TOP DRAWER BOOK REVIEW
by
HL Carpenter

 

Go It Alone
by Bruce Judson
ISBN 0-06-073113-3
229 pages; hardcover; $23.95
HarperCollins, New York, 2004

What if you want to start your own business, but your goal is to keep the operation small while still earning a decent living? Is it possible?

Author Bruce Judson says yes. His solution? Outsourcing all tasks outside your main passion or skill set.

He’s not talking about sending jobs overseas. Instead, he thinks you should employ Application Service Providers, off-site call centers and other services to handle portions of your business. This selective delegation frees up your time – which is always at a premium for the self-employed – and allows you to concentrate on what you do best.

In fact, Mr. Judson says you can have a very successful single-owner, single-employee company this way. And he ought to know. He’s created two of them himself.

Go It Alone doesn’t play down the difficulties of starting and running your own operation. But the book does offer practical advice for making use of technology that lets you work on your business, as opposed to working in your business. That sounds like a subtle difference, but when you’re in charge of everything, it’s an important distinction. Leveraging your time by outsourcing a variety of functions is a smart way to increase your income without increasing the hours you work.

Start small, stay small, be successful. If that’s your dream, Go It Alone can show you the way.

 

Review originally published May 2005.