The Girl's Guide to Starting Your Own Business

I remember buying Caitlin Friedman and Kimberly Yorio's The Girl's Guide to Starting Your Own Business years ago, when I had dreams of starting my own Etsy shop (which I never actually did).  That was probably around the same time that I bought The Anti 9 to 5 Guide.

The Girl's Guide to Starting Your Own Business is in many ways similar to The Anti 9 to 5 Guide.  Both deal with forging your own path (although The Girl's Guide to Starting Your Own Business does more, while The Anti 9 to 5 Guide explores different options including flex time and telecommuting), and both books are rather dated (The Girl's Guide to Starting Your Own Business actually reminded me of Will Write for Food in this regard - websites are treated as a new thing, no mention of social media or blogs, and lists of websites that are most likely out of date now).

But unlike The Anti 9 to 5 Guide, I honestly enjoyed reading The Girl's Guide to Starting Your Own Business.  Sure, some chapters were a slog (like the one on technology).  But the majority of the book was full of very helpful advice and interesting stories from (mostly) women entrepreneurs (that's another reason this book reminds me of Will Write for Food I guess). Friedman and Yorio provide an excellent overview of all the different aspects of running your own business, including the people you should have on your small business team (a lawyer and an accountant for sure) complete with the questions to ask them, dealing with tough stuff like hiring and firing employees, why you need a business plan (even if it isn't a formal plan), and common business writing you will need.  The key word here is overview though: if you're looking for an in-depth discussion on these topics, you might want to look at a more focused book.

The one issue I had with the earlier part of the book is that it is American; Friedman and Yorio talk about things like taxes and retirement plans, which were not at all applicable for people from other countries (plus there's a good chance that a lot of that information may be out of date even for Americans since the book is thirteen years old).  But other than that, I thought this was an excellent overview on how to go about starting your own business, particularly for women.

The Anti 9 to 5 Guide

Geeze, where to begin? 

I remember seeing Michelle Goodman's The Anti 9 to 5 Guide: Practical Career Advice for Women Who Think Outside the Cube at the library many years ago.  I picked up a copy of it (as well as Goodman's My So-Called Freelance Life) because it seemed like the type of book I should read but I wasn't interested in reading it right then and there.  And so it has languished on my bookshelf for YEARS (I would bet around ten at this point). I don't even know why exactly I decided to read it now; I guess I just had a vague sense that I really should just read the thing already.

The Anti 9 to 5 Guide is a book full of career advice for women who want to forge their own path, whether through self-employment, flex time or telecommuting at their current job, or working at a traditionally male job.  Each chapter tackles a different avenue to explore, and ends with a list of actionable items you can do right now and in the future to get you on your way towards making a career change.

As I was reading The Anti 9 to 5 Guide over the last few days, I had this sense that I really should have read the book much sooner.  For one thing, I would guess that it was much more ground breaking when it was first published, but it feels rather dated now (there were a number of references to having a Rolodex. Plus Goodman talks about the internet like it's a new thing, probably because using it for finding jobs WAS a new thing back in 2006 when the book was published).  But not only that, I found that the advice itself just wasn't new to me; it pretty much all seemed like obvious stuff I've read many times before (possibly in Pushback, The Art of Selling Yourself, or even all the way back to Networking for People who Hate Networking). I almost stopped reading the book halfway through because I felt like I was kind of wasting my time; I got stubborn and finished it because I've held onto this book for so long.  I did glean a few interesting tidbits (and enjoyed the discussion on negotiating as well as the chapter on working abroad, even though I'm not really interested in living abroad at this point in my life).  But overall I kind of felt like this was a slog to get through.

But that doesn't mean that it is.  If you're fresh out of college and considering starting a career, or you want to change careers but haven't a clue where to start, The Anti 9 to 5 Guide is full of great advice for you.  It just wasn't the book for me.