Geared toward the unique challenges faced by self-employed businesswomen, The Girl's Guide to Starting Your Own Business offers solutions and advice for handling a range of issues, including how to write a business plan, how to secure funding, and how to hire (and fire) employees. Caitlin Friedman and Kimberly Yorio share practical information drawn from their own extensive experience in the public relations, marketing, and consulting industries. Their concise and engaging advice is explained through entertaining tips, lists, and quizzes that speak directly to women who are dreaming of starting, or have already started, their own businesses.

Every chapter is packed with interviews, charts, quizzes and witty directives about self-employment. Among their greatest hits: what's in a name, choosing logos, ten inspiring business chick flicks, legal eagles, business speak and visibility in professional associations. Friedman and Yorio sweat the small stuff. They explain, for example, why you shouldn't eat spaghetti at a business lunch and how to ask revealing questions of a potential employee or computer consultant. The authors' premise, "let women be women" is most compelling when they explore the unique challenges women face--from finding female role models to being a boss "without being a bitch."

They are on shakier ground with the arguable assumption that all women share distinct gender styles and strengths. This type casting and the "girl friend" tone can sometimes belittle the book's smart and strategic ideas for becoming the boss. Still, it is hard to imagine a more readable, practical book about the challenges of being in charge. --Barbara Mackoff