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We are truly living in the golden age of the email newsletter. People are writing about just about every topic you can imagine, including many subjects related to business. These publications can be great ways to keep up with business trends and get insight on how to be a successful entrepreneur. But with seemingly endless options out there, how do you decide which newsletters are worth your time?
We can help. Below, we highlight our favorite lesser-known business newsletters that deliver high-quality content in their niches, such as marketing strategies and tax advice. You won’t find a few well-known offerings on our list, like Morning Brew and The Hustle. While those are great options for people who only have a few minutes to quickly skim the top headlines of the day, they are generalist publications and not geared toward people who are managing or building businesses.
Small business owners are more likely to benefit from subscribing to daily or weekly (or even monthly) newsletters that are more geared to the everyday entrepreneur, not Fortune 500 CEOs. Improve your business smarts in 2024 by adding these publications to your inbox.
This marketing-focused newsletter by Daniel Murray is part of the Workweek content collective. Marketing Millennials includes “zero BS” and “unfiltered” conversations with thought leaders in the marketing industry. Topics of conversation include building profitable newsletter businesses and creating effective TikTok videos. We like that Daniel focuses on storytelling with his guests and generating actionable insights that business owners can apply to their own marketing efforts.
While many newsletters focus on big-picture topics such as business strategy and branding, Barbara Weltman drills down into a valuable niche: saving you money on taxes. The Big Ideas for Small Business newsletter comes out monthly, with articles such as “Writing Off Casualty or Disaster Losses for Your Business” and “Reward and Punishment on Your Tax Return for Being a Pass-through Owner.” This content might not be as trendy as other publications, but we highly recommend Weltman’s newsletter as a resource for small business owners who need to navigate the complex U.S. tax system. Plus, Weltman has a daily send — called the Idea of the Day — that gives a succinct paragraph or two on a need-to-know business topic.
This weekly newsletter is brought to you by Kyle Poyar, an operating partner at venture capitalist firm OpenView. Poyar’s day job involves helping his firm’s portfolio companies grow, and Growth Unhinged provides a free look at his methods. The newsletter explores the “playbooks behind the fastest growing startups” with in-depth case studies. As the name implies, Growth Unhinged focuses on expanding businesses through “product-led growth (PLG), pricing, go-to-market strategy” and more. We’re particularly fond of Poyar’s use of drawings, GIFs and emojis to demonstrate his points.
Kevan Lee, the person, is a vice president of marketing at Oyster who also teaches marketing at Boise State University. In his self-titled weekly newsletter, Kevan takes readers inside the world of startup marketing and brand-building with weekly playbooks, case studies, interviews and trends. We find Kevan Lee, the newsletter, to be on the technical side of things, which is great for anyone looking to get a real-world education in marketing. A paid version of the publication also includes Kevan’s playbooks, channel strategies and other tools. Like with Poyer’s Growth Unhinged, Lee also uses appealing imagery to make his newsletter more digestible.
Bootstrapped Founder is about starting and growing a small business, even when you’re working a full-time job. This newsletter is written by Arvid Kahl, the author of Zero to Sold and founder of FeedbackPanda. Kahl particularly focuses on building and monetizing audiences, as well as the idea of “building in public” to burnish your own reputation as an expert. We like that the Bootstrapped Founder provides useful tips for entrepreneurs who are trying to make their entrepreneurial dreams work without deep pockets or extensive funding.
This newsletter is from Amy Guth, a podcast host for Crain’s Chicago Business and a radio host for WGN. As the name suggests, each edition consists of five items worth sharing. While these typically focus on “media and culture subjects,” many of the stories revolve around offbeat business topics. For example, one recent issue delved into “masculine defaults in the workplace” and “the possible link between vampires in pop culture and economic uncertainty.” This is definitely a unique newsletter that, despite being a quick read, is likely to provoke interesting thoughts. There’s a reason Guth sums up her archive as “Just Everything, Okay?”
Trung Phan writes the SatPost (a portmanteau of “Saturday” and “sh*tpost”), a roundup of the week’s best memes and tweets. Phan, who gained fame on Twitter for his witty and engaging threads, is known for breaking down fascinating business stories into bite-sized pieces. We find his newsletter incredibly readable — much like his Tweets — and, dare we say, completely addictive. Topics include “Why is LinkedIn so cringe?” and “MrBeast’s $1.5B YouTube empire.” Subscribe and learn something new in a well-written, appealing format.
A business newsletter that calls itself “not boring” certainly sounds promising, and author Packy McCormick definitely delivers on his promise. The publication covers emerging business trends and strategies, with a particular focus on cutting-edge technologies. A few topics covered in Not Boring include Web3, carbon removal, nanotechnology and generative AI. The newsletter goes out two days a week, with one send focused on long-form essays and the other consisting of sponsored or guest posts. [Learn how to reduce your business’s carbon footprint.]
This up-and-coming newsletter is written by Jack Raines, a Columbia Business School student who quit his first job because, in his words, “looking at spreadsheets for eight hours a day got boring.” Today, Raines spends his free time backpacking around the world and writing. Much like the author’s life, Young Money hops around from topic to topic, but with a focus on financial advice and motivation. We enjoy Jack’s engaging writing style and unique perspective on current events.
The first quarter of the year is a great time to declutter your inbox and narrow your reading list to the newsletters that really impact your life. What emails can you junk and which are must-reads as you focus on your entrepreneurial pursuits? Consider which of our favorite newsletters highlighted above best matches your needs in this season of business and join the mailing list. It also can’t hurt to subscribe to all 12 to start and see which you like the most after a few weeks. Like in business, a trial-and-error method can pay dividends.