In Search of the Small-Business Bible

Bookstores and libraries are filled with more books of business advice than you'll ever have time to read. Our intrepid reporter, in 30 days and against all odds, finds the best ones for you

It seemed like a good idea at the time. I had recently been transferred to the start-up beat here at Inc., assigned to covering the marketplace of new and emerging ideas and companies. As I settled into my new job, I was amazed at the stream of "how to" books about starting a business that poured into our office week after week -- and I'm not easily amazed by such things. I had had no idea people were writing books like Sit and Grow Rich: Petsitting and Housesitting for Profit and -- odder yet -- presumably selling them. There were books about managing your high-tech venture, starting your business after age 50, starting your plumbing business, and starting the 101 best businesses. (And here I'd always thought one was more than enough for most people.) Gone were the days of a few basic how-to books straddling a diverse readership. Clearly, the market for books about start-ups was in the middle of some serious flux. As a reporter, I wanted to know more.

Little did I know that my friend Jennifer would give me the opportunity. Many things had been part of my friendship with Jennifer Bayley, but business wasn't one of them. I met Jennifer four years ago at our local Quaker meeting, at a fellowship group for young adults. We didn't exactly hit it off right away: I thought that she was kind of boring and, worse yet, that she flirted with my boyfriend. I don't know what she thought of me.

But I've never been any good at first impressions. Eighteen months later Jennifer and I were both in transition: I, out of a romantic relationship, and she into a new career -- organic farming. As we struggled to come to terms with a series of unexpected changes in our lives, we became friends, companions through some times of turbulence and waiting.

Today I scarcely recognize the woman I first met. When Jennifer jettisoned the office job that frustrated her, something changed. When she left Boston in 1992 to pursue her lifelong dream of working on a farm, she became more truly herself -- in a way I think most people never do. The bored, dissatisfied white-collar worker I first knew is gone. In her place is a woman of substance who loves her work and has found her own way in the world.

Now Jennifer, 32, wants to start a farm of her own. As I talked to her about her plans, I realized that while the organic-farming business is offbeat, her problems are typical. Like many people who start businesses for the first time, Jennifer has come to know her industry by working in it during the past two years. She knows the hardships involved in a small farm, and she knows that her business would probably support her for only part of the year. Jennifer has visited any number of organic farms, read books about farming, and contacted associations in her industry. But she has never, ever owned or managed a business. As a result, she is now trying to educate herself about small-business planning -- from scratch.

Why not, I figured, put our two questions together? If I set out to explore the strange new world of how-to books for start-ups, it would help to have a real neophyte businessperson with real questions to focus my search. (Otherwise, how could I possibly decide whether Financing Your Franchise or The Best Home Businesses for the 90s was more relevant?) Meanwhile, Jennifer could obviously benefit from having someone screen the best business books for beginners -- and could add an interesting perspective to my story. That's what I argued to my editors in late November, at any rate.

I soon got word that my story idea had been accepted. I had about 30 working days to screen every small-business book in the English language, read all the best, and write a cover story reviewing them. How I would do that was up to me.

This could be a long day. it's just me and six shelves of small-business books here at the largest Boston branch of Barnes & Noble, a discount bookstore chain. That means I'm spending the afternoon with text like this:

"TY HICKS HAS A BUSINESS FOR YOU! Now is the right time to free yourself from the fear of layoffs and mass firings, to acquire an independent source of income, to make more money than ever possible in a routine job, to have more free time to spend with your family, to build up a bigger retirement nest egg and to take your vacations where and when YOU want to....Start today and begin your new life as a home-based entrepreneur!"

Sorry, Ty, not today.

Because I have little time to conduct my book search, I have decided to proceed like any new entrepreneur, by checking out local bookstores and libraries. Admittedly, I'm carrying this process to extremes undreamed of by normal entrepreneurial types: here at Barnes & Noble, I plan to at least glance at each of the 200-plus small-business books on the shelves. Then it's on to another of Boston's finest bookstores to repeat the process. The ultimate aim: to narrow my search to about 40 books, which I will buy for closer examination. Also fair game for inclusion in this Top 40 is anything I can find in the main branch of the Boston Public Library or in Inc.'s offices.

So here I stand, every bookstore owner's nightmare come to life: the premeditated browser. I'm armed only with a credit card, a library card, and a four-subject notebook for keeping track of my reactions to everything from Ty Hicks to Importing from Singapore. (Somehow, neither of those makes the Top 40.) I now spend my days in fear of attracting the seemingly inevitable attention of some bookstore employee as I paw through the store's entire small-business inventory.

From this experience, I draw valuable lessons. They can be summarized as follows:

1. You can get an amazing amount of reading done in leanly staffed urban bookstores. Some even have nice chairs.

2. Part of the explosion in small-business titles is sad. There is no shortage of folks out there preying on the deep fearfulness in our contemporary American economy, promising poor silly souls like the ones Ty Hicks addresses that self-employment is somehow the answer to their job woes. One result is the many "fill-in-the-blank-with-a-number of best businesses to start from home/for $500 or less/while commuting" (yes, I'm making that last one up) books that end up on the shelves. Somehow lost in the breezy little descriptions of dozens of businesses is the fact that there are no businesses that are best for everyone, that starting a business is one of the most individual acts a person can make. Yes, you can start a successful business in an industry you don't know -- but you'll have to work like mad to compensate for your ignorance. Besides, too often those books include businesses because they're easy to enter, not because they're particularly promising. Count on it: the great fortunes made in parking-lot striping and organizing male beauty pageants will be few and far between.