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Synopsis
Despite grim headlines about the economy, you DON’T have to stay in a job you intensely hate. There’s a better opportunity waiting out there, and escaping from cubicle nation is easier than you think.
Pamela Slim spent a decade traveling all over the country as a self-employed trainer for large corporations. She was surprised to find that many of the most successful employees at these companies harbored secret dreams of breaking out to start their own business. They would pull her aside after a meeting and whisper, “I would love to work for myself, but have no idea how to get started. How did you do it?”
So Pamela started a blog—Escape from Cubicle Nation—to share her experience and advice. Soon, questions and stories poured in from corporate prisoners around the world. As her blog gained popularity, she also interviewed some of the brightest experts in entrepreneurship on topics from finance to branding to marketing via social networks.
This book includes Pamela’s very best material, based on thousands of conversations and reader submissions. It provides everything you’ll need to consider before making a major change—not just the nuts and bolts of starting a business, but a full discussion of the emotional issues involved. Pamela knows firsthand that leaving corporate life can be very scary, especially if you have a family and other obligations. Fears and self-defeating thoughts often hold people back from pursuing an extremely gratifying solo career.
Get ready to learn your real options, make an informed decision, and maybe, just maybe, escape from cubicle nation.
Reviews:
Publisher’s Weekly
Inspired by her successful blog of the same name, life coach Slim shows readers how to navigate the terrifying yet gratifying transition from corporate drone to entrepreneur. She strikes a perfect balance between emotional encouragement and practical advice: “Hating your job intensely,” she writes, “is not a business plan.” What’s here is: the nitty-gritty of getting a business off the ground, legal considerations, making the best use of social networking sites, the components of a business model, organized creative brainstorming, financial advice, shopping for self-paid insurance and benefits, and helpful anecdotes of real-life entrepreneurship. With her humorous insights into corporate life and an appealing no-nonsense yet empathic tone, Slim deals swiftly and incisively with anxiety, fear and hesitation. Readers will cheer as she teaches the tricks behind finding “what makes you purr”—what people will pay you to do, what you have a great passion for and what you are genetically encoded to do. This is a standout in the start-your-own business genre.
Entrepreneur Magazine
With a foreward written by Entrepreneur’s “Wise Guy” columnist, Guy Kawasaki, and sections entitled “Open up to the Opportunities,” “The Reality of Entrepreneurship” and “Make the Money Work,” Slim skillfully guides readers through the transition process from beginning to end.You won’t find any quick fixes or fairy-tale endings in Pamela Slim’s Escape From Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur. Instead, you’ll find a thoughtful, accessible and forthcoming account of exactly what it takes to leave the corporate world behind and start a business of your own.
Slim, a training and development manager turned business coach, assures readers that they’re “not crazy” for wanting to leave the security of a corporate career. But she also offers up a real gem of advice: “Hating your job intensely is not a business plan.”
Straightforward bullet points, readable lists and entertaining anecdotes make it easy for aspiring entrepreneurs to extract useful information on everything from benefits shopping to handling the reactions of family and friends.
Whether readers ultimately decide to go or stay, they won’t regret having someone show them the way.
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