Want to learn how to turn a hobby into a profitable business? Or how to use online marketing to boost sales and grow your small business?

Read.

At least that was the typical advice up until a few years ago.

Fortunately, now you have plenty more options, including podcasts. And the great thing about them is that you can tune in anywhere and anytime.

Taking a short coffee break? There are podcasts that are five minutes long. Going for a run? Take advantage and go for a more in-depth 30-minute podcast.

Podcasts are not only convenient but they also speak directly to the specific problems and challenges that many small business owners face.

According to Apple, there are over 525,000 active shows with more than 18.5 million episodes available. So which ones should you listen to?

We’ve put together a list of 12 excellent podcasts where you’ll get to hear stories, advice and strategies for running your small business. Enjoy!

1. How I Built This with Guy Raz

How I Built This is a podcast hosted by Guy Raz, who is probably one of the best interviewers you’ve ever listened to.

In each show, Guy interviews innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists and they talk about how they built their business from the ground up and turned it into a success.

The guests are incredible, from some of the world’s best known companies such as Airbnb, KickStarter and Whole Foods.

2. Online Marketing Made Easy

If you’re just getting started with online marketing, this is the podcast for you.

Amy Porterfield’s podcast is filled with great advice on how to use online marketing to build and grow your small business. You’ll learn everything from how to grow your email list to how to create and use webinars to promote your business and attract more prospects.

One thing you’ll enjoy about this podcast is that it’s not just chock-full of good information but also actionable advice that you can start implementing the moment the podcast is over.

3. Office Hours

Office Hours is the podcast of best-selling author Daniel Pink. Once a month he interviews guests from the founder of Twitter and entrepreneurs of similar nature to authors.

Since Pink’s work focuses on human behaviour and motivation, he has a unique understanding of marketing and what drives customers to buy.

So if you want to learn not only about what motivates your customers to take action but also about ways to handle the human side of being a small business owner and how to create a thriving community around your brand, you’ll find this podcast extremely useful.

4. Entrepreneur On Fire

If you want to learn how to:

• Quickly build a large email list for free using surveys and quizzes
• Handle burnout or how to stay motivated
• Use virtual assistants to scale your business

Then make sure you tune into Entrepreneur On Fire.

This podcast is run by John Lee Dumas and in his interviews with successful entrepreneurs you’ll hear it all – the lows as well as the highs. You’ll get to meet figures like Seth Godin, Gary Vaynerchuk and Tim Ferris who will be sharing their stories as well as tips and tricks that made their business tick.

In addition, Dumas also makes recommendations of books and tools that you can use to start implementing what you’re hearing in the podcast.

5. Smart Passive Income

Smart Passive Income is a popular podcast hosted by Pat Flynn. You’ll enjoy it because he understands business and knows that there’s no such thing as an overnight success. It takes work, passion and the right strategies to build a thriving business. And that’s what his podcast is about.

Pat also interviews specialists who share tips and advice from how to build a powerful brand to proven strategies to boost sales.

6. Mixergy

Hosted by Andrew Warner, the Mixergy podcast features more than 1,000 interviews with big name entrepreneurs. You’ll hear about their struggles and failures. And you’ll also hear about how they overcame the challenges of starting a business on their own.

So if you want to learn from the best on what it takes to get to where you want to be, this is the podcast for you.

7. Chris Ducker Podcast

Chris Ducker is an entrepreneur, speaker, blogger and author. His focus has been to find innovative and effective ways to outsource in order to run a profitable business.

If you’ve been considering outsourcing some of your tasks to free up time to focus on growing your business, make sure you tune into this podcast. But even if you don’t want to outsource just yet, you’ll still find lots of useful information on topics like finance and online marketing.

8. Side Hustle Nation

If you have a passion that you’d like to turn into a business, or if you want to earn some extra income in your spare time, while still holding down on a 9-5 job, you’ll love this podcast.

It’s hosted by Nick Loper and the goal is to share side hustle ideas and opportunities, and to give listeners actionable advice on ways to earn more money on the side.

You can filter the shows by category, depending on what you’re interested in, whether it’s ecommerce, blogging or productivity.

9. Autopilot Your Business

Running a successful business also means knowing when and what parts of your business to automate in order to save time and make more money.

So if you’re looking for ideas, tools and strategies to become more efficient and productive, take a listen and see what could work for you.

10. Perpetual Traffic

If you’ve not yet used paid advertising (Facebook ads or Google AdWords) or if you have but couldn’t quite find success, tune into this podcast and then try again.

Most episodes focus on paid traffic and strategies to improve ad campaigns in order to acquire more leads. Best of all, there are also lots of case studies where you’ll see what has worked for others and what you could also implement yourself.

11. Social Media Marketing

If you’re managing the social media marketing for your business, it’s likely you’ve stumbled across the Social Media Examiner website at least once.

It’s one of the most popular and useful resource for anyone who wants to be a better social media marketer.

The podcast is an extension of the website with lots more expert interviews and great tips and advice on how to use social media for business.

12. TedTalks Business

Everyone knows about TED Talks but did you know there’s a podcast dedicated to businesses?

Unlike the other podcasts listed here, this one isn’t meant to give advice on how to grow your business. Instead, the goal is to keep you up-to-date with the latest news and technology so you’re always in the know.

Wrapping up

Podcasts have increased in popularity for several reasons, one of them being that you can learn more about any topic in just five minutes a day. So set aside five minutes or more every day to get inspired and learn about new ways to turn your business into a success.