I saw where this book would be a great help for a young entrepreneur I know, so after reviewing it, I passed it along to her.
She has found the book to be an excellent resource for her small business. I would recommend it for any youngster who is engaged in the adventure that comes with starting a small business. ( )

Excellent book on marketing. Concise and filled with practical information. Worth having as a resource book. ( )

Overall this was an interesting book. I admit it was not exactly what I thought it wet going to be based on the cover. Like the old saying ‘don’t judge a book by it’s cover’. If I like the cover I wanna read it. So, first off cool cover. For being a marketing book, it’s easier to read and follow any suggestions that an individual may choose to use. Definitely more geared towards women and business women. Since im not going to running my own business, not really beneficial for me but overall, a well written book from my prospective.

I received this book free from the author in exchange for a fair review.

I like to read eclectic titles and this one seemed to fit that category. I'm also a new author with several types of books that I want to figure out how to market.

What I liked most was that the author seems to be very connected to her own clients and writes the book from her personal experiences. And this is a book geared more toward women -- her focus is on women; her clients seem to be women; some of her language is geared toward women such as "let's roll up our blouse sleeves..."

I'm also very technologically challenged and was thinking this book might touch on some of the new methods of marketing from the online/digital stand point. The majority of things that I saw were focusing on emails and snail mail (which will stand out because those things are rarely used any more).

Helpful hints that I thought I could use
1) Don't give away your gift is talked about in the chapter -- GETTING THAT FIRST CLIENT -- which is something I tend to do; gave me something to think about and change
2) I like the emphasis on networking throughout the book
3) the section on Finding Possible Referral Sources was interesting and helped me look at people close to me that may not need what I have, but may know someone who does. -- great list
4) Small section on how to market if you are an introvert -- which I am
5) the section about your business card and mastering your elevator speech had some good tips

Some of the things I didn't like -
1) Too many recommendation/praises at the beginning of the book which takes up 11 pages; by the fifth page my eyes were crossing -- keep a few in print; move the rest to your webpage or somewhere else that people can find if they want to read them -- I found 13 of them somewhat interesting; however, even that many I think is too much to be included in one thin volume
2) The introduction to this second edition states that the workbook feel of the first edition has been removed -- I think it needs to be put back -- I found myself taking notes and writing out suggestions in the margins of the book -- a workbook page would allow for writing and would help organize the information for future use
3) The chapter formats seemed to be off giving the pages an odd look -- way too much space before the chapter title -- page breaks in odd places that separated items that I thought should have been together.
4) I was having trouble with the main topic of CREATING YOUR IDEAL CLIENT PERSONA -- wasn't making sense to me; maybe because I'm an author and I'm not sure how the concept would be applied to my situation??
5) There were lots of typos that need to be worked out for the next edition ( )

NOTE: This review is strictly of the second edition. I’ve never read the original so I don’t know how they compare.

That First Client feels like a book that was just asking to be read, tested, and reviewed by me. I took a wiki I run independent in November 2020, despite not knowing anything about running an independent wiki. One of the first issues my team and I encountered was: How the hell do we get readers off the old site and on the new one? The old site had better SEO, but we have community outreach.

So you may be asking, how is this relevant to the review? One of the tips in the book is to send out notifications, constantly. Stating that you might have to send out 20 notifications before somebody will take the opportunity. I know this is solid advice because, for months after taking my wiki independent, I had to hammer home to the community as a whole that the wiki was independent. Every other word out of my mouth was the link. Eventually, it worked. I’ve also begun to notice tactics mentioned in this book being used by online retailers who send me emails.

For years, I’ve received junk mail and emails that I never had any intention of responding to, but the people sending them knew better. They knew if they kept sending them out, sooner or later I or somebody else would bite.

I requested this book as a review copy specifically to put it to the test and it’s really opened my eyes to a lot of marketing tactics and improved my overall productivity.

The book has a very informal, powerpoint presentation style to it. Often times while reading this book, I kept thinking it felt like I was reading the written form of a powerpoint presentation by the author. Which to me is far more useful than actually going to a talk and trying to remember everything the speaker is saying. In written form, I can refer back to this at a later date as often as needed, which makes it far more useful for my purposes.

This book is laden with examples, which I really appreciate as oftentimes people will tell you how to do something, but leave you unsure of how to take the first step. At the time I’m writing this, I’m still new to reviewing books. But even going back to 2018 when I first began editing wikis, one of the things I struggled with both times was not knowing where to start. I didn’t want to subconsciously copy somebody else’s formatting, but at the same time, I had no idea where to begin. This book doesn’t just give you a list of tips and say, go figure it out. It feels like you’re being guided every step of the way.

If you’re opening a business, have opened a business, trying to grow your brand, or get your name out there: I think this book will be of use to you.

NOTE: This copy was provided to me free of charge as an advanced reading copy. The opinions stated in this review are mine and mine alone, I was not paid or requested to give this book a certain rating, suggestion, or approval. ( )