Welcome to my week-long women's series. It's no secret that one issue that I'm passionate about is female empowerment. I used to answer a domestic violence hotline, coach cheerleading, lead a girls technology club in my local middle school, and meet with a monthly girls book club. I'm currently on the board of our county's domestic violence program and doing some writing for the Maine Women's Fund. My point is it's certainly been a common thread in my life no matter where I am or what I'm doing.
So this week, it's about the ladies, and of course money (as usual). Enjoy!
I was drawn to this book at my local library while looking for something new to read. "The Boss of You: What Every Woman Needs To Know To Start, Run, and Maintain Her Own Business" definitely caught my eye with it's fun, sensible cover and complete title. As a woman trying to run my own part-time business, I thought this might me some great professional development information.
I find books like this tend to be one of two things: 1) a little scatterbrained with lots of tips and tricks but a lack of cohesiveness or 2) dense with information and a little on the boring side.
This book was a good balance of case studies of other female run businesses (tips and tricks) but was also well outlined with cohesion throughout.
Sure you can get lots of books about how to write a business plan but there is lots of information in here that works whether you are before or after the BP stage. I enjoyed the exercises where you figure out what you're good at and how that translates to your business as well as the you-can't-do-everything-and-that's-ok attitude.
Emira and Lauren (the authors) are the kind of smart women you want to be friends with and their advice is clearly from the trenches. I know most business people who'd write a book like this would use it to talk about everything they did right but it's more helpful (not to mention realistic) to hear the not-so-ideal parts too. And if I had a business for years, I could still see myself getting something out of the book.
Since the librarians won't speak to me if I renew this one more time, I guess I'll have to surrender this copy next week and ask for my own copy for Christmas to keep as a reference. Oh and if you're more the abbreviated info type, check out the back index full of useable resources (with websites, yay for authors who get the 21st century).
Anyway if you're a woman wanting to start your own business who refuses to buy a book that implies that she's a "dummy" (a little personal bias there), this one is fabulous. I even took it on vacation which means it was worth lugging on a plane in my carry-on.
So learn and enjoy! I continue to myself.
Check out Lauren and Emira's blog here, where you can also order the book.
A good article about self employment taxes from Moolanomy.
Some helpful links for women starting their own businesses via USA Today