Books: Three of a kind - Getting started in business

Wednesday, 01 September 2010

Get your business off to the right start to with these guides.

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Media & entertainment

Good Small Business Planning Guide
John Kirwan
A & C Black, £14.99

This is a deeper look at business planning and once you get used to its unashamed Americanness, it begins to bounce along nicely, with cheery metaphors and encouraging points. While at first glance it looks denser than its rivals, as you get into it, it contains far more detail. Watch out for the diagrams, though, they are impenetrable. Best of its kind.

Working 5 to 9
Emma Jones
Harriman House £12.99

A start-up guide with a twist, targeting those who want to run businesses in their spare time. The book begins with profiles of 50 business ideas you might like to have a go at (children's party organiser sounds appealing - rare breed pig farmer, less so), then moves on to a disappointingly basic introduction to starting a business. A word of caution: the term '5-to-9er' will begin to irritate somewhere on the second page. Could be useful.

How to Start Your Own Business: for entrepreneurs
Robert Ashton
Prentice Hall Business £12.99

With tips such as 'always let others be the pioneers', this is a how-to book for the most risk-averse entrepreneurs. The chapter listings - 'how to be really sure your business idea will fly', 'how to write a convincing plan', 'marketing in a nutshell' - are hardly ground-breaking, but it is at least a useful guide to the (very) basics. Could be useful.