Book Review by Taylor Berrett
More women than ever are launching their own businesses. While the institutional drag facing women entrepreneurs is still very much present, little by little those barriers are beginning to be knocked down, climbed over, and demolished.
And yet, the amount of quality guidance and advice for female entrepreneurs looking to start their first business is disappointingly sparse. Sure, there are plenty of books on entrepreneurship, business, finance, and leadership, but too many fail to take into account the very real and unique struggles that women face when pursuing their business dreams.
Enter Patricia Wooster and Lindsey Ardmore and their excellent and inspiring guide, Female Entrepreneur’s Playbook: Secret Strategies from 20+ Women for Building a Business You Love and Getting Paid For It. Packed with insights, inspiration, and a diverse range of perspectives that add value and unique guidance for women entrepreneurs of all backgrounds, this book is likely to become a go-to handbook for budding business leaders everywhere.
Over Twenty Voices, One Cohesive Message of Empowerment
While Female Entrepreneur’s Playbook does feature nearly two-dozen different women and their stories, Wooster serves as more than just an editor and compiler here. She ties the messages together and highlights their most powerful answers to key questions, including:
- Why your hero’s journey is an essential part of your brand and story.
- What to do if you need to generate revenue fast.
- How to avoid the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make.
- Why failure often leads to success.
- What self-care routines help maintain physical, emotional and mental health.
Wooster is a bestselling author, publisher, and coach who has been helping business leaders achieve their entrepreneurial dreams for years. She also happens to be a well-regarded book coach, helping new and established thought leaders write, revise, and publish books that impact lives. Before Female Entrepreneur’s Playbook, she previously wrote the popular book, Ignite Your Spark: Discovering Who You Are from the Inside Out. Her writing has been included in everything from school curriculums to leadership events— even Girl Scout programs.
The Best Path is Your Path
One of the most effective aspects of the book’s approach, which gives one chapter to each of the women entrepreneurs featured, is that it shows new entrepreneurs that there is no single, defined path to success. For every story of a woman who went one route, there’s another of a woman who chose an opposite path and found just as much success. While fresh entrepreneurs may purchase this book hoping for a step-by-step guide to success, the truth is that this perspective is much more valuable. It offers a message of hope that there’s no age, life circumstance, industry, background, home situation, career, or financial status that is ‘right’ for entrepreneurship. That’s a message that everyone, not just women in business, could stand to be reminded of from time to time.
The Bottom Line
There is a certain subset of readers and reviewers who believe that if a book isn’t jam packed with research-backed, blindingly innovative truths, it’s not worthwhile. But there is value in a collection that features a set of diverse perspectives offering inspiration, hope, and empowerment for its readers— men and women alike. While Female Entrepreneur’s Handbook does have plenty of actionable insights for entrepreneurs, it really shines when it’s acting as a guide through our own insecurities and hang-ups when it comes to starting a business. If reading it helps someone shift from the ‘someday…’ phase to the ‘today’ phase, then it would be worthwhile for that alone.
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Taylor Berrett is a Contributing Writer at Soundview. He is also a freelance writer, editor, and host of the podcast Alone in a Room. His other book reviews can be found here.