A unique and fresh presentation of information to help you excel at starting a business. The Art of Starting brings together practical advice and lessons learnt from both the setting up and running of SAGE and the many other businesses interviewed throughout the book.

I wish I had this book when I first started my business, it would have been invaluable information in those early days as it's a trove of information to help get things started. It discusses starting a business from scratch and helps readers work out how to begin, plus how to strengthen their ideas, plan finances, stay creative and so much more! Chapter 5 is bursting with great advice on client management and walks you through managing client expectations, finding solutions, how to deal with agencies, negotiating fees/budgets and more, which is always one of the biggest areas of unknown for new businesses.

The chapter on Ideas, intellectual property, trademarking and authenticity is another great one. It's full of easy to understand information that help readers understand what these things all mean and why they need to know about them. It can be confusing researching online, so it's great to have this information accessible in one place!

There's a whole chapter on community and diversity which to me really makes this book stand out in a positive way. I've read a lot of books in the business/development genre and this is the first to ever cover these topics with a full chapter around making sure you're creating a diverse and representative brand.

My key takeaway from the book was from on page 12 where they say "If you know your value, your worth, your values, what you stand for and what you don't, it'll make making tough business decisions a little but easier'. This really resonated with me and is practical advice for both business and life. I also really enjoyed the tips on coping with lags in motivation and productivity in the FAQ pages, that was also really useful advice for established businesses too.

The title and cover of this book instantly grabbed my attention. I think it will really stand out on the shelves and will definitely be ordering this for our store as I think it will be a great book to recommend for customers looking for easy to follow and insightful advice on starting a business.

Other notes: I like the cover shown on netgalley, and hope it's holographic foil on the printed version, that will look fantastic. :-)
Thanks so much for the advance reading copy, I'm so glad I could read this as I think it will make a great addition to our store!