How to Run Your Business Like a Girl: Successful Strategies from Entrepreneurial Women Who Made It Happen

by Elizabeth Cogswell Baskin

A tour of three successful women-owned companies furnishes firsthand accounts of how these entrepreneurs deal with various stages of business cycle. Original. 60,000 first printing.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2005

Reviews

[Caroline Donahue]

this book is a delight to read and highly motivating. i have enjoyed it all the way through and will be sad to see it end. i love the format, which both includes shorter snippets from many business owners as well as the in-depth treatment of three businesses on each topic from chapter to chapter. very validating for those of us who work independently but didn't get an mba and don't always feel like we have all the answers.

[Jen Vela]

The Good: There are some helpful tips and sound advice from women who have started their own businesses. It was a little comforting to hear some of my fears and concerns addressed, along with the confirmation that it will be a tremendous amount of work, but there also comes the freedom to run your business and life as you wish.

The Bad: The assumption that the woman reading this book is financially sound and ready to make the big leap runs rather thick; I'm willing to give this attitude the benefit of the doubt considering it was written in 2005, before the recession. Although there are some good tips, anyone who has already started researching on opening her own business, most of what's said will be pretty redundant. Personally, I would have liked to have seen more interviews from women who started food/manufacturing-based businesses--most were from women who started service/consultant/retail businesses.

The Ugly: Catching several typographical errors. My personal favorite: the National Association of Women Business Owners being shortened to NABO (it's NAWBO--I work closely with the L.A. chapter). Seeing those are akin to hearing fingernails on a chalkboard.

[Kristen]

Great book for gals in business!

[Nancy]

I really liked hearing stories about the stages of a new business. It was comforting to know that I wasn't alone, I was in good company with some of the challenges that I faced.