| Short Takes: Doing Business |
 201 Great Ideas for Your Small Business
By Jane Applegate
Applegate, a respected and award-winning business writer, has a winner here. She presents each idea succinctly -- in a half-page to a page-and-a-half -- so you can read one while you're on hold. Also, the format lets you skip those that don't apply to IPs (though a good three-quarters of them do). Idea #5: In contracting with a new client and in making a sale, "no" is as important an answer as "yes." Don't wait in limbo forever -- set a deadline for an answer and get it. Idea #10: Learn how to speak in public; use a coach if necessary. The book is written with clarity and stunning expertise. Buy it
 Beating the Odds in Small Business
By Tom Culley
Writing specifically for the newbie, Culley takes the reader through all the
stages of a business from the start up to the bon voyage. He depicts the
world of business as a tough and unforgiving arena where everyone you deal
with is looking out for himself. Insisting that every business is an
extension of its owner, Culley attacks all management theories as piffle. He
has a phobia about lawyers, but he admits that an accountant can be a great
help. As for all those books about the bliss of working for yourself, he
says: "It ain't easy being small. You have to want it real bad." Culley, who
has started a number of small businesses, self-published the first edition
of this book.
Buy it
 Business Know-How: An Operational Guide for Home-Based and Micro-Sized Businesses with Limited Budgets
By Janet Attard
How to make a big impression on a small budget is the recurring theme of Attard's
well-designed guide. She tells the novice IP how to find suppliers,
how to use trade shows, how to attract business through the mail, and
how to build a Web site on the cheap. There's no psychological testing
as to whether you should be self-employed or not and no mulling over
whether to be a sole proprietor or a corporation; Attard assumes that
you've already settled all your start-up questions, but lack experience
and know-how. One tip from the author: if your competitors have been
advertising regularly in a specific medium, you don't need to conduct
a media study. If it's working for them, it'll work for you too.
Buy it
 The
Business of Consulting: The Basics and Beyond
By Elaine Biech
Biech, a management consultant with two decades
of experience, tells you how to develop your business plan, how to price
your services, how to build relationships with clients, how to grow
the business, and how to make money, with 113 tips on marketing. She
also guides the reader through the tricky issue of subcontracting. It's
written both for the fledgling and for the experienced consultant who
still has something to learn about managing one's own business. An accompanying
disk (in Microsoft Word) furnishes the documents and worksheets described
in the text, including forms for cash flow projections, marketing plans,
and keeping track of billable time. Buy it
 The
Business Side of Creativity
By Cameron
S. Foote
Many IPs spend sleepless nights trying to figure out how
much to charge for their work, and the more creative the field, the
more tormented the insomnia. Here's a book that helps freelance graphic
designers, art directors, illustrators, and copywriters with that stressful
question and a host of others -- the issues that most beginners in the
creative-services businesses have to face. Foote, president of a business-information
resource based in Boston, has based his guide on six years of following
the practices of thousands of creative freelancers. It also deals exhaustively
with questions of billable time, estimates, expansion, and marketing
techniques -- aided by 17 sample forms ranging from a sample business
plan to a prototype spreadsheet. Buy it
 The
Complete Caterer: A Practical Guide to the Craft and Business of Catering
By Elizabeth Lawrence
This book has everything that a good cook needs to know about the
catering business. Instructing by means of detailed examples, Lawrence
gets into the artistic, social, and business aspects of catering. The
unique insurance problems, governmental regulations, and legal liabilities
of the catering biz are here, in addition to chapters on pricing, marketing,
and organizing yourself. There are even some recipes. This is an updated
and revised edition of the guide, now available in paperback.
Buy it
 Complete
Guide to Home Business
By Robert Spiegel
Spiegel
deals with every stage of running a home business,
from the initial concept to the sale or transference of the business
to heirs. The book's theme is the importance of examining alternatives:
whether to work at home or rent an office, whether to build a business
or buy one, whether or not to outsource certain tasks, etc. Besides
emphasizing the importance of researching options thoroughly, the author
stresses marketing. The book includes listings of venture capital companies,
business and trade magazines, government agencies, and Internet resources,
among others. Spiegel is a frequent contributor to Home Business Magazine.
Buy it
 The Complete Idiot's Guide to Making Money in Freelancing
By Christy Heady and Janet Bernstel
Money is never far from the thoughts of the authors, who tell you how to set
rates, negotiate fees, keep financial records, keep taxes low, and prepare
for that far-off retirement. (Since freelancers don't normally need a large
amount of working capital, however, the authors don't write much about
start-up costs, borrowing money, and business plans.) They ready the
freelancer for the life ahead by describing what it will be like. This is a
book for the beginner and for those who don't mind a bit of corny frivolity,
self-analysis quizzes and motivational prose designed to boost your
confidence.
Buy it
 The Essential Business Buyer's Guide
By the Staff of Business Consumer Guide
The staff of Business Consumer Guide provides a desktop reference book on business purchases -- over 110 listed products and services evaluated by a monthly magazine that has been providing such reports since 1992. What features should the buyer look for in shopping for a postal scale? Does a 401(K) retirement plan work for a one-person business? This is a complete (and alphabetical) guide that covers everything from cell phone service to overnight mail to Internet access providers to health maintenance organizations. It also offers guidance on such matters such as whether to write your own promotional material or to hire a professional writer. "At last," as one reviewer put it, "a general guide to business purchasing that covers more than just office equipment." Buy it
 Futurize Your Enterprise: Business Strategy in the Age of the E-Customer
By David Siegel
The author of Creating Killer Web Sites has written a book that urges
readers who have designed and implemented their sites to now consider how
best to use them. For the Internet is not a new medium for old processes,
but rather "a platform for work, community-building and individual
empowerment." Don't build a Web site, Siegel says, build a Web business.
This means steady, easy interaction with the customer through the Web.
Siegel makes use of many fictional examples to illustrate his points. Buy it
How to Build a Successful One-Person Business
By Veltisezar B. Bautista
The most effective, satisfying, and financially rewarding way to work is to do it by yourself -- even your own accounting -- according to this IP author. Nevertheless, Bautista recommends that IPs use subcontractors and paid consultants when it makes business sense. Emphasizing penny-pinching as the key to the survival of solo businesses, he offers much advice on getting free help and avoiding overspending, especially on technology. The author also includes chapters on business plans, marketing, setting up an office, networking, and how to get microloans. Bautista owns his own publishing house, and this book, now in a much revised and expanded second edition, is one of his products. Buy it
 How to Make Money Publishing from Home: Everything You Need to Know to Successfully Publish: Books, Newsletters, Greeting Cards, Zines, and Software
By Lisa Shaw
This book on how to be a one-person publishing operation is for both beginners and people already in the field. For the former, it covers how to identify and sell to promising markets, how to choose the most appropriate publishing equipment, and how to write a business plan. For the desktop publisher already in business, Shaw offers valuable tips on how to expand into new niches, what areas to avoid, and how to keep up with an ever-changing publishing environment. The author, herself a home-based publisher, also includes materials from interviews with successful publishers. Shaw could be more comprehensive, however, on copyright laws. Buy it
 Inc. Yourself: How to Profit by Setting Up Your Own Corporation
By Judith McQuown
The ninth edition of a book that has been in print since 1977, this guide to
incorporation for the IP has lots of imitators, but McQuown's book is the
most successful, with half a million copies in print. The new edition
accounts for recent changes in tax and business law and has a new chapter on
the Limited Liability Corporation (LLC), a corporate entity now in
considerable favor with IPs. The author, a former Wall Street portfolio
analyst, explains the pros and cons of various corporate forms and advises
on how to find the one best suited to your operation. The language is clear
and the research meticulous. There's also new material relevant to
minorities and women and a new chapter on making a business plan.
Buy it
 Money Hunt: The 27 New Rules for Creating and Growing a Breakaway Business
By Miles Spencer and Cliff Ennico
Spencer (an investment banker and venture capitalist) and Ennico (a corporate lawyer and entrepreneur) illustrate each of the 27 rules with stories about money, entrepreneurs, adversity, and success. To illustrate Rule No. 27 -- "It's a business, not a baby" -- they tell of a college student who sold the Web site-design business he'd started in his dorm room to an advertising agency. Number 9 is another gem: "During a gold rush, sell shovels." The authors also host a PBS show with the same name as the book.
Buy it
 Running a One-Person Business
By Claude Whitmyer and Salli Rasberry
Here's a book that combines three related but separate business subjects. One topic is business philosophy, which might cover fostering trust in business relationships and educating customers; another topic is personal advice, such as how to separate your work life from your personal life and how to take a vacation when you work for yourself; and the third topic is nuts and bolts advice about being an independent professional. Whitmyer and Rasberry, who have written earlier books on business that emphasize Buddhist and other Eastern religious principles, have much to say on ethics and mindfulness, but also come up with useful counsel on time management and office equipment. Several chapters have been substantially rewritten for this edition of the book. Buy it
 Secrets
of Self-Employment: Surviving and Thriving on the Ups and Downs of Being
Your Own Boss
By Sarah and Paul Edwards
The Edwardses thoroughly explore the psychology
and economics of succeeding as an IP in this update of their 1991 book,
"Making It on Your Own." The husband-and-wife writing team emphasizes
developing confidence and discipline, dealing with adversity, making
self-employment enjoyable as well as profitable, and developing sufficient
professional gravitas. The book is particularly instructive on time
management -- learning how to say "no" to work, building a time cushion
into your schedule, doing fill-in jobs, and learning to make decisions
quickly and even impulsively -- like which brand of paper clips to buy.
As usual, these experts on home business and self-employment give the
book buyer his money's worth. Buy it
 Small-Time
Operator: How to Start Your Own Business, Keep Your Books, Pay Your
Taxes, and Stay Out of Trouble
By Bernard B. Kamoroff
No philosophy or pep talks from this author: He just gives you the
nuts and bolts of self-employment, from getting started (obtaining initial
permits and licenses, getting financed, finding the right location,
insurance, legal structure) to developing a bookkeeping system (bank
accounts, recording income, sales and expenses, financial management).
There's also much on taxes (self-employment tax, retirement deductions,
the IRS, tax returns). In addition, the author advises on finding a
good accountant, working at home, and doing business on the Internet.
Kamoroff's self-published book, first published 23 years ago, is now
in its 7th edition. Buy it
 Smart
Strategies for Growing Your Business
By Terri Lonier
The theme of this book is that many small businesses fail
because their owners don't dedicate enough time and effort to developing
an operating plan. In Smart Strategies, Ms. Lonier suggests how
time-pressed small-business owners can devise a general strategy for
their businesses without sacrificing attention to the day-to-day operation
of the business itself. The book includes templates for adjustable business
plans. Buy it
 The
Successful Business Plan: Secrets and Strategies
By Rhonda M. Abrams
This exhaustive book-length study of the business
plan, written for both beginners and experienced entrepreneurs, instructs
the reader one step at a time, and includes 72 worksheets about budgeting,
marketing, operations and forecasting, as well as a sample business
plan. Abrams, who writes a syndicated column for Gannett News Service
and heads a San Francisco management consulting firm, explains what
venture capitalists and bankers really want to see. Home Office Computing,
Forbes, and Inc. magazines call this the best available source on writing
business plans. It's used as a textbook by some colleges and universities.
The new third edition is a major revision that includes advice on recent
financing trends and new technologies for presenting business plans.
Buy it
What
to Charge: Pricing Strategies for Freelancers and Consultants
By Laurie Lewis
Am I charging enough? What's a fair price? Will I lose the job if
I ask for more? These are the questions that trouble so many IPs. The
author has produced not a compilation of rates, but a strategic tool
for pricing, whatever the job, the industry, or the state of the economy.
Lewis discusses calculating profitable prices, negotiating with clients,
and researching the going rate in your field. She's especially good
on contracts and how hindsight analysis can put you or keep you on track.
Lewis has had a successful freelance medical writing and editing business
since 1985. Buy it
 The
Work at Home Balancing Act: The Professional Resource Guide for Managing
Yourself, Your Work, and Your Family at Home
By Sandy Anderson
"People who work in highly structured jobs directed by others may have
the most difficulty striking out on their own," the author says in a
guide that emphasizes time-tested ways of coping with the stresses and
joys of home-based work. Anderson advises on isolation, motivation,
managing kids with hired help, and the strains on a marriage when both
spouses work at home. Sprinkled through the book are quotes -- called
Homeworker Hints -- from others who have successfully made the transition.
(One Anderson tip: enroll a new puppy in obedience school immediately.)
She even tells the reader how to foster team spirit in getting chores
done and meals prepared. Buy it
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