The Big Enough Company

June 20, 2011
Lancaster and Abrams, the founders of In Good Company, a New York City community workspace for female entrepreneurs, draw on the acumen of 100 businesswomen for tips on building a strong, sustaining company tailored to your needs and capabilities. Entrepreneurs, they argue, frequently start their own businesses because they think leaving the corporate world will give them freedom and the power to be their own bossesâbut as time goes by, the pressure to expand can leave them feeling that the businesses are owning them rather than the other way around. How do you sustain a company that is just big enough to deliver what you need and achieve what you want? The authors use case studies from their interviews to illustrate the need to undertake smart growth that is strategic, creative, and goal-driven, to clarify your goals and your purpose, to build and manage an effective team, and to keep focused and keep goals reasonable. Their approach is inspirational and strategic, rather than immediately actionable; it's smart, helpful reading that stops just short of providing a toolkit for putting real change into effect.

September 1, 2011

In Good Company founders Lancaster and Abrams interview 100 businesswomen in this snappy guide to entrepreneurial bliss.

This well-crafted book certainly isn't just for women, but rather for anyone dreaming of making their career work for them. Eschewing the traditional (and admittedly male) grow-it-and-sell-it model of entrepreneurship, the authors focus on helping struggling entrepreneurs create the kinds of companies they dream about. Sadly, write the authors, despite huge reserves of energy, drive and intelligence, many of those modern entrepreneurs end up getting in their own way. They take bad advice, expand when they shouldn't and sell things they don't care about. Lancaster and Abrams provide a recipe for success that begins with a series of simple yet penetrating questions that crystallize why someone would want to venture out on their own in the first place—and, subsequently, where they could go wrong. They advocate savvy business solutions that that would likely be anathema in the male-dominated corporate arena—e.g., sharing, cooperation, even friendship. Smashing the corporate paradigm is possible, and it never looked so rewarding and fun.

Knuckle-draggers in pinstripes will probably continue to look for the easy kill, but readers with a soul will want sit down, uncork the highlighter and dig in.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)