. Along with the book itself, and similar to The Conversion Code, this book comes with a rigorously tested step-by-step process that builds a personalized marketing plan from the ground up - and it's only one page!

This book would be another valuable and meaningful gift for anyone who is starting a business or expressed interest in revitalizing their current business strategy.

14. The Motivation Manifesto - Brendon Burchard

Back into personal narrative books, Brendon Burchard is back at it again with one of his most popular bestsellers - The Motivation Manifesto. It is a poetically ferocious call to reclaim your personal power and start accessing the five freedoms life grants us: time freedom, emotional freedom, social freedom, financial freedom, spiritual freedom. By declaring your intent and independence, stepping into your personal power, and pushing through self-doubt and distraction, Bruchard argues that everyone can achieve their own level of Personal Freedom. As stated in the excerpt: "Recalling the revolutionist voices of the past that chose freedom over tyranny, Burchard motivates us to free ourselves from fear and take back our lives once and for all."

As stated earlier with High-Performance Habits, you can access this book on his website and only pay shipping! Simply plug in your email address and access his three most popular books - High-Performance Habits, The Motivation Manifesto, and The Millionaire Messenger - and only pay for shipping! These books are valued at $20 each, and you'd be getting each of them for only $7!

15. Do Good: Embracing Brand Citizenship to Fuel Both Purpose and Profit - Anne Bahr Thompson

Buyers today demand more than half-hearted pledges of great products and branding. In this book, you will learn how to actively link great branding strategies with a higher purpose in order to capture both the wallets and hearts of your target markets. Based on months of research with thousands of consumers, Do Goodreports on the findings of Anne Thompson and documents the changes in consumer culture, then gives you the tools necessary to adapt your business to fit the needs of these changes. By embedding social consciousness into the foundation of a company and being transparent with it's target market, a startup has the potential to become a Fortune 500 almost overnight. Packed with examples and the original data Thompson conducted, Do Good highlights the five new rules of business strategy and how to market your business to fit the needs of each one.

This book would make a great gift for business owners, CEO's, marketers, and business strategists who are looking for the most updated research on consumer behavior - or for someone whose business isn't doing as well as they could be and doesn't understand why.

16. The Dip - Seth Godin

Every new project (or job, or hobby, or relationship) starts out fun - only to suddenly get really hard, and not much fun at all. Popular business blogger and bestselling author Seth Godin proves that winners are really just the best quitters in his book, The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When To Quit (And When To Stick). He guides you through the stages that lead up to The Dip - that moment when it seems like your life went from really awesome to really hard for no apparent reason - and explains that, to be a "winner", you must seek out The Dip. Winners realize that "the bigger the barrier, the bigger the reward for getting past it." So, if you can push past The Dip and begin climbing your way back up to a time when your job, project, or relationship is really awesome again, you'll start reaping the benefits of all of that hard work.

As stated in the book summary: Whether you're buying a gift for an intern or a CEO, this fun little book will help them figure out if they're in a Dip that's worthy of their time, effort, and talents.

17. Get Over Your D*mn Self: The No-BS Blueprint to Building A Life Changing Business - Romi Neustadt

Romi Neustadt takes the time in her book, Get Over Your D*mn Self, to help you build a lucrative direct sales and marketing strategy in order to help create a life with more freedoms and flexibility than you ever thought imaginable. As you can probably tell from the title, this book is not for those who have a language sensitivity, but it is an extremely beneficial book that offers readers a chance at the same direct, no-BS coaching style she uses with her own clients. Filled to the brim with humor and playful call-outs, you'll be laughing at phrases like "weak sauce" and "funnel constipation" for days after reading this book, but it's so full of information that you won't have enough room in the margins to mark all of the brilliant tips and tricks she doles out in this extremely humanistic, to-the-point book that will put any business into overdrive.

This book is perfect for any young adult struggling to market themselves or their business ventures to an older generation.

One final book I have to mention is my own that came out last year by McGraw Hill. The Entrepreneurs Book of Actions: Essential Daily Exercises and Habits for Becoming Wealthier, Smarter, and More Successful will help you learn how to drive sustainable business growth by breaking bad habits―and developing good ones; managing your time and money more effectively; hiring the right people for the right job; motivating your staff to be mission-focused; and helping you create "free" time to feed your innovative side

Happy book shopping and reading. 

Peak performance cultures maintain a felt sense of creative tension. Peter Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline, says creative tension is the "gap between vision and current reality. It is a source of energy. If there were no gap, there would be no need for any action to move towards the vision."

Creative tension can create better ideas and outcomes. This tension causes focus and a deep-seated desire to resolve the tension thus catalyzing heightened activity and maximum production. You can feel the sense of excitement and even anxiousness.

Too little creative tension causes the organization to feel flat, compliant, and lethargic. Too much creative tension can take a sense of anxiousness to a point of anxiety.

Peak performance leaders pay close attention to the amount of creative tension being experienced by their people and they know how to increase or decrease this tension as appropriate. 

There are three essential building blocks of creative tension. To establish and maintain creative tension there must be agreement on the following:

1. Current reality.

Your people must have a collective understanding of the way things are today. They need to be brutally honest and recognize the absolute truth about their current situation. Shared understanding of "what is" generates a sense of authenticity and credibility.

2. Desired future.

Your people must have a shared vision that moves and inspires them. The vision must be articulated in such a way that people are motivated to do whatever it takes to realize it. The vision is less about employees or the company.

A powerful vision is about the world and the opportunity to help cause this great world you desire. You will need to decide what needs to change about the current reality to achieve this vision.

3. What's at stake.

In addition, and critical to the establishment of healthy creative tension, people must be convinced that something important to them is at stake if they don't resolve this gap. Your people must have a shared and felt sense of consequence should they not rally and achieve this vision as well as a clear understanding of the benefits of moving ahead.

Creative tension exists when the people of your company sense a gap between their current reality and their articulated vision.The gap created calls forth action.The benefits of establishing and maintaining appropriate amounts of creative tension are:

Laser-like focus.

Have you ever woken up at night plagued by thoughts of unfinished tasks at work or around the house? Perhaps you've had a nagging feeling after an argument with a significant other or a colleague about things you should have said and you keep replaying the discussion in your head.

Your response to these loose ends is known as the Zeigarnik effect, named after Bluma Zeigarnik, a Russian psychologist and a member of the Berlin School of experimental psychology. Zeigarnik discovered that people remain unusually focused on aspects of their life that are incomplete. And they hold this heightened focus until the act is complete. This focus can help increase productivity and push you toward that desired future.

Increased ingenuity and innovation.

The desire to eliminate the gap and resolve the creative tension drives the people into a 'whatever it takes' mentality thus rendering them more open to new ideas and non-linear thinking.

My consulting firm manages creative tension through complete transparency. Everyone in the company knows what and why things are happening.  We acknowledge shortcomings and celebrate successes. Our leadership team has weekly meetings with senior team members, informal feedback delivery during one-on-one meetings, and monthly discussions with the larger employee population so our staff has a full sense of how we are doing and what is required and expected to get us to our collective desired future.

Every employee, no matter their seniority, understands how their contributions and actions directly impact our ability to achieve our mission. This two-way dialogue and transparency helps our team stay focused and motivated.

Walk through the halls of your company and take the temperature of the creative tension. Is it too much? Too little? Just right?

Engage with people to see the degree of agreement they share in describing the current and desired future and what's at stake if they don't succeed. Through conversation, do what you need to in order to establish and maintain optimal creative tension.

Starting a venture has its challenges. For Jess Garbarino, founder and CEO of Brunswick Park, a line of performance apparel tailored for entrepreneurs, it was starting an apparel company as a fashion industry outsider. 

Before starting Brunswick Park, Garbarino worked in technology public relations. Her idea of creating stylish outerwear that could be worn from morning to night raised more than $80,000 on Kickstarter and launched her into the world of textiles and manufacturing. Garbarino shares with us the challenges as well as the rewards of that kind of entrepreneurial journey: 

Project Entrepreneur: What inspired you to start your business?

Garbarino: Short answer: my closet. I was working at a high-tech PR firm with no lack of exceptionally dressed individuals, [and] yet over the backs of each of their chairs, there was always some kind of sweatshirt, performance fleece or [other] outerwear.

We all layered ourselves in these products because frankly, they [were] the best fabrics for all-day wearability. [However], they looked so unprofessional. I decided it was time to create something that answered both needs [for wearability and professional style].

What's been the biggest challenge you've faced so far?

The biggest challenge [I've] faced is that I came into this business as a complete outsider to the apparel industry. I had to self-educate on everything from textiles to pattern making, to supply chain and digital marketing.

The most challenging part of this process was having the patience to do things the right way while still feeling like I was making progress. In the end, I feel I gave myself an MBA before I even launched.

What's been the greatest reward?

I can't put into words how amazing I feel when I see a happy customer, especially if I see them out "in the wild." I've been known to shoulder tap Brunswick Park customers in line at coffee, out to dinner or in meetings to ask them how they like their jacket.

I get equally as excited when I see social media posts or receive reviews. This sounds cliché, but I poured my heart and soul into every detail [of] each of our pieces, so to see someone else appreciate that is the most gratifying feeling.

What is the biggest thing you'd like to see changed in your industry, and how are you working toward making that change happen?

The apparel industry is very inaccessible and fragmented. Since so much of our manufacturing and production process has moved overseas, there's a lack of visibility into how you can actually become a creator yourself and the work that people put in to making a great product.

I try to be incredibly transparent about every step of the Brunswick Park process so others can learn from my experience. I went down a lot of rabbit holes, visited a lot of factories, walked through the garment district with literally no idea what I was looking for; I was even laughed at when asking a question at a fabric show. I want others to feel welcome and not ostracized.

Who or what motivates you to keep going, even when things get tough?

Every entrepreneur and business owner has bad days and even bad weeks, but all it takes is one positive interaction with a customer, and I'm back on my feet. I also have the added advantage that my husband is [also] an entrepreneur, so we've seen a lot of ups and downs with our businesses -- when one of us is down we call it "the struggle" (based on this article from Ben Horowitz, co-founder and general partner of Andreessen Horowitz), and we pull each other up and out of "the struggle."

What's one piece of advice you'd give to another entrepreneur just starting out?

Accept that you will fail, and make sure you have a support system in place for when you do. The thing that surprised me the most about starting my own business was how isolating the process can be.

When you have one goal and the odds are stacked so high against you, you need to set the expectation with your family and friends that this is going to be the priority in your life. If you set that expectation and you've surrounded yourself with the right people, you will have the support system necessary to power through the dark days and celebrate your wins. Without my family and friends supporting me, I can honestly say Brunswick Park would not exist.

This article originally appeared on the Project Entrepreneur website and has been condensed for clarity.

Pricing strategies are an important part of business. Companies, including yours, want to maximize money coming in. And it comes from customers, which means you.

The dance is old as commerce. But big data technology has given an advantage to sellers. They can follow data about you and your activities and use a technique called price discrimination to increase prices when they think you won't balk. Prices can vary by many factors: where you live, financial profiles on you, prior purchases, when and where you place an order, browsing history, and much more.

It's also easier to do online because companies don't display one price that everyone sees. Amazon has used price discrimination for many years. One blogger even found through experimenting that having an Amazon Prime membership could result in overall higher prices, and that's after the annual fee.

Others have caught on. Earlier this year cam news that Uber was adopting price discrimination tactics.

This isn't illegal, but it does mean that you may be paying more for products than necessary without getting any additional benefit. You can't completely eliminate the possibility. But you can minimize its effectiveness and start keeping more money in your pocket. Here are some steps to take. No single one is guaranteed to work all the time because sellers vary in the software and techniques they use. But creating a new habit in how you buy is bound to help.

1. Make yourself invisible

Online sellers depend on services that track you everywhere on the Internet. The more information available on you, the more accurately the most sophisticated retailers can tweak prices to get to the maximum you might pay. Set your browser to clear your browsing history, eliminate tracking cookies, and block ads and some other tracking mechanisms. Use the stealth browsing mode and sign out of services like Gmail, Google, and Facebook so they can't follow. Look for browser add-ons that can reduce the amount of tracking. And look at the privacy settings of your social media accounts.

2. Use VPNs to confound algorithms

Virtual private networks create a tunnel through the Internet and can appear to come from somewhere else. Some studies have shown that where your computer appears to be can affect the prices you receive. One reportedly showed that prices for identical goods were lower in Boston than in less-populated parts of Massachusetts. Experiment with appearing to be in different locations to see where the prices come in lowest. Once you have a good price, you can log in and purchase.

3. Use multiple browsers

I regularly run multiple browsers if I'm looking to buy something significant and think that price discrimination could play a factor. I'll have one where I'm logged into some service like Amazon and another where I appear as an unidentified guest. That lets me compare prices within the same service. You can always log off the first browser and log into the second if the price is favorable.

4. Compare to other sources, online and off

Always compare prices between different sellers when possible or look for alternative services. As an example, instead of assuming that Uber is the only transportation option, look at the same trip from Lyft or others. Also, look offline as prices in general can often be the same. But because physical stores show the same display to everyone, there's less room to push prices up.

5. Consider where you stop before you go to an online store

One technique used by pricing software is to examine what site visitors went to before. Depending on the retailer's systems, a stop at a recognized discount seller can result in lower prices because you're considered price sensitive. You can use multiple browsers, as mentioned above, to test whether it makes a difference for a given seller.

6. Use comparison shopping services

There are online services that monitor prices, sometimes factoring in shipping as well, across many sellers and categories of products. Of course, levels of service enter into the equation and you need to check the reputation of online sellers and service providers. Getting a lower price at the cost of your overall satisfaction isn't a good move. But knowing relative pricing is a great way to stay ahead of the game.