The Girl's Guide to Starting Your Own Business: Candid Advice, Frank Talk, and True Stories for the Successful Entrepreneur [Hardcover]

Caitlin Friedman (Author), Kimberly Yorio (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 23, 2003

Tired of doing all the work for your boss but reaping none of the financial benefits? Fed up with working 60 hours a week for someone else? Want to start your own business but afraid to take the leap?

Packed with practical advice on every aspect of self-employment, along with useful Web sites, checklists, and quizzes, The Girl's Guide to Starting Your Own Business is the book that Caitlin Friedman and Kimberly Yorio each searched for when they left the corporate world behind to start their own public relations companies. When they merged their businesses into one company, Friedman and Yorio vowed to record the process and create a truly useful guide for other women entrepreneurs.

The Girl's Guide to Starting Your Own Business streamlines the vast information needed to launch your business. From starting with the big question: Are you the girl to run the show? to writing a business plan to understanding your legal obligations and getting your name out there in the marketplace. So, here's the lowdown on how to take your business idea and run with it!

But don't just take Friedman and Yorio's word for it -- women business owners from a wide range of industries offer their own start-up stories, advice, and opinions.

The Girl's Guide to Starting Your Own Business speaks to women in a way no business book has -- relating frank, useful, and professional advice with all the energy, enthusiasm, and fun of a girl's night out.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

PR pundits and business owners Friedman and Yorio tackle the fear factor of women who want to quit their day job and build a business. They ask, "Are you the girl to run the show?" They answer with a sassy list of pros and cons ("You will be able to get to your child's school play, but you will think about money all the time.") and with tough questions ("Could you negotiate a reasonable rent with an unreasonable landlord?)

Every chapter is packed with interviews, charts, quizzes and witty directives about self-employment. Among their greatest hits: what's in a name, choosing logos, ten inspiring business chick flicks, legal eagles, business speak and visibility in professional associations. Friedman and Yorio sweat the small stuff. They explain, for example, why you shouldn't eat spaghetti at a business lunch and how to ask revealing questions of a potential employee or computer consultant. The authors' premise, "let women be women" is most compelling when they explore the unique challenges women face--from finding female role models to being a boss "without being a bitch."

They are on shakier ground with the arguable assumption that all women share distinct gender styles and strengths. This type casting and the "girl friend" tone can sometimes belittle the book's smart and strategic ideas for becoming the boss. Still, it is hard to imagine a more readable, practical book about the challenges of being in charge. --Barbara Mackoff

From Publishers Weekly

Friedman and Yorio take girl power corporate in their friendly guide for women who want to start their own business. The two media mavens (they started their own PR agency in 2000, after working as publicists at Broadway Books and Artisan, as well as other media companies) offer a lighthearted alternative to books that teach readers "how to sound like a man and think like a man." Clearly experienced, Friedman and Yorio know launching a business is no walk in the park. They warn readers of all the bad stuff that comes with being the boss: feeling out of sync with the rest of the world, having to manage employees, being forced to rely on customers and clients and being responsible for knowing about taxes. But they also exalt the pleasures of being in charge. Their book covers virtually every aspect of running the show in language that isn't industry-specific, so it doesn't matter what kind of business readers want to start. Friedman and Yorio move from assessing finances and writing business plans to hiring employees and advertising. Their advice is always sound, if at times obvious (e.g., eat breakfast before business meetings, so your stomach doesn't grumble). And they give readers a break from their relentless cheerleading with sidebars featuring interviews with other successful female business owners, lists of inspirational "chick flicks" (like Baby Boom and Sliding Doors) and worksheets for calculating budgets. Their savoir faire and enthusiasm are infectious.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow (December 23, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060521570
• ISBN-13: 978-0060521578
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #958,300 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Girls Guide is always on Caitlin's mind. She's constantly coming up with new ways to make the Girls Guide more relevant and helpful to women who work. The evolution of the Girls Guide from one book to four and now this web-site has been under her creative direction for the past three years. Not that she figures out complicated mathematical problems on her way to sleep. But rather, she can't seem to turn it off and will find herself lying there thinking about where they can take Girls Guide next, another children's book she should write or the dialog from some guilty pleasure movie.

In the daylight hours Caitlin and Kim run a food-focused PR business called YC Media and have written four books to help women achieve professional success:

The Girl's Guide to Starting Your Own Business
The Girl's Guide to Being a Boss without Being a Bitch
The Girl's Guide to Kicking Your Career Into Gear
Happy at Work, Happy at Home (coming out September 2009).

Whenever possible, Caitlin and Kim speak to women about the importance of building self-confidence at work by being yourself and have appeared on national television including the Today Show multiple times, and in magazines including Time and Real Simple.

Caitlin is married to writer Andrew Friedman and the mother of twins. She loves chick-lit, most everything on television, great bbq and an uninterrupted bath that lasts at least an hour.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice energy for the newbie business owner, January 21, 2004

By 

Dr Cathy Goodwin (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Girl's Guide to Starting Your Own Business: Candid Advice, Frank Talk, and True Stories for the Successful Entrepreneur (Hardcover)

I read this book with the question, "Would I have benefited from this book when I started my own business?"

The answer is, "In some ways, yes." The authors create an energetic spirit through their upbeat, easy-to-read style. You find yourself saying, "Sure -- I can do this!" And, although increasing numbers of women are opening their own businesses, many identify with gender-based guides.

The authors focus as much on product as service businesses, and they discuss businesses with employees as well as solo acts. As a result, they offer a broad base, recognizing that readers must go elsewhere to achieve depth on any one topic.

The usefulness of specific guidance varies a great deal. The authors are best when dealing with matters of spirit and attitude. For example: "Keep emotions at home," "employees are not friends," and "recite these ten mantras regularly."

However, the section on mentoring can be misleading to a newbie. As a former academic, I had to chuckle when I read (p. 227): "Maybe the dean of the business school is a generous and knowledgeable soul who likes nothing more than to give advice to female entrepreneurs." In my experience, deans give free advice only to those outsiders who are likely to become large-scale donors. And I haven't met too many business school deans who are "generous and knowledgeable souls." These days, you have to expect to pay for mentors unless you are very, very lucky.

So bottom line, I'd recommend reading this book for energy and a "let's get going" mentality. You can get the specific how-tos elsewhere.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love it!, February 6, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Girl's Guide to Starting Your Own Business: Candid Advice, Frank Talk, and True Stories for the Successful Entrepreneur (Hardcover)

I love this book. This is aimed for women who want to start their own business. It's the only business book that I've read and its pretty easy to follow, the girls breakdown what you need to know, how to go about doing your own business, they're very inspiring and encouraging. They give you advice on how to deal with a lot of stuff when it comes to having your own business. Everything about having a plan to starting and keeping your business. Its so wonderful. There are lots of books out there about having your own business, and this is the one to buy if you're just starting out.

The book covers subjects like: if you're ready to own your own business, which business is right for you, legalities like licenses, permits, financials, funding, a business plan, promoting your business or product, what to do when you're the boss, acting like a professional, technology for your business, they also cover proposals, presentations and other business writing, at the end they give websites and other advice to finish off the book.

I'm glad that this book has been published, the advice in this book is very realistic. You can apply this advice in your life. These girls know what they're talking about.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good on inspiration, low on the details, May 14, 2007

By 

Elizabeth Potts Weinstein "entrepreneur, mom,... (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Girl's Guide to Starting Your Own Business: Candid Advice, Frank Talk, and True Stories for the Successful Entrepreneur (Hardcover)

The Girl's Guide is an inspirational how-to book for women entrepreneurs, sprinkled with stories of actual women business owners, self-quizes, and lists of movies/music/books. But in giving a big overview, it is short in details and specific how-to's. And, by trying to be everything to everyone, it is not specific to any particular kind of business ... traditional brick-and-mortar vs internet, service vs. product, solopreneur vs employee-based, etc.

Pros:
-Written for women, addressing unique issues, such as dressing for business meetings and the problems of being "nice"
-Give a big, high-level overview of the opening of a business

Cons:
-Assumes that to grow you will need employees (not true in the age of virtual assistants and outsourcing) and a long business plan (not true in the age of the one page business plan)
-Assumes your web designer will know about web/email marketing and sales (many web designers are graphic designers, not marketing gurus)
-Assumes you will want a brick-and-mortar type-business, not an internet-only home business (and that if you start out working from home, it's a way to save money, not a business style)
-Gives some financial, legal, internet, and marketing advice that is out of date (i.e., states now permit one-person LLCs)

If you want a book specific to your new business, or that gives you a step by step, specific guide, this is not the book for you.

If you want a book to inspire you to open your own business (especially if you want a traditional, brick-and-mortar, employee-based, consulting business that you want to grow to be big), buy this book.