Spare Room Tycoon
Subtitle: Succeeding Indepently, The 70 Lessons of Sane Self-Employment
Publisher: Nicholas Brealey Publishing
Published: May 2000
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 256
ISBN-13: 9781857882476
Subjects: Business strategy; Small businesses & self-employed; Small Business - General; Entrepreneurship; Business & Economics; Business / Economics / Finance; Business/Economics; Success in business; Home-based Businesses; Business & Economics / General; Self-employed
First sentence: I use a staircase to commute to my second-floor office from my third-floor bedroom or my first-floor kitchen.
Description: 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)
Notes: Go to www.SpareRoomTycoon.com to read sample chapters of Spare Room Tycoon.

Table of Contents

   I Am a Spare Room Tycoon 1 

     Telling stories 4 

     How to be 6 

  1   The Way of the Spare Room Tycoon 9 

     How do you do it? 12 

     Self-knowledge 13 

     Passion 17 

     Action 18 

     Realization 21 

     Evolution 23 

 Starting 27 

  2   Knowing What to Do 29 

     Declaration of independence 30 

     Identifying your strengths 33 

     From passion to product 36 

     Reclaiming a dream 38 

     Moment of commitment 40 

  3   Meeting the Market 45 

     Smelling blood 47 

     Is there money in it? 48 

     Keep listening after "no" 50 

     Getting over getting fired 52 

     Pennies from heaven 55 

     Struggle.com 57 

     A CEO no more 60 

 Succeeding 65 

  4   Making the Sale 67 

     Selling is like breathing 69 

     Fear of selling 71 

     Small customers, big ideas 73 

     Prepared to succeed 76 

     Waking to opportunity 79 

     Your first client is yourself 81 

  5   Confidence Is Money 85 

     Building self-assurance 86 

     Business as a contact sport 88 

     Putting your foot down 91 

     Betting on yourself 94 

     Serial entrepreneur 97 

  6   You Are a Brand 102 

     A myth of my own 104 

     A strong identity 107 

     Dressed to bill 109 

     Looking good on paper 111 

     How not to network 114 

     Winning recognition 117 

  7   Setting a Price 122 

     Getting what you're worth 125 

     Prices and values 127 

     Calculating how to charge 129 

     Businesslike billing 133 

     Getting paid 136 

     Don't expect gratitude from customers 139 

 Sustaining 143 

  8   Balancing Work and Life 145 

     Another nutty entrepreneur 148 

     Heartburn 150 

     Raising a family while you work 153 

     Pictures of sanity 156 

     Walk in the woods 159 

     A modern hermit 161 

     Home office, personal space 164 

  9   Daily Anxiety 169 

     Sane self-deployment 170 

     Make the phone ring 173 

     The plumber and the dentist 175 

     Under control 177 

     The illusion of security 179 

     Six worries 183 

  10   Good Times, Bad Times 187 

     The joy of survival 188 

     Strategic retreat 190 

     Surviving success 193 

     A business plan for hard times 196 

     Life after catastrophe 199 

     From cancer to career 202 

  11   How Big Do You Need to Be? 206 

     Soloist or string quartet? 209 

     Bigger or better? 211 

     When your business grows up 214 

     Growing too fast 217 

     Staying small by choice 221 

 A Final Thought 227 

 The 70 Lessons of the Spare Room Tycoon 231 

 Acknowledgments 239 

 Index 241