Spare Room Tycoon: The Seventy Lessons of Sane Self-Employment

Chan offers an intimate portrait of a new way of working and a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to find peace, satisfaction and fulfillment as an independent entrepreneur. Contents......Page 6 I Am a Spare Room Tycoon......Page 10 Telling stories......Page 13 How to be......Page 15 1 The Way of the Spare Room Tycoon......Page 18 How do you do it?......Page 21 Self-knowledge......Page 22 Passion......Page 26 Action......Page 27 Realization......Page 30 Evolution......Page 32 STARTING......Page 36 2 Knowing What to Do......Page 38 Declaration of independence......Page 39 Identifying your strengths......Page 42 From passion to product......Page 45 Reclaiming a dream......Page 47 Moment of commitment......Page 49 3 Meeting the Market......Page 54 Smelling blood......Page 56 Is there money in it?......Page 57 Keep listening after “no”......Page 59 Getting over getting fired......Page 61 Pennies from heaven......Page 64 Struggle.com......Page 66 A CEO no more......Page 69 SUCCEEDING......Page 74 4 Making the Sale......Page 76 Selling is like breathing......Page 78 Fear of selling......Page 80 Small customers, big ideas......Page 82 Prepared to succeed......Page 85 Waking to opportunity......Page 88 Your first client is yourself......Page 90 5 Confidence Is Money......Page 94 Building self-assurance......Page 95 Business as a contact sport......Page 97 Putting your foot down......Page 100 Betting on yourself......Page 103 Serial entrepreneur......Page 106 6 You Are a Brand......Page 111 A myth of my own......Page 113 A strong identity......Page 116 Dressed to bill......Page 118 Looking good on paper......Page 120 How not to network......Page 123 Winning recognition......Page 126 7 Setting a Price......Page 131 Getting what you’re worth......Page 134 Prices and values......Page 136 Calculating how to charge......Page 138 Businesslike billing......Page 142 Getting paid......Page 145 Don’t expect gratitude from customers......Page 148 SUSTAINING......Page 152 8 Balancing Work and Life......Page 154 Another nutty entrepreneur......Page 157 Heartburn......Page 159 Raising a family while you work......Page 162 Pictures of sanity......Page 165 Walk in the woods......Page 168 A modern hermit......Page 170 Home office, personal space......Page 173 9 Daily Anxiety......Page 178 Sane self-deployment......Page 179 Make the phone ring......Page 182 The plumber and the dentist......Page 184 Under control......Page 186 The illusion of security......Page 188 Six worries......Page 192 10 Good Times, Bad Times......Page 196 The joy of survival......Page 197 Strategic retreat......Page 199 Surviving success......Page 202 A business plan for hard times......Page 205 Life after catastrophe......Page 208 From cancer to career......Page 211 11 How Big Do You Need to Be?......Page 215 Soloist or string quartet?......Page 218 Bigger or better?......Page 220 When your business grows up......Page 223 Growing too fast......Page 226 Staying small by choice......Page 230 A Final Thought......Page 236 The 70 Lessons of the Spare Room Tycoon......Page 240 Acknowledgments......Page 248 C......Page 250 M......Page 251 S......Page 252 W......Page 253 Publishers Weekly, May 15, 2000 review of Spare Room Tycoon: Equipping the Inner Entrepreneur Riding the technological revolution and seizing the advantages of the global economy, some 8,000 new home businesses opened each week last year in the U.S. To help steer these brave souls through the economic and emotional challenges they face, James Chan shares his 17 years of experience as an independent business owner and the real-life stories of dozens more in Spare Room Tycoon--Succeeding Independently: The Seventy Lessons of Sane Self-Employment. Sections on starting up and sustaining a business provide wise and witty injunctions and observations, such as "dress to bill" and "other people's anxieties are what keep us in business." This eye-opening work addresses personal and professional relationship issues, daily anxieties and catastrophes, which are the prices one must pay to gain the overarching satisfaction of creating a personal empire, be it large or small. Agent, Liv Blumer. (Nicholas Brealey [NBN, dist.], $22 256p ISBN 1-85788-247-4; June) Spare room tycoons are people who have successfully invented independent careers and autonomous lives. In this book, James Chan tells the story of how he and dozens of others have sustained their businesses offering perspectives to those faced with the pressures of creating an independent career. Filled with real-life stories and real-world wisdom, SPARE ROOM TYCOON offers a behind-the-scenes look that shows what it's really like, revealing how others deploy their talents, keep their sanity, and swim and prosper in the stormy seas of self-employment James Chan relates the real-life stories and real-world wisdom of how 40 men and women including himself turned their personal passions into profitable businesses. I use a staircase to commute to my second-floor office from my third-floor bedroom or my first-floor kitchen.