Friday Book Review- The Crafts Business Answer Book by Barbara Barbec

This book was the second one I got to in the huge stack of books I picked up at the Brooklyn Business Library a little bit ago. The cover was second cutest. haha ; )

By the way, this is THE book to get if you run a craft business! It's set up like an encyclopedia with all the terms you're wondering about in alphabetical order. Say you have a question about doing consignment, look in the c's, there's sections entitled "Consignment Agreement" and "Consignment Laws" ect. The format is so easy and I found out exact definitions of some technical accounting terms I had only "sorta kinda" known, or just had never even heard of. I'm definitely going to have to buy this one. Also, this one is the second edition which is 60% updated from the older version according to www.barbarabrabec.com.

I would recommend buying this one over Craft Inc., the book I reviewed last week, because this one has info you'll need at all stages of your business and it's just a more utilitarian book overall. It'll serve you well over several years. Craft Inc. is great if you're just beginning to think about going into business and need more general and inspirational advice, while The Crafts Business Answer book is getting down to the nitty gritty.

Book Review- Craft Inc. by Meg Mateo Ilasco

Earlier this week i picked up another huge stack of business books at the Brooklyn Business Library.


Of course I read the cutest one first! : )

I wish I had read this book, oh about 5 months ago : ) It would have helped so much! That's when I really began working on starting my own craft business. It would have been perfect timing then. Still, even if you've already got the basics figured out, this book will be worth your while. It's a very quick, easy read, everything's very well organized and in the order of when each bit of advice would be useful as you build your business. I also enjoyed Ilasco's chatty writing style. If you are just beginning to think about starting your own craft business this book will be your new best friend. If you've been in business for a few months you may be ready to check out the "hiring a publicist" section or "how to be a good employer and boss". Personally I was most interested in the section on press kits.


P.S. Last time i picked up a huge stack at the Biz Library the best one I read was "Minding Her Own Business" by Jan Zobel. It's great for learning to keep records for a small business. The fact that it was marketed to women as "the self-employed woman's essential guide to taxes and financial records" seems a little silly to me since it would obviously be just as useful to a self-employed guy. But whatever, it's pretty handy. The formats for records are pretty good, and some of them I use all the time.