The best small-business podcasts can teach you everything, from pitching lessons gleaned from “Shark Tank,” earning your first million dollars or your first venture, or creating a passive income stream.
In fact, 6 in 10 business owners listen to podcasts — and The Hustle has gone through and picked out the top shows for founders and builders looking to add to their playlist.
- Small-Business Finance Podcasts
- Socially Conscious Small-Business Podcasts
- Podcasts on Growing a Small Business
- Best Podcasts for Starting a Small Business
- Best Podcasts for Young Entrepreneurs
Small-Business Finance Podcasts
1. Duct Tape Marketing
Hosted by John Jantsch, Duct Tape Marketing dives into marketing tips for small businesses. Jantsch invites marketing experts onto his show to dish on topics such as doubling your sales, employer branding, Instagram marketing, and more.
What’s Good: The show boasts nearly 900 episodes and a 4.6 rating, so listeners can spend weeks catching up on interviews with experts and various tactics and resources.
2. Odd Lots
Bloomberg’s Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway take a high-level look at deeper issues impacting the global economy. Every Monday and Thursday, they chat with global experts on topics ranging from the inflated price of eggs to up-and-down rent prices.
What’s Good: Bloomberg’s giant network enables the show to pull from a huge amount of resources, making its information data-oriented and research-backed.
3. Planet Money
Taking a quirkier approach to finance, NPR’s Planet Money has one goal: Tie any and every topic back to the economy. Listeners can learn about the economics of movies, such as their episode on It’s a Wonderful Life, to a telemarketing bounty hunter.
What’s Good: Planet Money covers a fun, interesting set of topics not often covered by other finance podcasts.
4. Count Me In
This show from the Institute of Management Accountants covers all things accounting and finance, including how to up your business’s profitability and productivity. Count Me In helps listeners understand the complicated nature of accounting and how it affects their personal and business finances.
What’s Good: The show features a wide variety of finance experts, including McKinsey consultants and finance professors.
5. Smart Passive Income
Those with an online blog or business will find a plethora of killer tips from Smart Passive Income. Hosted by serial entrepreneur Pat Flynn, the show brings together experts in creating passive income streams — from finding brand deals to knowing when to hire your first employee.
What’s Good: Smart Passive Income boasts an impressive set of guests, including bestselling authors and famous entrepreneurs Tim Ferris, Gary Vaynerchuk, Ramit Sethi, and more.
6. Marketplace
Kai Ryssdal has hosted Marketplace since 2005, although it began on public radio in 1989. Its long run on air reflects the quality of its business and economics content. Publishing half-hour shows on a near-daily basis, Marketplace covers day-to-day news — from job churns to recessions to wage growth.
What’s Good: Because of Marketplace’s publishing cadence, it stays adaptable to breaking news — keeping listeners updated on what’s happening in the business world.
Socially Conscious Small-Business Podcasts
7. Next Economy Now
Next Economy Now focuses on business leaders putting sustainability, transparency, and equity at the forefront of their strategy. The show highlights topics often left out of the larger business conversation, from social ventures that help refugees to the racial wealth gap in the food and farming industries.
What’s Good: The show invites leaders in different spaces related to social entrepreneurship and research, including bestselling author Robin DiAngelo and Patagonia’s chief storyteller Vincent Stanley.
8. Awarepreneurs
Hosted by social entrepreneur coach Paul Zelizer, the podcast is dedicated to highlighting the best of the best in social entrepreneurship. Zelizer focuses on three core topics: conscious businesses, social impact, and awareness practices, teaching listeners how they can do good within the business world.
What’s Good: Almost every episode features a founder or CEO of a social enterprise, from a renewable energy startup to a fitness business that hires formerly incarcerated instructors.
9. CEO School
Under 2% of female founders break $1m in revenue at their startups. Through her show CEO School, fintech entrepreneur Suneera Madhani interviews female entrepreneurs and mentors who have broken glass ceilings. Her guests, including a NASA psychologist and a “Dancing with the Stars” performer, teach listeners how “to get sh*t done.”
What’s Good: The show highlights female founders from different backgrounds, from those who head multimillion dollar firms to up-and-comers.
10. Inclusion and Marketing
Brand strategist and coach Sonia Thompson teaches listeners about the intersection between inclusivity and marketing — and how brands can tap into it — in her show Inclusion and Marketing. Thompson teaches listeners how to develop inclusive brands, including candid conversations about microaggressions, building diverse teams, and more.
What’s Good: Consumers expect brands to prioritize inclusion and diversity — Thompson provides useful tips you can use to achieve that.
11. Black Tech Green Money
Mainstream advice often comes from homogenous sources. Will Lucas in Black Tech Green Money challenges this narrative — offering “actionable advice on wealth-building strategies from a Black perspective.”
What’s Good: Every episode features notable Black founders, entrepreneurs, and business professionals, including Ursula Burns, the first Black woman to lead a Fortune 500 company.
12. Disruptors for Good
Hosted by Grant Trahant, the show interviews social entrepreneurs from around the world. Trahant and his guests discuss their social ventures, their journeys, and lessons learned. Topics include ethical fashion, impact investing, sustainable travel, and more.
What’s Good: Guests come from a variety of backgrounds, including a food entrepreneur operating in a military conflict zone and a founder working to solve the fishing crisis in South America and Asia.
Podcasts on Growing a Small Business
13. Being Boss
In her show Being Boss, Emily Thompson talks about what it takes to “be boss as a creative business owner.” She breaks down tips to help listeners harness their creative juices and accelerate business growth, from dissecting business values to setting better goals.
What’s Good: The show blends the personal and professional aspects of business ownership, including how to set personal values, developing business friendships, and retirement planning.
14. Billion Dollar Moves
In her podcast Billion Dollar Moves, venture capitalist and strategist Sarah Chen provides actionable advice for startups at any stage. From early growing pains to scaling into an empire, Chen teaches listeners what they need to do to grow their venture.
What’s Good: It focuses on US-Asia businesses, narrowing down on critical trends in both regions.
15. iDigress
As a growth strategist, Troy Sandidge has generated $175m+ for 35+ brands. In his podcast, he breaks down strategies to accelerate business growth, including frameworks for marketing and sales, life lessons, and more.
What’s Good: Sandidge simplifies business talk and infuses pop culture into his show, making it easy for listeners to understand.
16. Imperfect Action
In this podcast, online product launch strategist Steph Taylor teaches listeners how to create, manage, and grow online products. The show caters to “bite-sized businesses” and covers a bevy of topics, from setting your business up for success during slow periods to creating content.
What’s Good: By narrowing her focus to online businesses, Taylor gets down to the nitty-gritty on what impacts online products.
17. Online Marketing Made Easy
Hosted by Amy Porterfield, this podcast breaks down high-level online marketing strategies into step-by-step guides. Porterfield chats about all things digital, including list building, social media, webinars, and more. As an expert in creating online courses, Porterfield spends several episodes sharing her best tips for monetizing content and expertise.
What’s Good: The show helps businesses monetize their industry expertise through online courses and resources. You can learn strategies such as how to boost course enrollments, going viral with videos, and more.
Best Podcasts for Starting a Small Business
18. StartUp
A documentary-style business creation series, each episode of the show features play-by-play steps taken by real and fictional businesses. Season 1, for example, follows the beginnings and growth of Gimlet Media, while season 2 dives into a fictional dating company.
What’s Good: StartUp has an unique premise— rather than telling listeners what to do in their business, they demonstrate it through the creation of real and fictional companies.
19. The How of Business
This show takes a more tactical approach — host and serial entrepreneur Henry Lopez teaches listeners about the important logistics of running a business, from SBA loans to financial projections.
What’s Good: With 450+ episodes, the podcast covers all logistical business topics entrepreneurs need to know.
20. How I Built This
Host Guy Raz invites some of the best-known entrepreneurs to his show to learn how they built their companies. The podcast covers the highs and lows of each guest, including moments of failure and what led them to succeed.
What’s Good: The show has featured several high-profile guests, including the CEO of Tarte Cosmetics, co-founder of Zumiez, co-founders of Alienware, and more.
21. Startups for the Rest of Us
For 11 years, Startups for the Rest of Us has featured the journeys of bootstrapped SaaS founders and their companies. Listeners tune into each founders’ failures, successes, and lessons learned. The podcast teaches listeners about the ins and outs of the SaaS industry — including shifts in culture, emerging tech trends, and more.
What’s Good: The show zeros in on the SaaS industry — making it an ideal podcast for entrepreneurs in this space.
22. The Small Business Radio Show
Barry Moltz has been getting “small businesses unstuck” for more than 25 years on The Small Business Radio Show. Designed specifically for small businesses, Moltz helps listeners grow themselves and their businesses.
What’s Good: Moltz dishes on topics for small-business owners at any stage, including how to buy another person’s business, how to create super fans, and other useful guides.
Best Podcasts for Young Entrepreneurs
23. Success Story
This show features interviews with a variety of successful people — including executives, celebrities, and politicians. Host Scott Clary asks guests to share their highs and lows, and applies their insights to entrepreneurship.
What’s Good: Success Story boasts an impressive set of guests, ranging from a human behavior expert to the CEO of Crunchbase.
24. My First Million
Entrepreneurs Sam Parr (founder of The Hustle) and Shaan Puri already made their first million. Now, through their podcast, they want to help listeners make theirs. The hosts talk about novel business ideas, emerging trends, and more in their show.
What’s Good: My First Million promises to give you viable business ideas you can use, so aspiring entrepreneurs can get a weekly dose of inspiration.
25. Another Bite
Hosted by Jorie Munroe, Leslie Green, Ariel Boswell, and Jon Dick, the show revisits old episodes of Shark Tank. The panel offers their two cents on which businesses worked (and which didn’t), along with insights, business trends, and takeaways for budding entrepreneurs.
What’s Good: Another Bite expands upon Shark Tank’s already useful business lessons, bringing actionable takeaways to listeners.
26. Side Hustle Pro
Entrepreneur Nicaila Matthews Okome focuses on Black women business founders who started their ventures as side hustles. The episodes are filled with inspiration and actionable strategies to help listeners scale their side passion into full-blown businesses.
What’s Good: Side Hustle Pro highlights an underrepresented group in entrepreneurship, inspiring listeners from similar backgrounds.
27. The Tim Ferriss Show
Often ranked as the #1 business podcast by Apple Podcasts, the show features high-performing individuals from different disciplines. Tim Ferriss then deconstructs their experiences, extracting tools, tactics, and habits listeners can use to succeed like them. From morning routines to favorite books, listeners can learn what it takes to become a world-class performer.
What’s Good: Tim Ferriss uses his network to score standout guests such as Hugh Jackman, LeBron James, Dr. Jane Goodall, and more.
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