Review: Turn Your Talent into a Business – A guide to earning a living from your hobby by Emma Jones

This guide was created in partnership, by Country Living Magazine and Emma Jones. Emma Jones is founder of small business support company ‘Enterprise Nation’, and co-founder of ‘Startup Britain’. She joined forces with Country Living Magazine, after they noticed an increased interest in people wanting to work from home, evident from talks at the Country Living Fairs, and after the success of their ‘Kitchen Table Talent Awards’.

I’m going to be honest, I think we have been spoilt in our gorgeous little handmade world. We are showered daily with beautiful images of beautiful handmade products, and we collect pretty craft books like Carrie Bradshaw collected shoes. ?Turn your talent into a business’ is a good looking book, but it isn’t the prettiest, it isn’t glossy, and shock, horror, it doesn’t have photographs. What it does have however, is a minefield of information. This book covers absolutely everything that might go through your mind, or should go through your mind, when considering starting your own business.

When I first started, it was like stepping into a scary, unknown world. I had so many questions, and spent a lot of time going to workshops, and trawling the internet blindly for answers, worrying about missing something that might be really important. I may have saved myself a lot of time, had this nifty little guide been in my hands, it is ideal for those thinking about taking the plunge. It is written clearly, and plainly, so you are able to absorb information without feeling overwhelmed or intimidated.

There are clearly defined chapters, starting with ‘Coming up with an Idea’, including ‘The Must-Dos-registering your company and protecting your brand’, all the way through to ?Grow the Business, Without Outgrowing Home?. It includes information on all all manner of different areas, including types of business, tax, hardware and software you might need in your home office, selling to shops, selling online, and useful e-commerce tools. There are definite sections in there, that might not be relevent to everyone, you might already know how it is possible to utilise Skype, for example. The point, however, is that not everyone does know, and this book doesn’t make any assumptions or take knowledge for granted, it leaves no stone unturned, it is a book for everyone.

What is really wonderful, is that although they are unable to go into great detail, when covering so much ground, they churn out website addresses on nearly every page, so you are able to locate further information relevant to you easily, without having to endlessly google. While the information contained in the guide is invaluable, it is also an enjoyable and interesting read.

Interspersed throughout the knowledge, links and tips, are stories, from real people, about their businesses, and how they began. This gives a valuable, and inspiring insight, from a personal perspective, in the real world, and I found that this helped to balance the content of the book. The guide is full of things I needed to know when I first started out, but as I made my way through, I found it was still useful and relevant to me. I found myself making notes on things that might help me, that I had never thought of, or ideas that I had never revisited since my initial planning, because they had been forgotten in the daily grind.

The way I see it, is you could spend £12.99 on a pretty book, that you can drool, and dream over, while dunking your fifth biscuit into you tea, or you can spend £12.99 on making your new business a success. This is a guide that shouldn’t be underestimated, it is a useful little bible if ever there was one.

Turn Your Talent Into A Business: A Guide to Earning a Living From your Hobby

£12.99 (RRP – available at various prices online)

Brightword Publishing – http://www.brightwordpublishing.com

ISBN-10: 1908003235

ISBN-13: 978-1908003232

http://www.enterprisenation.com
http://www.startupbritain.org
http://kitchentabletalent.com