Want to work only four hours a week and still make the money your need for your lifestyle?

The Four-Hour Workweek is a brilliant and fun book that I highly recommend.

He advocates many of the same theories as Alexandria Brown and Dan Kennedy -- being an entrepreneur, not trading time for dollars, outsourcing, protecting your time/access, leverage -- but adds that with a new idea of true independence to location and mini-retirements. The premise is to set up your business to such that you can answer your email 1x week, never check your voicemail, outsource almost everything, and live abroad 6 months at a time. And, instead of working like a dog for 30 years so you can retire "someday" - take mini-retirements now.

I do have to disclose that Timothy is a bit of a 29-year old bachelor punk, but I find him very entertaining (similar to Dan Kennedy old crotchety man-ness). :)

Some of his more entertaining tips include forcing yourself to be okay with being uncomfortable by placing calls to celebrities, making eye contact with everyone you meet for 2 days, and laying down on the floor in the middle of Starbucks for 10 seconds.

Some great advice I have already put to use:

-Only check email 2x a day, at noon and 4 pm. Wow, how efficient I become when I keep my mail program closed. And, my business has not yet exploded.

-Stop work at 4 pm. I am spending 4-5 pm in an activity that I would do if I was financially independent. Not sure what those activities are yet -- so far I have spent the time shopping, at happy hour, and reading a book in the park.

-Act as if you could only work 2 hrs a day. Now I am spending the first 2 hours doing the most important work for the day, instead of spending it on email. As such, I am able to get my work for the day done by mid afternoon, if not earlier -- since I do the most important work first.

And re the outsourcing ... if you are a socialist, you may not like this book. If you think that outsourcing takes advantage of people, or if you think unions are great, you may not like this book. This book is for smart, independent, capitalist-minded people, especially those who want to change their life and outsource their business to people who want to work for them (whether they are located in the U.S or overseas).

The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play originally was published in 1989, so perhaps everyone besides me has already read this book ... but I found it incredibly helpful in diagnosing my current procrastination problems with finishing my book and getting done some nagging stuff on my to-do list.

Pros:

- Practical tools to diagnose your problems (keeping a procrastination log).
- The "Unschedule" tool to schedule your fun time, to keep you motivated to get your work done.
- Acknowledgment that most of us actually only have 15-20 hours a week for the big projects, once you plan for meetings, email, phone calls, showers, kids, sleeping, and the rest of life.
- Great for self-employed people who have wide open but incredibly busy schedules.

Cons:

- Really, you've heard a fair amount of the stuff in this book (keeping track of your time, setting goals, etc.) but I found it was presented in a way that was helpful to me.
- If you are not a self-motivated person, not sure that scheduling "fun" time will get you motivated to do work -- especially if you are not sure what you should be working on.
- The Now Habit contains a bunch of procrastinator stories that frankly, I speed-read through because reading about other procrastinators make me upset, but those stories may be very helpful if you feel alone in your habits.

What I've already used:

- Realized that the reason I was procrastinating on finishing my book (it was 98% done) was avoiding delayed failure. In other words, when I finish my book it will be published and I could fail at selling the book, so if I never finish, I can't fail. Nuts.
- Used the "unschedule" to figure out I only have 15 hours a week for major projects.
- First day I used the "unschedule" I got all my work done by 2:30 PM. I didn't know what to do with all that time -- it was weird and great!

A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing, 9th ed., by Burton G. Malkiel, is a classic and brilliant explanation of how investors make the same mistakes over and over again, and how you can avoid those mistakes. If you want to understand how the stock market works, and decide for yourself if you should be investing in index mutual funds or picking stocks, this book is a must-read.

This book is not short, but that's because it goes through the history of investing (starting in 1592! through the dot-com era), explains how professionals invest and modern portfolio theory, and how you can apply all that to your investment portfolio.

I read this book before I was an investment advisor, have re-read it since, and recommend it to my clients who want to understand how the stock market, and how investors, work.

Pros: Love the stories of early investment bubbles, like the tulip bulb bubble (yes, actual tulip bulbs) and how the dot-com bubble was just history repeating itself. Great explaination of modern portfolio theory, that a non-financial-geek can understand.

Cons: Still is pretty technical for some people, and no one could say the book is short or quick reading. Modern portfolio theory may not work in all asset classes (like international investments, though that may be changing).

What I have learned: I love sharing stories of all of the bubbles throughout history, when I'm at a cocktail party or networking event. Helps me explain to clients and press why the dot-com bubble happened, why indexing works (in some asset classes), and how someone should evaluate the fundamentals of a stock.

Excellent overview for women, about opening and running a small business

Linda Hollander, the Wealthy Bag Lady, provides a overview of the many issues and challenges a women entrepreneur-to-be will encounter when opening a business. She does not go into any topic in depth, but does cover most topics enough to let you know where you will need to do additional research.

Hollander also tells personal stories of her struggles, and mistakes, of opening her own highly successful business, The Bag Lady (provides custom imprinted bags to small business).

Pros:
-Hollander has multiple successful business, and knows what she is talking about
-Great overview of all the issues women entrepreneurs must deal with
-Written by a woman, for women
-Covers not just business, but dealing with family, friends, and maintaining life balance

Cons:
-Does not go into any area in depth
-Reference books noted at the end are not divided into topics
-Stories from other women business owners could have been longer

Great book, and on my recommended list for women entrepreneurs-to-be!

Financing Your Business Made Easy is an excellent overview of how small business owners can get money to start or grow their business.

Unlike many financing books, this book does not assume you are going for venture capital or to go public -- frankly, few of us are in that league (nor do we want to be). But this book gives a great overview of all the ways to finance your business, including personal savings, SBA loans, credit cards, bootstrapping, factoring, and getting friends and family as investors.

Pros:
- Covers financing both from a start-up and a growing business perspective.
- Gives advice about getting a few thousand dollars, all the way up to millions.
- Gives financial and practical advice, such as dealing with family and friends as investors.

Cons:
- The Law Firm criteria is helpful for the VC and IPO people, but not for the solo-preneur or micro-preneur.

The Girl's Guide is an inspirational how-to book for women entrepreneurs, sprinkled with stories of actual women business owners, self-quizes, and lists of movies/music/books. But in giving a big overview, it is short in details and specific how-to's. And, by trying to be everything to everyone, it is not specific to any particular kind of business ... traditional brick-and-mortar vs internet, service vs. product, solopreneur vs employee-based, etc.

Pros:
-Written for women, addressing unique issues, such as dressing for business meetings and the problems of being "nice"
-Give a big, high-level overview of the opening of a business

Cons:
-Assumes that to grow you will need employees (not true in the age of virtual assistants and outsourcing) and a long business plan (not true in the age of the one page business plan)
-Assumes your web designer will know about web/email marketing and sales (many web designers are graphic designers, not marketing gurus)
-Assumes you will want a brick-and-mortar type-business, not an internet-only home business (and that if you start out working from home, it's a way to save money, not a business style)
-Gives some financial, legal, internet, and marketing advice that is out of date (i.e., states now permit one-person LLCs)

If you want a book specific to your new business, or that gives you a step by step, specific guide, this is not the book for you.

If you want a book to inspire you to open your own business (especially if you want a traditional, brick-and-mortar, employee-based, consulting business that you want to grow to be big), buy this book.