Book Review: The Boss of You

I want my own photography business. Actually, I think "want" is a poor word to describe how many hours I spend researching and daydreaming what it would be like to work at home doing something that has become my passion. I don't want a business as much as I thirst, pine, and ache for one. But after my hours of brainstorming, one question nags like a bad pop-up window: how do I do this?

The Boss of You by Lauren Bacon and Emira Mears is the perfect book for women like me who also want to take the small business reigns. Bacon and Mears perfectly word this 256-page manual on exactly what a woman needs in order to turn a passion into a profession. They escort you on an illuminating walk through the dark brambles of launching your own successful business. Each chapter is stocked with page turning lines about scary and overwhelming topics like finances and lawyers to more exciting start up tasks like marketing and networking. They write with full disclosure of how difficult the first years can be, how much planning and budgeting is required, yet they intertwine this honesty with supportive tones that don't smack of the "you go girl!" talk or a fistpump in the air yelling, "This is how you do it, Sistah Friend!"

I read this book in one night and it is surely going to be a dominant source in my business planning. I'm grateful that I found such a treasure to actualize this frightening yet exhilarating idea of being my own boss.