Companies and Consultants Books

As Tom Fischgrund says in THE INSIDER'S GUIDE TO THE TOP 20 CAREERS IN BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT, a good job pays for the lifestyle you want, lets you have a personal life that gets you involved in community charities and sports, and takes you where you want to be over the next 20 years. One of the best preparations is interning while studying accounting and finance, juggling a co-op work program with school such as engineering students do, and looking for companies with training programs such as General Mills, large insurance companies, Procter & Gamble, and Quaker Oats. Then, speaking and writing well and getting along with computers, numbers, and especially people will open the best companies' doors. Succeeding also will mean dressing for success, keeping current on office politics and world trends, knowing company decision makers and industry and trade publications, and meeting deadlines while showing up early and doing what the company sees as important to get done. This book reads well with Robert Levering and Milton Moskowitz's THE 100 BEST COMPANIES TO WORK FOR IN AMERICA.

The author writes with a personal, indepth knowledge of the pottery. He uses up-to-date price lists and pictures when available. Also, especially fascinating are the hand drawn illustrations representative of different types of flowers on the pottery. Notice the date, 1998 1/2, this book will keep you informed or introduce you to a new collecting hobby.

In "Million Dollar Consulting", Alan Weiss presents a compelling argument for his value-based pricing approach to consulting. Although not a new concept when introduced by him in 1992, Weiss has been successful at promoting it and many firms have adopted it.

This book is targeted primarily to existing consulting firms and shows them how to accelerate their growth. However, there is enough good information in here for sole practitioners and those just starting out to justify buying and reading this book.

I do take exception to one of the author's comments on page 204. "Do not vanity publish or self-publish - it's a waste of time, and no one is impressed." As an author and self-publisher of three books, including one on consulting, I strongly disagree with Weiss on this one. People are impressed by those who have taken the time to express their views in the form of a book. My books have brought me prestige and money. Self-publishing is not a waste of time.

That said, I still think that Weiss's book is the best one out there on consulting, and there are a lot of them. If you like this book, then you should also buy his "How to Acquire Clients". Both are terrific.

Mitch Paioff, Author, Getting Started as an Independent Computer Consultant

Getting Started as an Independent Computer Consultant

Alan's work here is a masterpiece that no consultant should miss. You will read and review it again and again. it will make you rich.

The Renaissance Soul: Life Design for People with Too Many Passions to Pick Just One One of the things I find most fascinating about consulting is that I can be working with one type of company on one type of issue this month and another with a different issue next month. "But don't you have to be an expert in one field and consult on that?" people ask me. And yes, there are many consultants who do just that, specializing in just one field. However, for those of us who prefer variety and combination over concentrating on just one thing, Alan's book has the perfect answer. With the approach and skill sets he describes so well here, we can be an expert in the field of consulting! I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to focus on the generic process of providing this service rather than on one particular field.

I have a very successful consulting practice and reference this book on a regular basis. It's a great reminder of the foundational things you never want to stray from. And, it has some great tips that when put in play, make things happen. For my $20 investment, I've realized thousands in new and additional business.

I was impressed by the few first pages in the book. But as you read along there is very little added.
In my humble opinion the book becomes quite self centric to mister Weiss. If you have access to a lot of top level CEOs and you need somebody to tell you you should charge them fat fees which would exceed "normal" hourly rates, then this book is for you, but then again why would you be after a book like this in that situation.
Sure there are good lines here and there, but overall for me it was not too much fun reading. It is quite US centric and many parts are on the edge of being childish, see chapters on technology for example.
This is the last Weiss book I'll buy.

Highly recommended. I'm a new consultant in the field of personal productivity, and this is coming in handy. Great stories, many "laws," and inspirations for those of us who are new to what value we can give to clients.

Developing your soft and thinking skills...a concept not just for consultants. Summarily, the focus is on listening first, listening second, confirming what you heard third, and then proposing multiple potential solutions rather than assuming the answer is known. The focus is on building blocks of relational problem solving being given more weight than a curriculum vitae full of classes, awards and companies.

Jerry is a dynamic and charismatic writer. This book is nothing short of a classic! I highly recommend this book to business execs and consultants alike.

Maybe its the very american style in which this book is written, but I am afraid it switched me right off. Sorry couldnt recommend this to an English user - AT ALL!

Along with "The Art of War", I read this book 3-4 times a year. Why? Because I keep falling back to the silly state I was in before I first read them.

I think the title throws off a lot of people. This really isn't a book about consulting as a business. Heck, it's not even about consulting as a hobby. Actually, the book isn't about consulting. It's about communication...hence the "...Giving and Getting Advice Successfully" part of the title.

Look, most of the time, when a person has a problem, it's not because of lack of intelligence that he can't solve the problem. This book goes a LONG way explaining why it's a culture, or context, or perception problem and that the person consulted isn't there because he's smarter. It may be that the situation just doesn't ALLOW the problem to be solved. Or it may be that the person has been experiencing the problem too long.

As an example, like any couple, my wife and I ask each other to do things. Some of the time, we REALLY need the other person to do exactly what was asked. The problem was that neither of us could discern those situations. So, I took Gerald's advice and created a trigger. Now, when either of us makes a request and then follows it with the trigger, the other party not only agrees to do the thing....but recognizes that they better do or suffer the consequences. (BTW, the trigger is "It's important to me." When I hear those words from her, I KNOW I need to really listen to what she's saying.)

If you read this book and only learn 1 secret that improves your communication, then you'll get your money back in spades. Or, be like me, reread it on a regular basis, and grow.

Remarkable Work: Insightful- Practical- Focused- It took me to a new level of understanding. I recommend it to anyone doing business on the internet...

Most of these reviews are frankly doctored. This book is not nearly a 5-star book...its tenets are largely rehashed and repackaged "standard" business wisdom, much of which becomes heavily diluted (at best) when dealing with e-business models. It also does not offer any true insights on the uniqueness of Internet-oriented business (and which most of us have found out the hard way, if not at least partially by common sense), let alone any "definitive blueprint" for succeeeding in designing and running one. It's all just fluff.

Do yourself a favor and pass this book by; there's a plethora of consulting, design, and internet development-oriented books that will fill the bill several times better than this one purports to. Review doctoring is nothing new to most experienced Internet consumers now; and this listing falls so obviously in that category that it's frankly embarrassing (and disgusting). But you don't have to believe me...if nothing else, buying this book will at least get you a "funny cover" with a t-shirt-worthy geek icon (ahem), if not the info you seek.

Pass.

While many of the references in this book are certainly somewhat dated (originally published in '97 - a lot has happened on the Internet since then), The Geek's Guide is still a bulls eye, on-target business guide for web designers, especially those just getting started. If you're a new web designer or web programmer you'll quickly learn what you need to know to succeed.

The fact that it was written before the dotbomb era means that you're getting solid advice free of the bubble hype that crashed the stock market and put almost every dot com company out of business - and left many self employed web designers scrambling to find paying clients.

I wouldn't worry too much about the fact that you won't even find the phrase "business model" in the book (at least I couldn't find it.) Most internet business models (except of course, good old Amazon!) turned out to be either illegal stock frauds run by con artists or the same as legitimate old fashioned bricks and mortar business models. And we all know that today, it is the bricks and mortar companies that have the most work and the most money for web designers.

So I say, grab this book now, even if you can only get a used copy.

This book is very comprehensive and touches on points of business that the creative artist ignores.....The tips on marketing/advertising are invaluable!! The 'cold-call' concept is elevated to reality in this book. Many designers/web developers do not have a clue to expand business beyond the ol' word-of mouth....This book makes networking an attainable goal! Another asset is the readability of this book. I read it cover-to-cover in about 2 days. You do not have to have a degree in marketing or accounting to grasp the concepts. It is about time that someone came up with a 'Business' book from a marketing perspective! I am so glad that I found this book.....before it was too late!!!

With the Geek's Guide, Schmidt proves to the world that he has the'write' stuff. Schmidt has a knack for focusing on the most important aspects of any topic.

In terms of content, this book is jam packed with highly tailored and specific information crucial to sustaining a successful and profitable web development business. Although the book's focus is on web development business start-ups, anyone who is looking to strike out on their own in any field would find this book useful. Furthermore, potential clients of web development firms may find much of the information in the book useful when dealing with internet businesses and negotiating the creation of their own site.

The writing style of the book is very clear and concise and Schmidt leaves no room for misunderstanding in his prose. There is absolutely no internet hype or marketing spin in this book, nor are you treated to a dry, textbook or computer manual treatment of how to run a business. Personally, I found Schmidt's geek humor (there is one remark at the end of each chapter) to be well, in a word, geeky.

From an organizational standpoint, Schmidt gets you in the right frame of mind to run your own business by the end of the first chapter. Whereas most home-business books would devote all of their chapters to Freudian self-analysis (ridiculous intropspective and self-assessment questions), finding a good location for a business, and choosing the best form of business, Schmidt takes you through all of that in one balanced chapter. You will also get some very good ideas on how to build a good, winning, effective, and professional team.

His second chapter tells you in brutal realism just how your customers will look at you, and how you should carry yourself around them (still another chapter tells you exactly how to deal with your client's misconceptions and false expectations of the internet to your advantage). Four more chapters are devoted to making that all important, life-sustaining sale- from finding customers, planning and making the sales pitch, closing the sale and ultimately to writing up a contract. He wraps up the book with a chapter on growing the business and attaches a modest business plan in an appendix.

Schmidt earns my respect because he tells you upfront to obtain good legal and accounting help long before you launch your venture. Yet, the real value in this book is the way Schmidt lays out setting your rates and making certain that you get paid in two understandable chapters. If you are looking to get on the web with your own business in a big way, forget all of those other books and start reading this one today!

I have read several books by this author, Patricia Smiley.
They are fun, entertaining and always make me laugh.
And, after all, Laughter is the best medicine, it is
priceless and benefits you in many ways.
So, give this book a try......

Good book. A real page turner. Really made want to read "Cover Your Assets" (Second book in this series).

Tucker Sinclair was named after Sopie Tucker. This is not necessarily relevant information, and it certainly gives one no real insight into Tucker's character. It does say something about Tucker's mother, Pookie, who is off-stage but certainly a presence for much of False Profits.

Tucker is trying to make partner at Aames and Associates, "as a management consultant, a sprt of business doctor handling everything from financial facelifts to red-ink bypasses." She thinks she has a good shot at it, until one of her more unpleasant and obstreperous clients, Dr. Milton Polk, decides he wants his "group's eleven million dollars back, plus attorney's fees." As one might surmise, this does not bode well for Tucker's shot at partner. Life gets more interesting when she can't find a copy of the business plan she put together for the good doctor. It only crosses Tucker's mind that one of the other people up for partnership might be stabbing her in the back after she has pretty much worked through any other, however unlikely, alternative. And then Dr. Polk turns up very dead, drowned, with a hole in his forehead. His office staff is devastated and not very helpful, considering that Tucker's name is on some medical test results that Tucker doesn't ever remember having done.

In the meantime, her ex-husband Eric is insisting that he needs to talk to her about their relationship. Tucker, for reasons which may make sense to her but not to me, seems to think he wants her back. It is at this point in the book that I decide Tucker is way too naive to be doing what she's doing, either personally or professionally.

False Profits is an amusing book, once one accepts that Tucker needs a guardian. I had no trouble with the plot or the characterizations (other than Tucker). The love interest takes a while to make an appearance, even if the reader knows more than Tucker about what Eric is really looking to talk to her about; the love interest would be much more interesting if there were more of him earlier in the book.

Perhaps I've just read a few too many mysteries lately where the female detective doesn't have the business sense that God gave a turnip. And/or assumes that the man who used to be in her life wants to be there again, when any reasonable woman would know just how unlikely that was. Perhaps I just had a bad several days trying to get interested in what was going on in Tucker's life. For whatever reason, including that this may not be the best mystery ever written, I just couldn't get engaged by Tucker, didn't care if she ever figured out who killed Milton Polk, knew fairly early on who the bad guy was even though the only clue was the sheer predictability of it all . . . for whatever reason, I won't be in any hurry to read more of Patricia Smiley. If you enjoy naive young women who put themselves in danger, knowingly, and think that leaving a number on their cell phone will do for a back-up . . . go for it. I'd rather read Virgina Lanier for the fourth time.

Tucker Sinclair has worked hard to be make a name for herself as a financial consultant at the firm of Aames & Associates. Tucker anticipates negotiating big deals and a partnership for herself. It goes horribly wrong when a financial contract written for Dr. Milton Polk and his dreams of his diagnostic testing facility go missing and he ends up dead. Tucker is suspended from work for a week. Tucker recently divorced, has her mother and her beloved dog living with her. Tucker struggles also with feelings for her ex-husband Eric. At the same time, she has to fend off attempts by her bitter Aunt Sylvia to take her beach house away from her. Tucker reluctant but determined to avoid jail time goes on the hunt to find out what happened to Dr. Polk. Being an inexperienced sleuth, she has to work her way out of some very awkward moments. A fun, well-written novel with potential as a future series.

Tucker Sinclair thinks she's on the fast track to making partner at Aames & Associates, a Los Angeles based business consulting firm. She just has one last interview with her boss before the announcement.

That interview doesn't go anything like she expects, however. Instead of reviewing her performance at the firm, Gordon announces that she and the company are being sued for some work she had done for Dr. Milton Polk. Dr. Polk had come in wanting Tucker to write what he told her to write and was less than pleased with her honest business evaluation. Now some investors in his medical company are saying they were defrauded and are suing to recover their money.

Tucker thinks she doesn't have anything to worry about until she discovers the original report for Dr. Polk is missing. When he turns up dead, she really starts to panic. Can see find the documents and save her career while dodging a killer?

I am a sucker for books set in Los Angeles, and this one proved to be fun in that regard. As a mystery, it fell a little flat. The plot was a little too convoluted for its own good. It makes sense, but it needed a little more time to be ironed out. Tucker was fun to spend time with, although I felt she was very naive, especially when it came to her ex-husband. The side kicks are wonderful, from co-workers to her actress mother and the mother's dog.

Honestly, my complaints feel like rookie mistakes. I certainly wouldn't mind spending more time with Tucker and her friends. I just hope that the plot has been better developed next time.

Great introduction to converging data and voice functionalities. Really helped me work out my voice over IP integrations with my existing telephone systems.

Nice coverage of topics- local loop, ISDN, T1 etc etc. As an earlier reader pointed out, there are some irritating typos, and some illustrations do not match up with the writing. But I enjoyed reading the book so much (great price, too) that I was willing to overlook these minor irritants.

This book provided a good overview of telecom technology, but you have to work though lots of poor editing. For example, it reads "DWDM (discussed earlier) is a...". Unfortunately, DWDM has not been discussed earlier (as confirmed by the index in the back) and is not explained after that. DWDM is a pretty important topic and I'm sure they did plan to have it explained in some detail. The editor just seems to have left it out. It also has typos like saying "Technology A is superior to tech B, so tech B has been much more widely accepted in the marketplace." Huh? You're left wondering if the mistake is at the start of the sentence or the end.

I know this sounds like 2 minor examples, but there a lots of them in here and it makes this reading tougher than it should be. When you are trying to learn new material, having your source reference contain small mistakes is pretty frustrating.

Shepard's primary goal is to help readers understand how the convergence of native telecommunication technologies and the companies that create them provides the fundamental underpinnings of customer service.

He addresses three major aspects of telecommunications convergence:

Technology Convergence - Current telecommunication technologies and how they are evolving and affecting our lives. The book provides excellent and brief descriptions of the myriad of today's telecommunication technologies; IP, Fiber Optics, ATM, SONET, Frame Relay etc., etc., etc...

Company Convergence - How Telecommunication technology is rewriting the business plans of the companies that manufacture telecommunication equipment, as well as those that provide and receive telecommunication services.

Services Convergence - The new technology and its rapid evolution requires changes in the way services are delivered and a rigorous anticipation of customer needs. Service providers must look beyond the needs of their customers to the needs of their customer's customer.

The book includes a comprehensive glossary of industry acronyms and an extensive bibliography of books, articles, and online resources.

I purchased this book for my college class. Although it introduced me a broad concept of convergence, its poor organization gave me headaches whenever I needed quick references on certain topics.

I believe anyone who sees its contents would have a hard time figuring out if there is "any" relationship between subtitles. Some subtitles had no reasons to be typed bold, while others should've been typed that way. Worse yet, the author summarized only certain issues, while he ignored many others with no clear explanations.

Nonetheless, if you can endure such a disorganization, this book will be a gentle introduction to the field. Especially, Company Convergence Resources at the end of this book were quite useful for me.

As a co-author of ICE, I'm proud to say that the process which inspired the book is making great inroads in the business community thanks to several U.S.-based training companies that have elected to deliver ICE training.

What's even more inspiring is that the people that are applying ICE are finding the process is as easy to use as the book is to read.

I can honestly say that every single person I've encountered that has read ICE has loved it. I hope you do to.

This is a great little book. It should be required reading in every university MBA program and deserves to be on the reading list of every CEO. It cuts to the heart of what is so wrong in so many corporations today - NOBODY LISTENS TO THE PEOPLE!

I loved ICE!

I kept waiting for the big acedemic ideas and at least a mention of cash flow, but, then realized there's too much of that today. This book highlights the importance of building a company with the people who work there, getting their hearts & minds. Sink or swim, it's the right way.

I first became aware of ICE in June 2000. Once I started toread the book, I couldn't put it down. As a trainer, I see manytraining texts, workbooks, and instruments; ICE is clearly a leader.I was so impressed with ICE that I pursued a partnership with itsauthors so I could deliver ICE workshops. Practical, simple, yeteffective! Beta test results were strong and everyone I have pass acomplementary copy to loved it!...

As the VP of Internal Consulting at a mid-sized financial service company, I purchased this book thinking that it might be useful in facilitating operational improvement.

As I read it, I kept waiting for some big insight. By the time I finished it (an hour or so later) I felt ripped off. I couldn't believe that a book with so little to say could actually get published. The situations are facile, the solutions are incredibly obvious, the characters are lazily drawn, and the details associated with solicting employee imput (the main part of the book) are glossed over.

The whole book is manipulative; a shallow attempt to sell multiple copies and training services.

Gerry's first book is almost a bible for consultants. His second, follow-up, is very useful, but not the classic the original was. I would still recommend it.

Developing MORE of your soft and thinking skills. This builds on the first book in this series and is the same caliber, class and application value as the first. More insight from a consultant/leader/teacher with years of experience. I classify this book and the first as wisdom that few will purchase, fewer will take the time to understand, and the gold that many people search for "as consultants" and never find.

Several years ago, I read the original Secrets of Consulting by the same author, Gerald Weinberg (see my review for that book). After reading some of the other reviews here for More Secrets of Consulting, I must say that I concur with much of the opinion written. The original Secrets is a classic work - there simply is no other consulting book in the marketplace of this genre, and not only is the information presented in that work very useful, it is very entertaining as well. Unlike the original Secrets, which presents a philosophy of consulting, More Secrets makes an attempt to present a number of consulting tools within tangible categories that consist of six self-esteem tools by family therapist Virginia Satir as well as another ten tools that Weinberg created himself. As a general rule, I like the tools that both Satir and Weinberg offer in this book. I like how Weinberg ties together the Wisdom Box and the Golden Key, for instance. Among my least favorite of the tools presented is the Courage Stick and the the Egg, the Carabiner, and the Feather. The last three of these least-favorites are presented hurriedly in one chapter, toward the end of the book, and I cannot help to wonder whether he was pressed for time as he began wrapping up his writing. The Courage Stick chapter is bizarre - Weinberg actually seems to be recommending to readers that they carry physical objects, apparently similar to good luck charms, to help individuals build up courage during the more difficult portions of consulting engagements. Strange. If the reader disregards these two chapters, however, they will find that many of the rules and principles which Gerald presents here are much in line with the original Secrets - not nearly as entertaining, but still worth reading. Some of my favorites are:

*Cary's Crap Caution: "Anything not worth doing is not worth doing right."
*The Mercenary Maxim: "One of the best ways to lose lots of money is to do something only for the money."
*Dani's Decider: "When you stop learning new things, it's time to move on."
*The Railroad Counter-Paradox: "When service is too good, the suppliers may never hear about it, and thus they drop the service."
*LeGuin's Law: "When action grows unprofitable, gather information. When information grows unprofitable, sleep."
*The Detective's Fourth Rule: "If you can't understand where the questions are coming from, they're probably coming from an agenda someone doesn't want you to know about."
*The Parallel Paradox: "If you're too much like your clients, you don't attract them; if you're too different, you frighten them away."
*Knaomi's Knowledge Knockout: "Experience is not just the best teacher, it's the only teacher. Experience may be the only teacher, but it doesn't necessarily teach anything."

Of course, many of the rules and principles are just Weinberg opinion. Immanuel Kant, the great German philosopher, for instance, said that "experience teaches nothing without theory, but theory without experience is mere intellectual play". Because I consider this book to be an extension to the original Secrets, I strongly recommend that these books be read in succession. Several other reviewers correctly note that Weinberg cites some of his other works in More Secrets. Although this can be seen as a bit of self-promotion (even a large portion of the bibliography for More Secrets consists of Weinberg writings), most of these citations are to the original Secrets because of the heavy tie between the two books, and I consider this facet of the book reasonable.

On a superficial level, one might say that this book is more about the principles of self-esteem than more "tips and tricks" on giving advice / being a consultant. However, after I thought about this for a while, I would have to agree with Mr. Weinberg that the principles of self-esteem really are the secret to being a good advice giver. This wasn't exactly what I was expecting in this book, but it doesn't diminish the importance or power of the material. Just buy this book and improve your life. I add Mr. Weinberg to a short list of those authors and persons in my life that have made me a better person and provided some direction to the chaos of the universe. That may sound overly dramatic, but for me it's true. Thanks, Gerald!

If you have ever attended one of my presentations, you know that frequently I recommend Gerald (Jerry) Weinberg's The Secrets of Consulting, published in 1985. I've even commented that I've had to purchase half a dozen copies of it because I lend it out and it never comes back. I recommended this book to everyone, even non-consultants because the subtitle, The Guide to Giving and Receiving Advice Successfully, is a valuable topic no matter how you earn your money.

In 2002, Weinberg published More Secrets of Consulting: The Consultant's Toolkit. This is a sort of sequel to the original volume, with more of a focus on traditional consulting over general advice giving tips. Traditionally, sequels don't do as well as first releases, and Weinberg addresses this starting on the first page of the book:

[When I mentioned to my pal Michelle that I was writing a sequel to The Secrets of Consulting, she shook her head in disbelief. "Why don't you quit while you are ahead. Don't you believe your own preaching? What about The Law of Raspberry Jam?"1

Michelle was referring to the law that describes how any Great Message gets diluted when carried too far: the wider you spread it, the thinner it gets."]

From there, Jerry goes on to say that he is writing this book because the first one earned more dollars for consultants who read it, perhaps $10,000 per year, in Michelle's case. I believe that my own consulting revenue had increased by at least that much, maybe twice or three times that, since I first read The Secrets of Consulting. Not because I learned how to put more tricky language into my contracts, but because I learned how make my services more valuable to my clients.

The big question, though, is whether this sequel will have the same effect of making me more valuable to my clients.

You may have read one of Jerry's books on system thinking, or even the Psychology of Computer Programming. If you have read his later works, you'd know that Jerry has been working on the softer sides of systems, especially through his Amplifying Your Effectiveness work. This work is based on Virginia Satir's writings and More Secrets builds upon Satir's Self Esteem Toolkit:

The Wisdom Box
The Golden Key
The Courage Stick
The Wishing Wand
The Detective Hat
The Yes/No Medallion

Plus Jerry's additions:

The Heart
The Mirror
The Telescope
The Fish-Eye Lens
The Gyroscope
The Egg
The Carabiner
The Feather
The Hourglass
The Oxygen Mask

For each of these tools, Weinberg explains how it can help, what happens when it isn't used properly, and what lessons learned he's collected about why they are important parts of a consultant's toolkit.

If you you were wondering about the footnote in the quote above, Weinberg make frequent use of footnotes to his other writings, especially references to the original Secrets. While I definitely do not see these as ads for his other works, I did find them a bit distracting.

This volume of Secrets focuses inward, on a consultant's inner feelings, beliefs, and behaviors much more than the first work. Some readers, especially those looking for a quick fix, may not find this work as valuable as others might. However, everything that Weinberg writes is part of your toolkit, even if you've never used it.

I recommend this work for those working in a consulting-like role, especially independent consultants who have fewer resources available to them than those working in large firms. I can also recommend this to non-consultant looking for help in working with others. However, if you need to choose between The Secrets and More Secrets, go for the first one.

Do you cry at every wedding? Can't wait until the next fancy invitation shows up in your mailbox? If that sounds like you, then maybe you should consider starting a wedding business. John Peragine, Jr. shows you step by step how to start up and run a successful wedding consultant and planning business.

Peragine teaches basic business principles and shows how to make good money making others' dreams come true. Learn what it takes to succeed in this rewarding and satisfying field. Although the business is exciting and fun, Peragine is realistic telling the reader that success lays in hard work, long hours and strong commitment to excellence.

Creative marketing ideas along with detailed organizational advice really help both novices and seasoned consultants to improve their business plan. This guide is packed with useful information. Sample letters, press releases, and contract agreements add huge value to this book. Don't open a wedding business before you thoroughly study this resource.

**** (4 out of 5 star rating)

John N. Peragine Jr.'s HOW TO OPEN & OPERATE A FINANCIALLY SUCCESSFUL WEDDING CONSULTANT AND PLANNING BUSINESS comes with a companion cd-rom and tells how to plan a wedding, offering all the details needed to over business plans, control systems, menus, legal and pricing concerns, and more. The 'when, how, what and where' questions all receive plenty of depth and detail. All are excellent picks for career and business collections alike.

This book goes so incredibly in depth as to what you need to do in order to be a successful wedding consultant that when I was finished reading it I felt like I had just finished up a business textbook. I liked how this book went through absolutely everything you night need to know, whether it's when to file taxes or how to deal with an angry bride hurling insults. I think this is the perfect book for anyone who is considering getting into the wedding business.

The rather lengthy title seems like a mouthful, but it does aptly describe the information you'll find within the ten chapters. Also included are helpful appendixes that are critical to those in the wedding planning business. Within the appendix section, you'll discover a list of wedding shows held in states throughout the U.S., seating plans and sample menus.

Planning even a simple wedding can be a vexing task to a bride and groom, and many are turning to wedding consultants to help them avoid the stress that comes with planning and organizing their dream day. It's a solid business idea for the motivated person.

The addition of photographs, charts and sample contracts or documents helps keep the reader from being bogged down in information. Rather than throwing a bunch of information out there, the author uses real charts and documents to back up his information. These eye-catching images keep the reader's interest from start to finish.

The book opens with a list of qualities that a person needs to succeed in the wedding planning business, a quiz to see if you have what it takes and a list of contacts that are critical to the business. From there he covers many important topics, you shouldn't pick and choose what you read because every page is packed with crucial tips. You'll learn how to design your own Web site, even using free online software to help cut business costs! He covers funding your business venture, expenses you should expect and marketing tips.

If you are going to be requesting a business loan, you'll need a business plan. Peragine's guide includes business plan samples to get you started. Chapters also cover taxes, tax paperwork and insurance plans and coverage. You'll find tips and recommended programs for becoming a certified wedding consultant. Towards the end of the book, the author includes "Case Studies" where established wedding consulting business owners share tips and advice.

Owning your own business also comes with challenges. John Peragine's business guide is critical because it covers more than planning a wedding. He covers the more important aspects of insurance, taxes and financial planning. While many dream of being their own boss, they often overlook these troublesome business matters that are essential to running a successful business.

To me, this is what makes his guide stand out. "How-to" books are often filled with details on a specified business, but items like taxes and insurance coverage are glossed over. Not here! The author does cover these items thoroughly ensuring that those interested in the career are definitely prepared for all aspects of their new business. If a career in wedding planning appeals to you, start by reading John Paregine's business guide.

How to Open and Operate a Wedding Planning Business was very well organized and easy to read. The sections were broken down from writing a business plan, the importance of marketing, business law, and what kind of individual based on their personality is likely to succeed in the business. The information was very easy to read, honest, and to the point, focusing on the ins and outs of opening and creating a successful wedding planning business.

There were several case studies that describe the success or downfall of specific wedding planning organizations and planning opportunities. After reading the book, I felt I had a great amount of knowledge about how to successfully plan, open, operate, and create a thriving business; starting from writing a business plan, to successfully financing my business and reaching all of my goals.