The 8 best small business blogs to read in 2021

In this post, we’re sharing eight great blogs that all small business owners should read.

1. Small Business Survival

Becky McCray started the Small Business Survival blog to cater specifically to rural entrepreneurs and business owners. As someone who lived in a small town her whole life, she wanted to connect with other small town entrepreneurs around the world.

The blog is divided into three main categories — dreaming, doing, and growing and leveling up. It tackles everything from finding the best resources, hiring, isolation from industry peers, and how to compete against competitors in bigger cities. She even cowrote the book on small town businesses.

2. Buffer

Buffer is a fully distributed remote team that builds social media marketing software. However, they also produce insightful content on their blog, ranging from marketing to remote work and company transparency.

Each year, they also compile a long-form state of social report, which takes an in-depth look at the state of social media marketing.

3. Gusto

Gusto is best known for providing payroll, benefits, and HR software for small businesses and startups. However, they also have a blog full of advice and tips catering to small business owners. The main categories are starting a business, finances and taxes, team management, and hiring and growth.

They also have an Ask Gusto section, where you can get answers to specific questions about payroll, benefits, and HR. These questions range from what an Employee Identification Number is and how to start an LLC to hiring interns legally, sexual harassment training, and jury duty laws.

4. Mixergy

In 2004 Andrew Warner was burnt out from running his first, successful seven-figure business with his brother, so he started Mixergy. Originally Mixergy was a way for Warner to host in-person entrepreneurial meetups and get speaking gigs. Today, he has done more than 1,700 podcast interviews with entrepreneurs who share their experiences building their companies. 

Some of the most popular interviews on the site include Tim Ferriss, Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin, Neil Patel, Jimmy Wales, and Greg Spiridellis. 

5. Duct Tape Marketing

With more than 75,000 subscribers, Duct Tape Marketing shares actionable small business sales and marketing tips and advice. Topics range from content marketing and social media to SEO, PPC, and lead generation.

The blog was founded by John Jantsch, who is also a keynote speaker and best-selling author of Duct Tape Marketing, Duct Tape Selling, The Commitment Engine, The Referral Engine, and SEO for Growth.

6. Farnam Street

Shane Parrish started Farnam Street. While not specifically about entrepreneurship, this blog has a large audience of small business owners and entrepreneurs. Parrish is best known for his in-depth, philosophical posts that cover topics from mental models and decision-making to first-principle thinking, leadership, reading, and learning.

7. Marie Forleo

Marie Forleo is a motivational speaker and author who runs a couple of multimillion dollar businesses, including Marie Forleo International, B-School, and MarieTV. All of the content she writes is centered on female entrepreneurship and personal development. She has been featured by Sir Richard Branson, Tony Robbins, and Oprah, among many others.

8. Gary Vaynerchuk

Gary Vaynerchuk — or “Garyvee” for short — is a serial entrepreneur, a five-time New York Times Best Selling author, speaker, and serial investor.

Vaynerchuk has an entire team at VaynerMedia, his 600+ person social media agency, in charge of helping him produce content geared toward entrepreneurs. This includes DailyVee, where he films short documentary-style videos highlighting his day-to-day as a busy CEO and internet celebrity. He also blogs, runs a podcast (The GaryVee Audio Experience), and hosts a business advice Q&A show called #AskGaryVee.

Vaynerchuk famously got his start working in his family’s wine business where he started one of the first YouTube shows in 2006 called WineLibraryTV.