Minding My Business

September 15, 2013

In 2002, Mignogna (former owner, The Pot & Bead) left a career in engineering to pursue a lifelong dream of owning her own business. During her time as a small business owner, she encountered many people envious of her position and contemplating it for themselves, assuming that being one's own boss meant more time and money. Here, Mignogna disabuses readers of this notion and documents the steps--both right and missed--that she took to obtain the business, to have the business successfully running, and, finally, to get it closed and sold. Intending this work as both a personal account and handbook, Mignogna keeps the chapters short, ending each with bullet-pointed key ideas, and supplies heavy appendixes of documents and reading lists. While the book does not add anything new to the discussion about owning a small business, it is written to alert the interested layperson about the harsh realities involved and to deter the fainthearted. VERDICT Not enough of a memoir to offer general interest and lacking enough substance to benefit the dedicated business professional, this book is recommended for those who have only given thought to starting a small business and would gain from learning about one person's mistakes and efforts.--Laurel Tacoma, Strayer Univ. Lib., Washington, DC

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