This is a short bookshelf of some of the best freelance business books we’ve read. You can find interviews with many of the authors on Nation1099.
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In her interview with us, Dorie Clark, author of Entrepreneurial You: Monetize Your Expertise, Create Multiple Income Streams and Thrive, has a powerful message for all professionals. Even if you are in W-2 roles, the consulting way of life is going to impact your work.
Dorie explains how everyone needs to get out of the “hired hand” mindset and to establish themselves as a “recognized expert.” This is a follow up to her personal branding book Reinventing You.
Diane Mulcahy’s new book, The Gig Economy: The Complete Guide to Getting Better Work, Taking More Time Off and Financing the Life You Want, draws on her years of experience teaching a MBA course at Babson College on entrepreneurship in the gig economy. Her students often want to stage a jail break from their high-powered careers while still using their valuable skills
In her interview with us, Diane discusses how “independent work” has become a professional career choice that is attractive, lucrative and viable.
Marion McGovern’s Thriving in the Gig Economy: How to Capitalize and Compete in the New World of Work is a guidebook to the trends driving the growth of freelancing and for developing a plan for your business. She draws on her own years of experience as a consultant in the talent management field to outline building your freelance brand, marketing your services and setting a direction for your career.
In her interview with us, Marion discusses how important strategy is to your freelance business.
Nancy Collamer is the leading expert on “semi-retirement jobs,” a specific stage of life that traditional W-2 roles don’t account for. As she told us in an interview last year, 30 of experience building valuable skills and 30 years ahead of you not using them doesn’t make any sense.
Her book Second-Act Careers: 50+ Ways to Profit from Your Passions During Semi-Retirement includes short profiles of people with 50 unique ways of continuing work they are engaged in during the so-called retirement years.
Alan Weiss for many years was about the only source of strategic and practical advice on running an independent consulting business. His numerous books on consulting, updated regularly over the years, help solo professionals figure out how to take a profitable approach to a profitable niche. You may have noticed the Dorie Clark recommends him in her interview with us.
And he literally wrote the book on value-based pricing, which has transformed the way consultants sell themselves to clients and set their fees. Million Dollar Consulting is a terrific guide to running a profitable professional services business.
This is more of a comprehensive toolkit than a book — though a short ebook book is included. Ilise Benun, a.k.a., the Marketing Mentor, has 20+ years of experience coaching solo creatives on how to market ourselves and earn more money. She collects much of that expertise into her Pick a Niche Kit. If you’ve been considering some 1-1 career mentors, consider this an affordable way to sample one of the best-known coaches out there.
In the meantime, you can read our interview with Ilise from 2016 where she talks about getting higher paying clients.
Business Model Generation has achieved cult status in the startup world. The engaging design lays out clear path to developing a one-page business plan at the same time you are building and improving the business. It’s not written explicitly for freelancers, but anyone who is treating their independent career like a real business will benefit from working through this guidebook.
Business Model You: A One-Page Method for Reinventing Your Career is a followup from the design team behind the Business Model Canvas. This is packed with provocative worksheets based on the premise that every career is a freelance career. The end result is a one-page plan for the business of being you. Highly recommended.
The Thriving Artist: Saving and Investing for Performers, Artists and the Stage & Film Industries is by David Maurice Sharp, a professional dancer and choreographer. This book is based on his numerous workshops helping artists to manage the ups and downs of their income and — yes — to start saving for retirement.
By the way, David wrote an excellent guide for us with some of the basics on financial issues for freelancers.
Quitter is John Acuff’s humorous personal story of job hopping until he finally hopped right out of cubicle life entirely.