Book Review - Be your own boss

You don’t get to build a multi-award winning international business by pulling your punches, and in Be Your Own Boss Bill McGowan, the founder of Fastway Couriers, delivers some hard-hitting advice for anyone thinking of starting their own business or buying a franchise.

The book is designed as a guide to help people organise their thoughts and to decide whether being their own boss is really for them. Along the way, Bill shares a bit of family history, explains how he got into business, and tells a lot of memorable tales about the effort that went into creating Fastway – all in Bill’s typically blunt fashion. The tale of how he got revenge on a reluctant bank manager made us genuinely laugh out loud.

Bill also translates his experiences of researching opportunities, overcoming obstacles and then teaching other people how to operate their own businesses into checklists, questionnaires and advice ­(see an extract here). He recognises that starting a new business is complex at the best of times, and his aim has been to make this process as manageable as possible for the intending entrepreneur. The book covers:

• Going into business on your own
• Goal-setting
• Business planning
• What does a banker really want to see?
• Marketing
• Franchising
• Business structure
• Your personal wheel of fortune

As Andrew Terry, Professor of Business Regulation at the University of Sydney Business School, said, ‘Every person who aspires to be their own boss will benefit greatly from the business wisdom that Bill shares – wisdom which is practical and accessible and which has been forged from his own hands-on experience in identifying a business opportunity and developing, managing and growing it.’

Be Your Own Boss is published by Austin Macauley Publishers with illustrations by cartoonist Steve Panozzo. It is available from Amazon.