View source for Make it Happen: The Prince's Trust Guide to Starting Your Own Business by The Prince's Trust

{{infobox1
|title=Make it Happen: The Prince's Trust Guide to Starting Your Own Business
|author=The Prince's Trust
|reviewer=Robert James
|genre=Business and Finance
|summary=For anyone looking to start their own business, this guide is one of the best investments you could make.
|rating=5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=238
|publisher=Capstone
|date=October 2010
|isbn=978-0857080455
|cover=0857080458
|aznuk=0857080458
|aznus=0857080458
}}

Who hasn't dreamed of being able to work for themselves, be their own boss, and not have to worry about the drag of a 9 to 5 job? Of course, the reality of starting your own business is that there are rather a lot of things you need to consider before getting started, as my sister found out when she started selling her own handmade greetings cards. Thankfully, this book was on hand to
help her get things going and she's found it a really invaluable tool.

One of the first things she commented on, which I also thought stood out when I read the book myself, was just how well presented it was. It's not just that the book is nicely set out and good to look at - it's also usefully set out, with the main body broken up by notes with "Dos and Don'ts" and "Pros and Cons", and also a huge amount of  studies from successful business owners sharing their stories. These are some of the best things about the book for me - it's great to have an insight into the things done and mistakes made by the founders of businesses such as Moonpig, Time Out and Eco Kids. The layout also makes it really easy to dip in, read a section, and go away and think about the ideas presented for a bit.

The book covers everything from starting and forming a business to choosing a place to work and writing a business plan, with the most interesting part in my own opinion being the section on marketing and sales. This is admittedly partly because I'm trying to convince my sister to hire me as social media consultant, but I do think it's massively important for any new business to be able to take advantage of all of the avenues of promotion which have appeared over the past
few years and this guide gives great advice on making the most of Facebook, Twitter, and other sites on the internet. Naturally, given the size of the entire book including the case studies, it's not massively detailed, but as an overview to all aspects of starting a business this is really hard to beat and it's difficult to think of any reason for someone setting up a business, or considering doing so, to not make a relatively small investment in the price of this guide when you consider the amount of money they could end up saving from
it.

Oh, and if I'm allowed to sneak in a quick plug, anyone who hasn't stocked up on Christmas cards this year might like to take a look [http://theglitterden.tumblr.com/ here] to see the business in question!

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to The Bookbag.

Further reading suggestion: [[Net Profit: How to Succeed in Digital Business by David Soskin]] is another excellent guide, while  [[Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead: What Every Business Can Learn from the Most Iconic Band in History by David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan]] is outstanding - an easy read which is much more useful and less gimmicky that the title might lead you to think it is.

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