At some time or another we have all made the utterance of wanting to be our own boss only to do nothing whatsoever about it either because we tack the bottle or just do not know how to get started.
Enter stage Left then an aid to this dilemma going by the interesting title of Sack Your Boss. This 165 page tome conveys an unbiased, simple and concise message focusing on how to become your own boss. The content varies from finding and being paid by customers to setting your priorities and marketing yourself and your product effectively.
That it is within anyone's grasp to work for themselves and discard the shackles of being someone else's wage slave is the mantra of this piece of work. To be able to wax Lyrical on the subject of self-employment though, surely the content must be based on personal experience? So it is. Jonathan Jay, the author, started out a number of years ago on his own with minimal funding and now runs a successful coaching business.
Now let's get realistic here. We are not all going to crack it big time in the realms of self-employment but we can have a good go at -˜turning our passion into earning power' as described by Jay. Beware though. Statistics quoted in the book do not make easy reading. For example, eight out of ten new enterprises fail within the first five years of existence and others fail in the next five. There are many reasons for the demise of these fledging businesses but their owners not having the requisite skills appears to be one of the main ones - a useful ut sates pitch then for the book.
It is full of useful anecdotes detailing the pitfalls selfemployed status brings. Certain chapters will capture the imagination of those Looking for specific subject matter such as those on marketing and finance. There are also numerous useful references made to other books on the same subject but which does lead to a somewhat Lengthy bibliography at the back of the book.
Jay's writing style does, at times. adopt somewhat of a -˜one cap fits all approach'. This may well rule out a large minority of businesses whose needs, I feel, fall out-with the book's scope given its focus on mostly white collar occupations. However this does not necessarily preclude those wanting to embark on businesses involving say bungee jumping for the under-fives or- producing passenger rockets to go to the moon. This is due to a good deal of the book's material being applicable across the board irrespective of product, market place or customer base.
Not a lot captures my attention twice but there is one part of the book which does just that. I read it a number of times and coincidence it may be but it is certainly one that will make readers sit up and think. Take the Letters of the word -˜attitude' and relate them numerically to their place in the alphabet - ie the Letter -˜a' = 1. Total them up and you come to 100 which Jay translates to per cent suggesting that attitude is 100% of the equation to being successfully self-employed. He makes no small bones of this by then turning the word into an acronym the letter -˜a' for -˜action-orientated'; -˜e' denoting -˜expect-theunexpected' and so on. A gimmick perhaps, but one that will stick with me for a possible future training session.
There is no doubt that the book is highly topical and Jay does capitalise on this. Yes he does makes it Look a little too easy to do the unthinkable and quit the 9-5 routine and at times can be quite glib about the issue but there is something tangible about the way he writes. A possible downside though is the price of the hook which, unless you are buying it for the specific reason of becoming your own boss, could be construed as a little bit of an extravagance.
However consider the fact that in an average lifetime you will spend at least 78,144 hours at work. This fact alone should make anyone even contemplating Life without a boss reach for the book shelf. I would even go as far as recommending the book to those who just fancy a spot of pure indulgence. After all we can all dream can we not because without dreams how will we know when we have achieved anything?