Minding My Business: The Complete, No-Nonsense, Start-to-Finish Guide to Owning and Running Your Own Store

by Adeena Mignogna

Taking a leap and making the choice to start a business can be hard, but all that comes after—the planning, loans, marketing—can be even harder. Every new business owner needs an easy, clear, and useful guide to follow when embarking on this venture, and Minding My Business will make the process as simple as possible.

With no previous business experience, Adeena Mignogna decided to open up her own retail store, a paint-your-own pottery studio. In this part memoir, part handbook, she details all the things she did right, and wrong, so that anyone following in her footsteps won’t make the same mistakes. Minding My Business explains how Mignogna chronicles all that went into opening the doors to her store, successfully managing it for several years, and then finally deciding to close it. If you’re ready to take the risk, you’ll need this book to help you navigate through the tough and perplexing world of small business.

224 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2013

About the author

Adeena Mignogna is a physicist and astronomer (by degree) working in aerospace as a software engineer and manager. More importantly, she’s a long-time science fiction geek with a strong desire to inspire others through writing about robots, aliens, artificial intelligence, computers, longevity, exoplanets, virtual reality, and more.

Reviews

[Maureen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I gave this book a five star review because I’ve never seen a book quite like it. I found it at my local library and now I’ve ordered it on bookshop.org so I can have a copy for reference. I love business, and I hope to be one of those people who own a “cute little store,” as the author put it. This book is a business memoir. She documents the planning, opening, operations, and even the closing of her store, the last item being the one that makes this book so unique. Her goal in writing the book was to give readers a very honest account of what it takes to run one of those cute little stores you see in a town. It’s so honest, it can be brutal at times, but it’s exactly what someone needs to hear if they plan on opening their own store. The part about planning for the closing or selling of your store is an often overlooked aspect, and admittedly in all of my business learning that I’ve done, I’ve never once considered the part where you close or sell your business. Now, I will definitely include that in my business plan. The dose of reality this book provides is wonderful and I would recommend it to anybody considering starting their own business.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating this 4 stars as the book is repetitive in nature. However, the author has an engaging voice and story of the rise and fall of her shop. On one hand--why publish a book on how to be successful in business--by someone who's UNsuccessful and could not get a buyer when she wanted to get out? But, on the other hand--the book rings of the truth and she's created something that helps other people over the pain of dissolving her own business, so there's that.

Here's how I thought the book was helpful to me:
1) if you're looking for "lessons learned" about starting your own business and hoping to minimize those, this book addresses those types of issues.
2) She includes the "business plan" for the pottery and bead business.I'm now aware that these should be easy to write if you're someone who likes to write. If you decide to farm out a business plan, then at least you have a template to review.
3) All of her reviews of other books, etc., as she also includes an annotated bibliography. This will help me decide where to go next.